RED#0031 has had the pleasure of Shooting Scenes for Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life"

[dino g]

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I must confess.

I have been working with Emmanuel Lubezki & Terrence Malick since November 0f 2007.

I could not speak about it until tonight, we just wrapped the bulk of my portion.

We have been shooting in Houston and mostly using the camera for night scenes.

It has been in a word, unbelievable.

The word genius comes to mind instantly when i think of these two generous, smart, patient, other worldly individuals, not to mention the camera op Joerg widmer, the 1st ac erik brown and the local camera crew from texas jeremy rodgers - 2nd, patrick coate - loader & chris todd - cam intern.

We (chivo & i) started testing in late october/ early november; first some subtle tests at a pre-light for one of his commercials and then a full blown test on the set of an amazing commercial shot in downey. from there film outs were done at efilm after some processing at plastercity.

then we did 5 more tests (spread out over 5 months), which i will get into at a later date if anyone cares, and then finally we started shooting for real this week here in houston.

the second night of shooting was epic.

bmw suv.

chivo in the passenger seat with red#0031, (using a very unique configuration, basically, the camera with focus motor and side handles, cf x 19mm rails, top handle) and everything else is in a backpack including the drive, aja hd10md3, deneke sync box, modulus 3000, arri umd, ifb and battery.

terrence is behind the driver with a 7.9 inch panny hardwired to et breakout and erik is behind chivo with the focus controls.

joerg and i are scrunched in the back back, i have extra drives, batteries, cables.

and here is the best....

sean penn is driving!!!!

now, think, you are 17 years old and you get to drive your daddy's sports car when he is out of town (think ferris bueller)....that was the experience, white knuckle seat of your pants racing through the streets during a traffic free weeknight, late at night...don't know what else to say about that. you should get the picture, i felt like i had done something illegal when we returned to base camp, not like we were breaking laws, but just the whole experience.

the rest of the week has been another surprise after surprise...i will write more but i have to continue downloading footage, we have an early call...

now, i must say that the majority of the film has been shot with 35mm cameras, (lots of 35mm film, an ungodly amount)...so everyone must know that the RED footage may not make it in the final cut, so don't quite buy your tickets yet.

but i will say to you all that tonight when i asked terrence if i could write about the experience, he was very happy to say to me that he has enjoyed the red camera and is pleased with the results.

i will try and keep up with the questions and comments, but know i am on this job for a few more days and will most likely not have time to chime in. i will provide a full debrief in the coming weeks.

hope you enjoyed my little story. wish me luck for the next 3 days!

dino

[Joel Kaye]

I have been working with Emmanuel Lubezki & Terrence Malick

Wow. That's an interesting twist. Can't wait to see some of that footage. :-)

[Nathan Garofalos]

Nice job Dino, congratulations!

[kmikami]

Where's Tom? :wink:

[jbeale]

An interesting project! There can't be that many features shooting now which have been in development for 30 years...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Life_(film)

[Fredrik Callinggard]

:ohmy: :ohmy: :ohmy: envy, envy, envy coming out of my ears hahaha


Fredrik

[Radoslav Karapetkov]

Tom. ;)

[Paul Hazlett]

I think Tom just flew to Houston

[number6]

Thanks for the teaser Dino... can't wait to hear more.

[Bruce Allen]

Dino, congrats - but if you haven't gotten Tom involved yet then I really don't know what to say... ;)

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Justin O'Neill]

Congratulations Dino! I can only imagine how amazing it must have been to work with someone like Malick.

[Radoslav Karapetkov]

The photography of The New World was literally mind-blowing.

[Finner]

I have this horribly disturbing image of Tom's computer after he reads this looking like it got hit by a mayonnaise truck.

[Radoslav Karapetkov]

The Reduser Times:

"Finner strikes again."

:)

[Sanjin Jukic]

IMDb Technical specifications for Tree of Life (2009) should be promptly updated.

Camera
Arri/Zeiss Master Prime Lenses
Arricam ST & LT
Arriflex 435

Film negative format (mm/video inches)
35 mm

Cinematographic process
Super 35

LINK>>> (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/technical)

[dino g]

tom was not here...although there did seem to be a car constantly following us....

[Paul Hazlett]

I have this horribly disturbing image of Tom's computer after he reads this looking like it got hit by a mayonnaise truck.

took me a while to get this... now I am sorry I did.

[number6]

took me a while to get this... now I am sorry I did.

I am disturbed for myself that I got it so soon. Annnnnnd... I will never eat mayonnaise again.

[Daniel García]

who's tom?

[dino g]

Let's stop bashing our brother tom. brothers do fight with no love loss. so let's be done with this and get back to the reason for the post. if you want to comment on the fact that these individuals have wandered over to RED country, or know more about the experience, then this is the place.

[Adrian T.]

who's tom?

http://www.reduser.net/forum/member.php?u=577 (http://www.reduser.net/forum/member.php?u=577)

[number6]

Let's stop bashing our brother tom. brothers do fight with no love loss. so let's be done with this and get back to the reason for the post. if you want to comment on the fact that these individuals have wandered over to RED country, or know more about the experience, then this is the place.

Any new stuff to report?

[Chris Parker]

awesome shit dino. have fun brother....

[Costelloe Michael]

Hey Guys,

It's one o'clock in the morning, I've been drinking Kenvinchie and this really made me laugh! Real belly laugh! Guess who's driving....? Sean Penn! Congrats Dude, sounds like a real gas! One of those situations when you question and look again.. Yep that's him and here I am too.... COOL!

Mike C

[Blair S. Paulsen]

I find it illuminating that in the early days of the Rebellion that some of the artists with real industry cred that have been willing to see what the RedOne is really all about - with their own eyes - are people like Malick & Lubezki.

Risk takers, my kinda beasts :gun:

[J.R. Hud]

Malick is a god.

I felt compelled to make this note.

[Tom Lowe]

the second night of shooting was epic.

bmw suv.

chivo in the passenger seat with red#0031, (using a very unique configuration, basically, the camera with focus motor and side handles, cf x 19mm rails, top handle) and everything else is in a backpack including the drive, aja hd10md3, deneke sync box, modulus 3000, arri umd, ifb and battery.

terrence is behind the driver with a 7.9 inch panny hardwired to et breakout and erik is behind chivo with the focus controls.

joerg and i are scrunched in the back back, i have extra drives, batteries, cables.

and here is the best....

sean penn is driving!!!!


My mind just had a meltdown. kosmos, you are the luckiest man on the face of the planet. That's all I can say. Please ask Malick if I can shoot some timelapse for him. No need for payment - I will pay HIM to be able to shoot for for The Tree of Life. :)

Please keep us posted and tell us as much as you can about this.

[Radoslav Karapetkov]

My mind just had a meltdown. kosmos, you are the luckiest man on the face of the planet. That's all I can say. Please ask Malick if I can shoot some timelapse for him. No need for payment - I will pay HIM to be able to shoot for for The Tree of Life. :)

Please keep us posted and tell us as much as you can about this.


You don't happen to have the script, do you? :ninja:

[dino g]

i did not ask for nor did i get a script, i am sure if i asked for one, i would have received one. sorry, but out of respect for terry, whom is a very private man, i have deleted my earlier "observations", as i may not be the best person to "disclose" this info to the general public.

i will write more about what i experienced, just on set now doing some mattel toy commercials.

[Jonathan Payne]

(quote deleted)
Wow! Now this is the really interesting news from the shoot. I'm a tech head as much as the rest of you but at the end of the day it's how you make a movie with whatever tools you get your hands on that really makes the difference.

Kosmos, do you have any more stories like this about TM's working style? This is what really gets me excited!!!

[Julio Quintana]

DINO,

You have a Private Message.

Julio

[luis bustamante]

so what did Lubezki said about the camera?

[dino g]

lubezki likes the camera enough to have wanted to use it on this film. more later

[luis bustamante]

thanks!

[Weston Ford]

Holy shit this is great!

[Jonathan Payne]

Quote removed :)

[KETCH ROSSi]

Hey Dino,

great stuff, too late to wish you luck but just the same, you know I mean it!


You did what I could noy=t ever do, keep a secret for this long:) I'm the worst , can't lie can't keep a secret.

ciao

[dino g]

was not easy....

this picture was taken way back in early november.

enjoy

[KETCH ROSSi]

hehe, it never is, thats the nature of the Human mind!

Nice one.

Please do stop by and say hi, if and when you are in Vegas.

ciao

[Ruairi Robinson]

from Cinematography.com:


For the Record Tom. I have two sources on Tree of Life who say that Terrance despised the look of the Red after further evaluation of the material. One source is in the camera dept. and the other is in the editorial dept. Also Chivo doesn't seem to be to impressed by the results either. Chivo loved the size of the camera and what its size can do for you creatively but was indifferent about the image.


Of course for my own record these sources may have their own agendas as well. But this is what they told me. They are close friends and I believe them.
Any truth to this?

R.

[Jonathan Payne]

Yes I'm curious about this as well. If it's true we shouldn't try and cover up the fact that some professionals may no prefer the current look of the Red One footage. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and I feel that we benefit from learning both sides of the story. Plus I always want to hear whatever Chivo and Malick have to say about anything filmmaking related.

[dino g]

well i have not heard this, it is certainly news to me, moreover, right before i left for hong kong last week they were just starting on doing the processing on a 3 minute section of the footage. it would be graded at plastercity with the help of the efilm colorist and then the data would be sent to efilm for a film out then a screening. i am not certain all that has been done yet. moreover, they were still shooting in a different part of the country until a few days ago, so the i don't think this is true, but nothing would surprise me.

if you read my original post, i never claimed that these particular gentlemen have abandoned film and now will exclusively shoot with the red. what i said was they enjoyed the experience and seemed to be pleased with the result on set and may or may not put the footage in the final film.

as most people that own this camera know, a large percentage of the people that we rent our cameras out to fall in love with the tool, some come back again and again, others are taking a wait and see approach. note that the camera firmware i used on this film is now ancient history, the camera is a different camera in the last couple of weeks, so to say that this or that person will never use the camera again is to be naive about the prospects of RED and short sighted about what a certain individual may or may not do in the future.

bottom line is they used the camera, which to me is a ground breaking revelation period.

[Harry Clark]

Wow, how did I miss this thread? Oh, I know, I've been working, not lurking...
Congrats to Kosmos. I'm with Tom; I'd pay Malick for the chance to shoot for him.
That leaves only Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke...
And sure, the thread is more about the experience of the shoot and less about anyone in particular liking or hating the Red.
Full of envy,
Harry

[Jonathan Payne]

I never meant to say you knew that they felt one way or the other and were hiding any negative viewpoints. Just hoping to hear more about Malick and co...

[markuss]

hey kosmos, any more news from the malick project?

I heard tree of life was in post production now, which is ssooo awsome. Cant wait for this masterpiece to finally come together.

[dino g]

the only update i have is that chivo has hired me for the nike spot that i am doing now, which means to me that he likes the camera. i have not heard back from the editor, but i assume things are going well. i am trying to get tom some work as he does these very unique timelapses.

[Tom Lowe]

thanks, dino! i owe you. :)

what was your job title for the nike thing? are you DITing plus shooting?