OMG - Red, ProRes, Color, and Humility

[Gabriel C.]

Hello All,

I flew to Vegas last night, got an ultra cheep (but surprisingly nice) room at "El Cortez" in downtown Vegas. The people in the suite next to mine were going at it all night. Fighting and then um ... making up ... over and over again. It was pretty amazing! I found out a lot about their personal lives.

This morning I woke up early, showered, and headed to the show. Waited in line an hour or so, and then entered the 50 seat theatre.

So here's the deal, it looks motherf$%king unbef**kinglievable! Okay, that might be slightly overstating ... but it looked so amazing that I waited in line and watched it again. I was especially delighted with the highlight detail in the sky, and the clarity of the landscapes in the background.

The RedOne is larger than I expected ... and really amazing looking. Totally rugged and professional. I wanted to kiss it but refrained.

You can plug a reddrive right into final cut and start editing ... no power adapter necessary. Plop your footage onto the timeline and away you go.

The guys at the apple booth said on a macbook pro converting 4k red to 2k ProRes is about 3x speed (I think that meant 3x the length of the footage to convert.) Well see whether or not that turns out to be true. BUT the reason you want to go 2k prores is because you can apply filters and edit more or less like it's dv ... at 2k quality!

I fondled and looked through the camera and asked Graeme about the Focus assist and what kind of data rates we'll get at 2k. He said it wont be cut in 1/4 because wavelet compresses better at higher resolutions. I couldn't lock down a number ... but it will be a smaller amount of data.

As for focus assist, it sounds like the kind of thing you have to see to fully understand. It's like a histogram for focus.

They said the battery lasts about 2 hours with the lcd and evf engaged while recording. Those aren't official numbers but they approximate what you can expect.

The camera is sweet. Totally professional. Not a single dinky thing about it. I can't believe I'll have it in my sweaty little hands in just a few months. Now the question is which script to shoot first!

Redcode CAN be edited in FCP 5.1 ... that's what they ended up editing the Peter Jackson stuff with. RedCode is a quicktime component.

With red lenses, the camera knows what f stop the lens is set to and the info on the back reads as such. Not the case with nikon lenses.

None of the LCD's were working when I got there so I can't speak to those, but the EVF was amazing. I would feel totally comfortable focusing with the evf.

Then I went to the Motion 3 and COLOR area. All I can say is wow wow wow. I remember going to NAMM 1999 and seeing all the first line6 stuff and V-Drum stuff and Digidesign 001. That was a monumental year for the music industry and 2007 NAB was the same for film/video.

At the end of the day I waited in line for a cab and stood next to the lovely and charming Kelly. We talked for a while about what it's like to be a part of something so revolutionary. She, like the rest of the RED team was humble and cool. I really can't stress enough how cool everyone I met was. It makes sense. Cool people, cool idea, cool camera.

Thanks RedHeads. You're doing us all a big favor. I'm more excited now than I was yesterday ... and that's saying a lot.

I'm dedicating my first Red shot film (and perhaps my firstborn) to your hard work and dedication.

[Yash Keough]

Nice write up. Thanks for the info that was very informative!

Yash

[Graeme Nattress]

Thanks. Was good to meet you. Sorry about not having the figures you wanted, but as we get more and more practical experience with the new cameras, we'll be able to answer them better.

Graeme

[Gabriel C.]

Graeme please ... thank you so much for your time and your information. It was a pleasure to meet you, and I can't wait to start making movies with your camera!

[hmurchison]

You should have kissed the camera. I heard datarates improve by %10 after a lipsmacker. :D

Well sadly I won't be buying a Red One anytime soon unless the lottery comes through for me but I'm certainly glad that Red is working on a "Camera for the rest of us" for lighter portable application.

I must say I'm proud of what the Red Team has done. I'd love to say American Ingenuity but that would be a disrespect to this "International" effort of which Graeme and others have input valuable time and effort.

And to those who said the Red camera was vapor...I say N'ya N'ya.

[Priyesh P.]

I must say I'm proud of what the Red Team has done. I'd love to say American Ingenuity but that would be a disrespect to this "International" effort of which Graeme and others have input valuable time and effort.


That´s one of the nice non-technical aspects of this project.
The Red is the first true world camera, designed by a team spread all over the world through input from international buyers and future users.
The core team in fact was American, which can´t be underestimated.

[Gabriel C.]

... and Americans are made up of virtually every nationality. One of our greatest strengths. I wonder from what countries the ancestors of the Red team hailed?

[Stephen Gentle]

Well sadly I won't be buying a Red One anytime soon unless the lottery comes through for me but I'm certainly glad that Red is working on a "Camera for the rest of us" for lighter portable application. .

It looks like I'm in the same boat.

I'm very excited about the new products that RED is developing too! If RED makes a projector for less than $50, 000, then digital cinemas will be much more common, and we will be able to see RED footage in all its glory...

[laguun]

... and Americans are made up of virtually every nationality. One of our greatest strengths. I wonder from what countries the ancestors of the Red team hailed?

speaking of national pride - i grew up in france and am now living in germany for almost 20 years.

i really feel sorry for ARRI and AATON.

since years, since 2001 to be exact, i struggle with both companies - i highly respect them both - as i always tell them that i would need a digital camera from them.

finally, in 2002, we then went to Sony and bought a full HDCAM workflow for ~500.000$.

we kept on buggin ARRI and AATON to design digital cameras, but only to be answered by denial and missing knowledge in the digital area. I never will forget how employees told us that 35mm can´t be challenged by digital sensors, while the digital hasselblad were taking shots of the booth in the background.

so, i sincerly hope, that these fine two companies now finally got their wakeupcall. their camera products are excellent, but they didnßt arrive in the present and are still embracing the past.

and, as happy i am for and with red as a company - red has no competition at all in its marketspace except maybe SI. i would be really happy, if the german and french traditional camera manufacturers now take up the challenge, and hey, even develop some new clever ideas which then can inspire red.

[Priyesh P.]

Hi Laguun,

I think it´s too late for ARRI. Look how many years it did take to finish the D20 - not speaking of it´s price which surely isn´t disclosed for good reasons.
Even if they´d build a digital "ARRI 435D" it would be overpriced and take years until accessories are ready - it took at least 3 years after rollout of the ARRICAM ( or jokingly called movieflex ) - lineup until it could be called "whole".

Hope I get the change to catch a glimpse on one of your Red Ones.
Do you have lot´s of requests from clients for something like an open house / public demo?

Priyesh

[Priyesh P.]

... and Americans are made up of virtually every nationality. One of our greatest strengths. I wonder from what countries the ancestors of the Red team hailed?

Jannard sounds french to me.

[laguun]

Hi Laguun,

Hope I get the change to catch a glimpse on one of your Red Ones.
Do you have lot´s of requests from clients for something like an open house / public demo?

Priyesh
yeah, we have lots of request - but >95% of the dops in berlin don´t even know that red exists yet or think its all hoax. we have 2 on order, luckily one quite early number (~200 IIRC).

we will have several open house events and workshops for sure.

also, we are trying to have a 4k screening at babelsberg ASAP. when NAB is over, i will get in touch with red and ask if they would be interested and have the rights to show it on the SRX4K n babelsbergs presentation cinema.

btw, if you are interested in getting your hands on red - we will put the red through ~one month of testing and still are selecting the dops for this. if you are interested send me a personam mail and i will give you a call.