Backup in the field

[Hugh Miller]

Has anyone been using the Red in remote locations, and if so how are you managing your rushes?
This is one of the issues that most concerns me about going tapeless.
Having just returned from a shoot were we had three Sony 750's, three Z1's and shooting actuality all day everyday for two weeks we had shot about 120 tapes during that time (100 of them HDCAM's, the Z1's used very little). With tapes you eject and put them in a safe place. The most time consuming thing to do is to label the tapes a the end of the day, but say we had been shooting with Red cameras?
You'd have to down load the files and back them up.
Now being able to back them up is an improvement over having just the one tape, but how time consuming is it? How long does it take to download files from Red's hard drive and back them up. With around 5 to 7 hours of rushes a day, is it feasable for one person to be able to manage all those files and store them quickly on a backed up hard drive? Just how long would it take to store and back up 5 hours of footage?
Given that a production is not going to pay for an extra person to do this it has to be something an ac can do quickly with out interfering with an already hectic day.
I'd love to know how people are managing with this and how time consuming it all is.

Thanks

[Dylan Reeve]

This is one of the issues that our SolidStore product has been designed to address. It is portable and battery powered.

http://www.shotwrangler.com/solidstore/

Hopefully we'll be able to announce firm availability and pricing detail in the next month or so.

[Hans von Sonntag]

In a scenario like you described I would stick to HDCAM. RED is not suited for ENG. The camera is a heavy mother and for handheld operation without a viewfinder a compromise. Using a B4 adaptor in 2K mode brings the sensitivity down to approx. 180 ASA if you want to use convenient B4 HD ENG lenses. A HDCAM is 2 Stops faster, lighter and easier to operate. In 2K windowed mode the picture quality is not better than a Sony F900R.

Anyone who experienced a dead harddrive in a not backuped laptop knows that the REDHarddrive is not an option for real world shooting.

You won't gain a lot and backing up all this data adds another problem that arises when using RED for a production like you described. Not to mention the rendertimes for debayering .

The RED shines in 4Kmode with cine glass and the 3K mode is also very nice because of the overcranking capabilities. RED is basically a digital 35mm camera, they call their company RED Digital Cinema.

Hans

[Dylan Macleod, CSC]

Has anyone been using the Red in remote locations, and if so how are you managing your rushes?
This is one of the issues that most concerns me about going tapeless.
Having just returned from a shoot were we had three Sony 750's, three Z1's and shooting actuality all day everyday for two weeks we had shot about 120 tapes during that time (100 of them HDCAM's, the Z1's used very little). With tapes you eject and put them in a safe place. The most time consuming thing to do is to label the tapes a the end of the day, but say we had been shooting with Red cameras?
You'd have to down load the files and back them up.
Now being able to back them up is an improvement over having just the one tape, but how time consuming is it? How long does it take to download files from Red's hard drive and back them up. With around 5 to 7 hours of rushes a day, is it feasable for one person to be able to manage all those files and store them quickly on a backed up hard drive? Just how long would it take to store and back up 5 hours of footage?
Given that a production is not going to pay for an extra person to do this it has to be something an ac can do quickly with out interfering with an already hectic day.
I'd love to know how people are managing with this and how time consuming it all is.

Thanks

If you are going to shoot five hours of footage a day for two weeks RED is probably not for you. It is not impossible, but by the time you buy hard drives and hire a data wrangling crew to chase you around...your budget will be pretty much done for.

I feel sorry for the editor!

Dylan Macleod
Cinematographer
Toronto, Canada
www.dylanmacleod.com

[Dylan Reeve]

For documentary-type shooting (which I assume the OP was engaged in) I think the RED is still a pretty viable product. I wouldn't be shooting spot news or reality TV with it, but use in the field for 'run and gun' work in a larger production with longer turn-around isn't unrealistic.

[Jean Déraps]

How much will this SolidStore product cost?

[Dylan Reeve]

I can't provide pricing just yet... It will be more costly than products like the Nexto DI and Hyperdrive certainly. Keep an eye on our website, we will post pricing details on there once we have figured it all out.