American Cinematographer article...

[Brook Willard]

I just received April's American Cinematographer today and found a 3-page article on RED. I guess they are aware of it. :)

There's a great quote from Ted: "If paintbrushes cost a million dollars, you'd have three painters in the world and not much artwork to choose from. If anyone can afford to be an artist, you're going to see a lot more creativity."

[Keith Alan Morris]

whats the gist of the article? bulletpoints?

[Jarred Land]

heh heh heh.. yeah, you can say that.

[Brook Willard]

The article is a surprisingly well informed overview of the RED mission, camera, its capabilities, its workflow and the technologies that make it all possible. For those who want to get a fast handle on the project as it stands, the article will do the trick.

Jarred, will you ever explain your "Fire Chief" title?

[Andreas Fernbrant]

If it starts to burn, Jarred put's it out?
(if stuff get out of hand, Jarred helps out?) ;)

[Ken Corben]

An AC article? Oh my, we reservation holders are legitimate now :-)

[Eirik Tyrihjel]

For the past eight months I have scanned the AC for an article on RED immideatly after I got it in the mail (even though I didn´t expect any untill the camera shipped)...
Looking forward to the April issue any day now...

[Johan Lindgren]

To be honest. It took me until I saw "bubblegirl" to believe that RED was more than just a wet dream. I think CineAlta may have left many Cinematographers scarred in recent years. Everytime something new comes along people expect miracles to happen. SONY had made videocamcorders since birth of man, released a camcorder made to fit craving cinematographers, It´s "digital film", "quality rivals 35mm" many nice words were spoken. Here in Sweden HDCAM has been used frequently in features and in many of those, the technology has not quite lived up to the expectations. I think that many Cinematographers would love to have a system that lived up to their high standards, made their work look even better, not having to worry about how the technology will react to certain circumstaces. Its a tool that the artists must learn to use and learn to depend on before they can take it to their heart. Not every one is as good as many of you to judge a tool by its target specs.

BTW I am all video.

[Tom Lowe]

i guess i better take that walk out to my mailbox this week after all... :)

[Alexander Nikishin]

http://205.234.134.160/forum/showpost.php?p=20410&postcount=37

I bite my tongue! creepy how accurate I was eh?

[Martin Ludwig]

does anybody have a link for that article? or can scan it and publish it?

[Alexander Nikishin]

Brook, what's the cover for April's issue?

[Brook Willard]

Zodiac.

I'd post the article, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate. It's not available for free, so distributing it might upset some folks.

[Tom Lowe]

Is 300 in that issue?

[Alexander Nikishin]

Hopefully I'll get mine tommorow.

[Petr Dvorak]

From their website http://www.ascmag.com/magazine_dynamic/March2007/current.php

APRIL ’07 HIGHLIGHTS:
Zodiac
300
Sunshine
Gerald Hirschfeld, ASC Presidents Award Recipient
Sundance Film Festival

... RED is not in highlights yet :)

[Petr Dvorak]

Brook if you post it on some fileshare pages it will be ok ;)

[Tom Lowe]

Brook, I think in this case AC might turn a blind eye. I'm not the admin here, just a thought.

Hell, the majority of people here are probably subscribers!

[Eirik Tyrihjel]

Brook, I think in this case AC might turn a blind eye. I'm not the admin here, just a thought.

Hell, the majority of people here are probably subscribers!

Or will be when they see the article...

[Zakaree Sandberg]

thank God.. ive been waiting

[MikeCurtis]

...or you could just, you know, buy the magazine. Just a thought.

Since people, like, wrote & published it and stuff.

;p

-mike

[PaulClements]

...or you could just, you know, buy the magazine. Just a thought.

Since people, like, wrote & published it and stuff.

;p

-mike

lol... agreed, I'm sure they wouldn't mind people perhaps quoting the odd line or so here and there but the magazine and many pro's might take a dim view about copyright violation.

I don't suppose it will tell you anything more than most who frequent these forums already know anyway. But it's always nice to see the coverage of the camera in high profile media.

[Noah Kadner]

...or you could just, you know, buy the magazine. Just a thought.

Since people, like, wrote & published it and stuff.

;p

-mike

Thanks Mike. Yep we would totally appreciate it if folks bought a copy. It's well worth it. :blush:

-Noah

[Gavin Greenwalt]

There's a great quote from Ted: "If paintbrushes cost a million dollars, you'd have three painters in the world and not much artwork to choose from. If anyone can afford to be an artist, you're going to see a lot more creativity."

<rant>
Actually no offense to you Ted but we already have cheap 'paintbrushes'.

I can go out and start painting this afternoon if I feel like it. I can even paint if I have no hope of selling my artwork. The RED camera, however, is only affordable by working professionals who already have medium to high end clients ready to roll. That's no different than the Varicam. The jobs a Varicam and a RED will compete for will be almost identical.

I'm thrilled about what the RED has to offer, but it's not reducing the entry costs to new professionals. It's just offering a new tool to those with the $$$ and clients ready to go.

Since when has $25,000 been a mass market item? Most people can't even afford a new $25,000 car which they use every day. And the camera is your smallest expense. Film making is expensive, rediculously expensive and until we have a holodeck it will always be expensive, it will be difficult and it will require vast investments of time by dozens of people. That's the nature of creating a world which doesn't exist and photographing it millions of times. There's only so efficient you can get. It's like a "cheap war" even an insurgency costs alot of $$

A well lit HVX shoot can look phenomenal, there was a production company up this weekend shooting a Bayer commercial on it. So if anything the RED is a luxury item with more bells, whistles and quality. What we have now for less than half the price is adequate to start professionally painting.

A $25,000 Ferarri isn't going to revolutionize the transportation industry. You'll probably see a lot more ferarris but it'll still be stoplights, pedestrians and highways as we've seen all a long. </rant>

[donatello b]

i think it all depends where you are sitting on the $$ scale at the moment ..
if one concludes the camera is only affordable by working pro's with high end clients ready to roll and film making is extremely expensive which could all be true depending on how you define your "film making" ... there are hundreds of feature DV movies made every year from 2k to 200k .. if one feels ALL those amounts are too much or one can't work with less then 1 mil then one should find another profession/bliss or seek out investors ....but then i would think one might have the same problem seeking out 1 mil for anything. any profession one decides to do in life takes work, effort & a certain amount of $ ...

i know persons that are not professionals/have no clients that are buying RED to replace shooting 16mm ( they never could afford 35m) many make doc's, shorts and making $$ is the last of their worries - they do it because they love/enjoy it .. they make their living painting houses , web design , construction, tree trimmer , hi school teacher, Sfx person ...

AND many can afford 25k cars - look at the new auto sales reports ... drive past high schools/colleges/malls and look in the parking lots ...

as others have stated if you are coming from film/digibeta professional type camera's they tend find the entry price on RED inexpensive ... if you are coming from hand size pro consumer camera's then it could look expensive ...

bottom line is if you decide to buy anything - buy what you can afford .. if you can't then conisder a different item or look into RENTing ...

[Kristin Stewart]

I completly agree with "im that one guy". Only professional or daddy's boys (and everyone knows this category is mainly represented in the cinema business) can actually afford a Red system. Sure it's a great system. But for your information : more than half of the world population lives below the poverty line. And it's getting worse and worse. That's the biggest problem of all these "professionals" : they live in their world, they take the plane everyday (and some are proud of owning one if you know what I mean) whereas others sleep under a bridge... Some of them will even take a flight from Europe to go to NAB (as if it was so crucial to see some 4K 2 weeks before everyone). And don't tell me they worked and deserve it. There are certainly some rich students who have their Red reservation : they will do one shortfilm and realise the camera isn't everything. In Paris I often see in gardens on sunday some "photographers" taking pictures with a Leica M7. Sure they've got the money. But there's one hope : most of them are not talented. It's just a pleasure of owning the up-to-date gear.

[Clayton Harper]

This whiny, daddy's boy can't wait to get his hands on his Red camera so he can realise it ain't all that and that he's a talentless hack.

I think I may even take my Leica to NAB and take some grainy B&W pics of the Red Booth. :bleh:

Feel the HOFF!

[tj williams]

thatoneguy/kstewart/

Your sensitivity toward the starving millions is certainly inspirational.

I hope as you sit in front of your computers which most of the worlds population cannot afford you are not identifying with the poor and downtrodden too much. I'd suppose that you have earned the money to buy the computers you are using?

It is true that untalented and undeserving people will buy expensive paint brushes. I suggest however that most of the folks buying these RED paintbrushes earned the money to do so making motion media. If one cannot sell ones art, and therefore does not have money for paint brushes, then painting is either a hobby, or a business failure.

[Brook Willard]

Come on, guys...

[Rick Darge]

I'm just going to build my very own pinhole .005K camera instead..

All I need is a can and a flamethrower

[Clayton Harper]

I'm just going to build my very own pinhole .005K camera instead..

All I need is a can and a flamethrower

Are you taking reservations?

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I fully intend to use the RED camera, if not almost exclusively. You would have to be almost retarted to use another digital camera. It's well within my rental price range... and quite honestly I can't justify even a DVX purchase... hmm buy DVX or rent Aaton... hmmmm... tough one ;)

My point was that Ted was suggesting this would open up a whole new world to professional film making by making it something the average artist with a little inspiration can pick up and start making experimental art. But that was already the case with the DV and home editing revolution.

RED will revolutionize the image quality in the middle bracket. The varicam/HVX/16mm owners. The top bracket has film and the bottom bracket will struggle to afford it and already has a plethora of options within their price range.

I just don't see how the democratization of technology can happen at >$10,000. "If *anyone* can afford to be an artist, you're going to see a lot more creativity" --Ted. Trust me the RED is a long long way off from anybody. Maybe a $300 canon partycam, but that's already happened.

btw... my school parking lot was full of mostly $3,000 used hand-me-downs.

[Rick Darge]

Are you taking reservations?


Half a can of pringles...

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Feel the HOFF!

Oh, no! There it is again!


...Anyway, as for me. I don't need to get my hands on RED to realize I'm a talentless hack. The point is, people buy my crap already and the RED will just let me producer a more finely polished turd. ;)

[Jeff Kilgroe]

...or you could just, you know, buy the magazine. Just a thought.

Since people, like, wrote & published it and stuff.

...Or stop by your local book store or news stand and read the article, then put the magazine back on the shelf. But I think we have a lot of closet geeks here that don't get out much. :nerd:

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Half a can of pringles...

That's pretty sneaky of you... Having customers send in their own materials for building the camera.

[Rick Darge]

HA!

The pringles are fuel for my fire..

The cans that I will be using are highly polished SPRITE soda cans from 1995..Very rare but they produce an eloquent image fit for a Queen

[Kjetil Haugen]

Here's an option. Download the digital version of the magazine here: http://www.zinio.com/
american cinematography is $5.95
Getting the magazine mailed overseas can be costly. Zinio works just fine, I think..

[Eirik Tyrihjel]

...Or stop by your local book store or news stand and read the article, then put the magazine back on the shelf. But I think we have a lot of closet geeks here that don't get out much. :nerd:

I have only been one place in the world were they carry AC in a newsstand, and that was L.A., I have my subscription, but it takes days maybe weeks to ship the magazine to Europe, let alone Scandinavia - not to mention Norway, and I want to read NOW!

Please, at least let us know, was there anything new?

[luis bustamante]

or wait til NAB and get it for free!

[Jeff Kilgroe]

My local Borders has AC.... But I don't know if all locations do. I haven't really gone out trying to find it. I've never subscribed, but have picked up an issue here and there.

[Andrew M.]

Here's an option. Download the digital version of the magazine here: http://www.zinio.com/
american cinematography is $5.95
Getting the magazine mailed overseas can be costly. Zinio works just fine, I think..

No April issue posted there!!!
March doesn't have RED in it.

[Eirik Tyrihjel]

I guess there is nothng new there (to us who are up to date here), nothing really ground breaking anyway, otherwise someone who got it early would have posted by now... but I am very curious still...

[Kjetil Haugen]

No April issue posted there!!!
March doesn't have RED in it.

It'll come... Don't think it's in the stores yet either...

[Andrew M.]

I just received April's American Cinematographer today and found a 3-page article on RED. I guess they are aware of it. :)

There's a great quote from Ted: "If paintbrushes cost a million dollars, you'd have three painters in the world and not much artwork to choose from. If anyone can afford to be an artist, you're going to see a lot more creativity."

Brook, are you next to the printing shop that AC is using?
I can't find April copy anywhere, even on the AC website:-(

[Brook Willard]

I get it through a professor at my school who gets massive shipments on the first day of availability.

[Cail Young]

My local Borders has AC.... But I don't know if all locations do.

My local Borders has it ;)

[Dominic Jones]

I didn't know Borders stocked AC - I'll have to go and check out my local branch!!!

[Michael Struthers]

"If paintbrushes cost a million dollars, you'd have three painters in the world and not much artwork to choose from. If anyone can afford to be an artist, you're going to see a lot more creativity."

That's a silly and incorrect quote, more bad marketing than anything...

Just make it and make it well boys, and then the pros can hype it for you. :weight_lift:

[Mark B.]

"If paintbrushes cost a million dollars, you'd have three painters in the world and not much artwork to choose from. If anyone can afford to be an artist, you're going to see a lot more creativity."


I think there could still be a lot of finger-painted art in that scenario. Or people will just cut a lock of hair and wrap it on a stick themselves... solves the million dollar paintbrush problem right out.

[Chris Gearhart]

. . . I think we get what he's trying to say, already!

Paintbrushes! Forest . . . trees here people! :biggrin: You know--4K!

Like, we shoot it.



Geesh! :bleh:

[Tom Lowe]

My local Borders has AC.... But I don't know if all locations do. I haven't really gone out trying to find it. I've never subscribed, but have picked up an issue here and there.

man, you should really subscribe. i love that mag.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Stopped by both Borders and Barnes & Noble... No luck here. Borders did have two copies of the March issue. B&N had nothing. Guy at Borders said they probably don't have April yet or if they do won't put it out until April 1. Er... OK.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

man, you should really subscribe. i love that mag.

Maybe I should.... A new mag once a month should keep me off the forums for an hour or two. Heh.

[Alexander Nikishin]

American Cinematographer and ICG are both great reading.

[Chris Gearhart]

I found an issue of American Spectator. There was alot about red (states) in there. :whistling:

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

I have only been one place in the world were they carry AC in a newsstand, and that was L.A., I have my subscription, but it takes days maybe weeks to ship the magazine to Europe, let alone Scandinavia - not to mention Norway, and I want to read NOW!


The first AC I´ve ever seen was in a newstand at the Sao Paulo airport transit area. For us Europeans its Zinio. Postal delivery of most magazines to Germany for example is slooow and unreliable. I used to subscribe to Mix Magazine. Took forever and every third issue didnt show up at all.

Jochen

[Clayton Harper]

American Cinematographer and ICG are both great reading.

Yeah, great READING. There's only about 1 picture of any given movie's lighting setups. I was shocked when they actually showed the Doggiecam rig for Children of Men.

If anybody who works at AC is reading this, please publish more photos of actual lighting instruments IN USE.

A picture is worth a thousand words...:calm:

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I usually find AC half useful half just silly.

The entire article on achieving the exact grain for Babel comes to mind as an example of silly. I sat there reading the article thinking to myself "it seems like there are ways they could have better devoted their time."

I can often tell which renderer a shot used for each element but honest to god that's because I'm a freak nobody *should* be able to tell the difference. I feel like AC gets off track a bit too often on minutia and superfluous creative exercises which nobody ever sees in the theater.

The useful half are just shots of the final result and a quick description of their setup. Or a description of what style they were trying to achieve.

"In this shot we used Catmull Clark Anti-aliasing!" Yeah.. nobody cares.

[david farland]

I'd buy it online now if I knew I would receive the April edition.

I guess AC are trying to sell all their March issue before giving people April except for subscription people who have bought March then they know it's okay to give them April early.
Anyone know if signing up to electronic version i.e Zinio, gets you the April version now?

Cheers,

[Jeff Kilgroe]

"In this shot we used Catmull Clark Anti-aliasing!" Yeah.. nobody cares.

From one freak to another... Catmull Clark and Anti-Aliasing don't exactly go together in that way. :huh:

[Dan Blanchett]

Borders did have two copies of the March issue. B&N had nothing.

Same problem. AC is in most book stores here in San Diego, but they're still displaying March. Part of me wonders if they have April in the back and are purposefully withholding it in order to sell the March issues first. Maybe Sony is behind this! Sneaky bastards, I'm on to them! :shiftyph34r:
But wait, then the bookstores miss out on a sale. Not too bright.

By the way, for the heck of it I also tried zinio.com but they seem to be even further behind. And they're digital! Oh well... guess I'll just wait. :glare:

[Tom Lowe]

It's a nice article that does a good job of summing things up and promoting the camera, but forum regulars will find nothing new in it. The amount of detail that we engage in around here could never be summarized in 3 pages!

[Jim Arthurs]

Part of me wonders if they have April in the back and are purposefully withholding it in order to sell the March issues first. Maybe Sony is behind this!

I've had a subscription to AC for over twenty years. My April issue hasn't arrived yet... I believe different regions get them over a period of days, and from what I've seen on all mags, bookstores/newstands get theirs a week to 10 days after subscription holders.

[Clayton Harper]

In NYC, I get my subcription copy AFTER I see it on the newstand sometimes. :waaa: :waaa:

[Dan Blanchett]

It's a nice article that does a good job of summing things up and promoting the camera, but forum regulars will find nothing new in it. The amount of detail that we engage in around here could never be summarized in 3 pages!

Quite true. I wasn't expecting to learn anything. Just curious to see something in glossy print.

[Tom Lowe]

Yeah, guys, don't worry about rushing to get this article. It's really just "confirmation" for those of us who hang out here.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

From one freak to another... Catmull Clark and Anti-Aliasing don't exactly go together in that way. :huh:

Lol. Whoops, I mean Catmull-Rom, however.... *thinks really fast to recover from stupid off the cuff comment*.... with PRman or some other Reyes renderer it could make sense if it used a catmull-clark subd to generate the micropoly scene. It would theoretically work a little bit better, just hella lot slower. :)

[Joshua Provost]

Got my issue in the mail last night. No revelations in the article, but it was nice to see it in print in a reputable journal.

As for AC's technical slant, it's by cinematographers, for cinematographers, who tend to be part artist, part technician. Personally, I love the technical detail, and even though I don't shoot film, much of the technical stuff can be applied in some way to digital filmmaking. I love it! I credit AC more than anything else for my cinema education.

[Clint Johnson]

Great! Now I have something to show people in an attempt to prove that I'm not crazy. Red is real dammit!

The attempt will probably fail... but some of the blame should probably be laid on my penchant for dressing in a full suit of armour and attacking random buildings.

[Ralph Oshiro]

No revelations in the article, but it was nice to see it in print in a reputable journal.Kudos to the marketing effort at RED for timing the publication of this article, and getting it pitched to a reputable journal of the caliber of American Cinematographer. Hmmm . . . An Academy Award-winning, box office-busting film director? An experienced film DP from a top-rated, one-hour network drama? Universal Pictures? These don't sound like the "DV wannabes" and "idiots" we've been so frequently been called by from some of those on other forums. Funny . . . it's been real f*cking quiet over on those forums recently for some reason.

[Alex D. da Silva]

AC is an excellent informational and inspirational source.
The article doesn’t offer anything new if you are a member here, but it’s nice to see the camera there and it will spread the news even farther.
I've first subscribed to the magazine in 1989 during film school in São Paulo, Brazil and I have been an avid reader since.
I don’t work with film anymore but I’m still reading it every month and the magazine, more and more offers articles about digital cinema and has confirmed its reputation of being connected to the most recent technology and styles on the industry.

[Martin Ludwig]

nobody can help with a scan?

[Brook Willard]

If a scan is posted, I'll have to edit it out. The law is the law. I don't want to be the fun police... but I also don't want to tick anybody off.

[Ralph Oshiro]

Manufacturers often order four-color reprints (excerpts) of publications which have featured their products--it's great trade show promotional material with inherent credibility, far more than any company-authored collateral. If we're lucky, RED may have a stack of those at their booth at NAB.

[Alex D. da Silva]

I received mine last Thursday (I have a subscription) but today I saw it on Barnes & Noble and another local newsstand. The magazine is not hard to find.
Or check the web site for a on line version:
http://www.ascmag.com/magazine_dynamic/March2007/current.php
It still shows the last month issue but that should soon change.

[Pol Turrents]

have you seen the (red) cover of the new issue of high definition magazine?
http://www.definitionmagazine.com/artwork/def24150.jpg
http://www.definitionmagazine.com