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First student film shot on the RED camera...

Kingsly

Kingsly

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 9, 2005
3,389
14
Either in front of a computer or behind a camera.
Last Sunday I shot a short student film using RED #15 (Ripley) and the RED 18-50mm lens. We shot in some very low light situations, situatons where thare was a massive range between the light and dark, and even shot at framerates as high as 80fps!

The RED performed beautifully in every setting and, in my personal opinion, easily outperforms the best that the 35mm world has to offer. (I know, I know... I brought a fire extinguisher and a flame retardant suit... :rolleyes: )

We were told by the owner of #15, that, as far as he knew, this was the first student film done on the RED. It definitely will not be the last!

Pictures: here and here
normal_DSCN5791.JPG


A lot of the pictures are simply the actors goofing off while I was off doing whatever directors do... :rolleyes:

Frame grabs and a short 80fps clip. Edited using Quicktime Pro! :p

Frame grabs & clip
 
Kingsly said:
Last Sunday I shot a short student film using RED #15 (Ripley) and the RED 18-50mm lens. We shot in some very low light situations, situatons where thare was a massive range between the light and dark, and even shot at framerates as high as 80fps!

The RED performed beautifully in every setting and, in my personal opinion, easily outperforms the best that the 35mm world has to offer. (I know, I know... I brought a fire extinguisher and a flame retardant suit... :rolleyes: )

We were told by the owner of #15, that, as far as he knew, this was the first student film done on the RED. It definitely will not be the last!

Pictures: here and here
[IMG***]http://www.rpmfreelancers.com/SpecOps/album/albums/Movie/normal_DSCN5791.JPG[/IMG]

A lot of the pictures are simply the actors goofing off while I was off doing whatever directors do... :rolleyes:

Frame grabs and a short 80fps clip. Edited using Quicktime Pro! :p

1
2
3
80fps
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Wow, you lucky devil!

You of course know that you're not supposed to be using this kind of equipement, you don't have enough experience, you can't possibly presume to have used it properly, etc. etc.... so say the real "pros"

See this thread on CreativeCow, you might want to post your ideas on the subject, just to let the pros know you intend to kick them in the pants with your youthful inexperienced arrogance :D, rock on!

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/242/54

2) Those who have no business trying it in the first place, who put it up for sale within six months because they can't find the "autofocus" button.

I just think RED was and is marketed to the wrong audience (maybe wisely so, if the makers were just wanting the biggest fastest buck). I bet if you stopped 100 people at the mall going into, say, Wolf Camera and polled them (and isn't that painful?), that few if any of them would know what the words Genesis, Cinealta, Viper, or Dalsa mean.... but I bet 20 of them would have heard of RED. Marketing.

Maybe potential RED buyers should have to pass a test... and prove they have successfully shot at least 100,000 feet of 35mm, or 100 hours of HD in full manual mode with primes. Bare minimum.

Oh, I'm just dreamin'....




T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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BTW, CC's forum leader Noah Kadner is going to be checking one of these out this Friday, drop him a line, great guy, indie film maker/cine geek. A lot of those seasoned CC pro forum leaders sure are a cynical bunch, lol. Directors Friend as used on Russian Ark weighed ~60lbs (best I can remember from the film's producers who spoke about in at the HDfest LA in 2003), was a RAID of low-capacity 3.5in SCSI drives w/heavy battery pack, teathered to the modified Sony F900, real PITA if you ask me.

Also rumors have it that Red has plans on debuting a handheld camcorder, probabaly not 4k, but 2k, at a lower than industry price too. With SSD, and hopefully interchangeable lenses, it too would be revolutionary.
 
We live in a time on instant gratification, so I demand to see the finished movie no later than tomorrow. :D

What compression did you use on the stills 'cause they don't look as clean as other Red stills I've seen posted? What was your on set shooting workflow? What is your planned post workflow?


Butthead said:
Wow, you lucky devil!
BTW, CC's forum leader Noah Kadner is going to be checking one of these out this Friday, drop him a line, great guy, indie film maker/cine geek. A lot of those seasoned CC pro forum leaders sure are a cynical bunch, lol..
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Not cynical, they're just well over the hype and want to see real world results.

Also rumors have it that Red has plans on debuting a handheld camcorder, probabaly not 4k, but 2k, at a lower than industry price too. With SSD, and hopefully interchangeable lenses, it too would be revolutionary.
Click to expand...
Just to keep the rumors in perspective the only thing that has officially come from Red is just the mention of a "pocket Red" early this year, IIRC. It could be a video camera, it could be a still camera, it could be a small camera head that'd you tether to a Red One body, no body knows. And considering how back up Red is currently no body is probably gonna know for a long time.


Lethal
 
The stills were exported directly out of "RED Alert!". It's still a beta program, and the firmware on the camera was alpha, being the first time variable framerate was introduced.

The camera performed fantastically. Our light was lacking (had one day to shoot, mediocre school light kit, and all the grips disappeared after the first scene!), and probably is why the shots don't look very clean... :eek:

Butthead said:
Wow, you lucky devil!

You of course know that you're not supposed to be using this kind of equipement, you don't have enough experience, you can't possibly presume to have used it properly, etc. etc.... so say the real "pros"
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Darn... guess I'll just throw my hard drive away then.:(

...BTW, CC's forum leader Noah Kadner is going to be checking one of these out this Friday, drop him a line, great guy, indie film maker/cine geek...
Click to expand...
He isn't, by any chance, attending the event at Chapman, is he?
 
irmongoose said:
What event at Chapman?
We did have a RED last month to test out, I don't know of it coming back again...
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There is another one this coming friday... I'd find the link but teh internets™ are being slow.
LaDirection said:
What was the first film shot on 35mm?

Nobody cares.
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Umm... okay. Glad you took the 30 seconds to post that. :rolleyes:

FF_productions said:
The RED is the reason film will slowly die.
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I secretly agree, but for fear of an angry mob attacking my house will not come out and proclaim such. :p
 
Kingsly said:
I secretly agree, but for fear of an angry mob attacking my house will not come out and proclaim such. :p
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Yeah people are still flipping out that digital is taking over film.

I'd say the only thing Film has over Digital is the way it is archived and the quality is a step better.

Cameras like the RED are starting to compete with 35mm.
 
FF_productions said:
The RED is the reason film will slowly die.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree. While digital cinema will no doubt eventually replace film, the RED is not going to be its instigator. What makes the RED so important is that it is affordable to less-than-Hollywood filmmakers, and the fact that its TINY - both in terms of physical size and the size of its media files. Those are its selling points. But for big studio films, neither of these really matter.

I guess my point is that digital will only truly replace film when the studio films make the change. Sure, the RED is great news for indie filmmakers, but I would venture to say that most indie films are already shot digitally.

The Genesis itself has done so much already in terms of promoting digital cinema in Hollywood, I can't wait to see what will happen when Sony and the other big guns get their hands on the new 4K chips. THAT is when the true revolution will come.

FF_productions said:
I'd say the only thing Film has over Digital is the way it is archived and the quality is a step better.
Click to expand...

Until that step in quality is overcome, digital won't take over film. Because that's the only thing that matters to people with a lot of money.


Also, may I ask the reason for your animosity for film that I sense? Me - I love the digital workflow and all, but in terms of shooting experience, nothing beats the feeling of shooting on a 35 Panavision. :)



irmongoose
 
Think about it this way: short of a major studio budget, I would much rather save the money I would've spent on film stock/developing/telecine, use a RED, invest the money saved into production value, and end up with practically the same footage when viewed on the big screen (well, except with higher production value! :cool: )
 
Kingsly said:
Think about it this way: short of a major studio budget, I would much rather save the money I would've spent on film stock/developing/telecine, use a RED, invest the money saved into production value, and end up with practically the same footage when viewed on the big screen (well, except with higher production value! :cool: )
Click to expand...

Instead you are going to spend it on CF cards, HDDs, on-set computer xfer stations, LTO tapes & drives, on set HD monitors, and the cost of a film out so you can show it in theaters. ;)



Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
Instead you are going to spend it on CF cards, HDDs, on-set computer xfer stations, LTO tapes & drives, on set HD monitors, and the cost of a film out so you can show it in theaters. ;)



Lethal
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MacBook Pro, 500 GB HDD, four 8GB CF cards, and HD monitors (every film set I've been on already had monitors...) are a lot less expensive than 35mm film stock and developing. Film out has to be done regardless, unless I'm splicing film and plan on showing it in just one theater.
 
I'm just giving you a hard time. :)

I've been following RED since it just a rumor and think the team over there has done, and is doing, an unbelievable job w/the camera, but in the end it is a just a single piece of the movie making puzzle. Once digital projection and distribution become the norm is when I think we'll really see the big shift from film to digital in the industry. But now I'm getting OT.

Keep us up to date w/how things are going. As you obviously know there are very few work pro's, let alone students, that have had a chance to work w/Red so far.


Lethal
 
That's really cool that you got to shoot with RED.

What happened to your lighting though? With more attention paid to those sorts of things, I think your video will look amazing.
 
While I'm happy that digital has made strides, I agree with Spielberg:

His argument against digital is the picture doesn’t seem alive. He said you could sit in the front row of a digital film and see the digital artifacts and you can sit in the front row of a movie shot on film and see the chemicals in the film. The image on the screen could be a static shot of a man that never blinks, but when it’s film and it’s been through the chemical process the image is alive. You can see the chemical process after effects and even if nothing else is moving, the film has a life.

So he said he’s still the only filmmaker that cuts on a Movieola, cuts on film, and he’ll be the last person in the world to make a live action movie shot digitally.
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From Aintitcool.com
 
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