Studio / post facility

[Rob Lohman]

I'm curious about RED owners (mainly the ones shooting narrative stuff). Do you have your own (little?) studio with facilities (like light systems, green screen, for example)? Are you planning on using other studios if you need to shoot indoor?

What about post production? Do you plan to own your own gear and do post like editing, visual effects, sound / music, colo(u)r grading?

Do we all want to be Rodriguez and have "everything" in-house and ready to go?

Indulge my curiosity please! :) Photos of your facilities etc. are welcome as well.

Thanks,

[Gunleik Groven]

In house Rodriguez here, 'cept for sfx work.

Hope to employ more as time goes by. Looks good.
Have to add: Not one man show today either... -;)

Small studio now, planning bigger later.

Gunleik

[donatello b]

1) rent studio, lights etc ...

2) post - basic editing (low rez not 4k rez) ...will pay $$ to CC finish 2/4k rez ... SFX would hire persons/facility

3) avoiding the everything in house ..

[Poi Boy]

In house Rodriguez here as well. Small studio and edit facility, hire others on job to job basis as necessary. Here in Hawaii there is lots of lighting and grip equipment available for rent but everything else has to come from the mainland therefore I rent lighting and grip and I try to own the other things (camera, lens etc.). I've been doing mostly commercials but am hoping to shoot some short films when Red arrives.
Aloha
-A

[dalemccready]

shooting for me is a hire deal using local studios and often green/bluescreen. Lots of great locations here. But nearly all the post for narrative will be coming in house (home) now up to the final grade, sound and output/laser which will go to Park Road.

If it's a music video I'll do all the finishing myself as I've proven I can do it with Varicam up to now.

I use FCP, AE, Automatic Duck, for that.

[Clint Johnson]

I'm looking at building a timber frame mini studio. One of the nice things about timber frame buildings is that it is straight forward to build support free rooms with ceilings that are plenty high enough to get a grid up out of the camera's view.

We also have a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill so that helps the decision on construction techniques too.

I'm still designing it so any hints and tips from those who have already gone the small studio route would be appreciated.

I'm thinking that a 50' by 25' room with a 20' ceiling would fill most of my needs if not my wants.

I have 4 2k Mole-Richardson lights and a smattering of 1k, 750w, 500w and 250w lights... I figure that with a smallish space like that I won't be needing more than 15k worth of lights very often.

I'm trying to decide between cloth or paint for green screening one side and one end... the cloth is more versatile and cheaper but how has everyone's experience been in getting the cloth flat enough for nice keys? I'm a green screen neophyte and could use some experienced guidance here.

I'm looking at having a separate editing room off one end - maybe 25' by 15' with a 10' by 8' sound booth in one corner. It will be a PC based edit suite and don't laugh but I'm an Adobe user from way back and it is nice that they are getting really serious about the production suite of tools. The integration is first rate and I am comfortable with the tools.

As you can see, I'm wanting to go the Rodriguez route myself here but the best laid plans can go all pie shaped rather quickly. There is an offer on the table for 1-5 cargo containers per month of timbers to be shipped to Korea and that would completely tie up the sawmill (or three).

So I may just be down in Vancouver living in the back of my Jeep with a "Will camera op for craft services" sign taped to a window. Gotta be ready to roll with life's punches.

[Gunleik Groven]

Right'o

As I find this thread entertaining, I'll just dare to bump it -;)

[Keith Nealy]

We're a small self-contained creative studio that tries to do most things... here on the Big Island of Hawaii.

2000 square foot studio, green/blue screen, Mole Richardson lighting with Chimera softboxes, assorted 1K, 500k, 250k lights and accessories, two edit bays with Avid Media Composer, Avid Liquid, Edius, SpeedEdit, Adobe Production Studio, and tons of graphics, plugins,etc.
We also have a Glidecam V-20 that should fly RED pretty well and have two smaller Steadicams for handycams.

We do audio, both on location and studio and have a full complement of workstations and equipment for both.

We also do full production for live shows with three or more camera switching and webcasting on location and in our studio.

We do Hawaiian cultural documentaries, high end corporate identity for clients all over the world, live shows that come to Hawaii and we're working toward independant features when RED ships and changes our lives.

[Steven M. Bailey]

I have a crazy Idea for a studio that involves 15 40ft cargo cantainers, an 8/12 pitch roof on jack stands. 2560sq ft floor space (40x64) with 24ft ceiling, insert steel beams for crane work and scaffolds, 2000 square foot second floor with sound room, editing room, 20ft projection screen, pool table and mini bar. All for under 45,000 us.
Because the walls are made of cargo containers I have all of the room I need to store props and extra's (wondered about that smell)

I just have to sell my house and find some land.

Clint, if you have building or design questions give me a buzz. I currently build and design houses while I wait to make my break.
James Cameron was a truck driver.
What the Heck.:construction:
Blownapartstudios@gmail.com

[John Moores]

We're coming from the doc end of things, so we don't have a studio. Any drama or recreations are usually shot on location, and the majority of footage is actuality and interviews, shot on location.

Up to this point all equipment has been rented on a per production basis, although we did have a jib made for the last show. We try to travel light but when it's all said and done we've ended up with alot of kit on our shoots.

As for post, it's 90% in house. Sometimes we can afford to let our editor cut from his home based edit suite of Final Cut, but if there's a few episodes going thru the pipe we'll have a few guys offlining at the office. We have been onlining and colour correcting at established post houses, mainly because of the large amounts of data involved, and the need to output to HDCAM.

However, the plan is now to finish in house as well, and rent decks for output as needed. We'll have to invest in new machines and alot of storage as well.

Should be fun ;)
JM

[Gbabymogul]

Ideally i'd like to do the Shamaylan studio type of thing. Find some nice land in the country, build a barn that would double as a mini studio, plus a screening room and edit suite. Maybe throw in a futball pitch out the back. The house nearby wouldn't have to be too big. Just big enough for a built in bbq smoker.

But, since setting up with RED and all the gear that comes along with it will take a lot of lettuce, we'll probably end up in a smaller space. There's not enough room in the office we're currently renovating (for a studio) so that's out.

I was toying with the idea of getting a bigger office space/commercial space and convert part of it to living quarters, part studio and part edit suite. Unfortunately, it's illegal to live where you work for certain zoning areas and my girlfriend doesn't want to live in an industrial building (she's selfish).

What we do in house will be project dependant. Having always gone out of house for most work, it'll be interesting entering the indie, illegal satellite dishes and stealing power like a Ganja house world.
:beer:

[Rob Lohman]

Thanks for all the responses thus far!


two edit bays with Avid Media Composer, Avid Liquid, Edius, SpeedEdit, Adobe Production Studio, and tons of graphics, plugins,etc.

How do you like SpeedEdit?

[Keith Nealy]

Rob,
I've been a beta tester for NewTek products since the beginning and I've seen the edit system grow over the last two decades.

It has it's limitations but what it does, it does well and very fast. It is by far the easiest, most intuitive editor I have used - and now with the the SpeedEdit version which unbundled it from VT4 it is more flexible.

It is still only half-baked as many refinements are still not implimented yet. In this 1.0 version, it is resolution independant and will play with any SD & HD codec you have on your system, and mix and match any format on the timeline with no rendering.

It has a rather unique combined dual timeline and storyboard system that is linked. Edit with either and the other is constantly updated.

Many features on the parent VT4 (soon to be VT5) have not fully been transfererred yet like batch capturing but they will soon.

For a great majority of simple editing jobs it is a joy to work with because it is a realtime system with intelligent background rendering.

Right now I have it on several systems including a CoreDuo laptop with a 32" Sony Bravia LCD as a second monitor which is my program out.

NewTek is another great company with a relationship with its professionals just like RED. I talk with the programmers all the time an request things and have seen many of my suggestions end up in the software. The spirit and communications of RED felt very familiar to me and I knew that it was a great strategy for the company and a great benefit for the users because of my long experience with NewTek.

I am waiting patiently for the new SpeedEdit and VT5 which will have some exciting new technologies built in.

I have told them about RED and how you two could really benefit from a relationship together with their emphasis on resolution independance, realtime performance, etc.

I've known all the top brass for many years and they are a company that also likes to break the mold and push the envelope . You should give them a call and see what develops.


aloha,

Keith

[planet e]

small studio with big plans, which RED fits into nicely....we're shooting a lot, however, we're not holding our breath waiting on the camera, because we have to buy out the neighbors when they go up for sale, so that we can spread our tentacles as wide and far as possible. mwhahahahaha....

http://www.planetestudios.com/contacts.html

[Corrado Silveri]

Here:
6 FCS Suites (+Shake-AE)
2 Graphics suites
3 Photoshop retouch suites
1 Authoring + Duplication (100x) suite
1 Machine Room (xRaid+XServe+Gigabit for all)
1 Small Studio 10x8x5mt (Greenback + Still Life)
Various seats for Admin, Meeting rooms, Secretary...

Just a small jpeg (3FCS Suites):
http://idisk.mac.com/elcuradin-Public/edit3JH12.jpg

[John Moores]

Nice facility! ;)

[Curran Giddens]

I've got some big plans too. I used to do post-production (roto monkey) for one of Doug Trumbull's companies. The building has a giant greenscreen/cyc and has been vacant for the last couple of years. Most of the crew is still around going from job to job. I'm in the process of starting my corp. and buying all necessary equipment to start a production/post-production studio.

I have a few ideas for scripts of my own but others who get involved are welcome to work on their own projects as well.

My website is still under construction....

http://web.mac.com/rasjudah2/iWeb/SolarSystem/Welcome.html

[Kenn Christenson]

Here:
6 FCS Suites (+Shake-AE)
2 Graphics suites
3 Photoshop retouch suites
1 Authoring + Duplication (100x) suite
1 Machine Room (xRaid+XServe+Gigabit for all)
1 Small Studio 10x8x5mt (Greenback + Still Life)
Various seats for Admin, Meeting rooms, Secretary...

Just a small jpeg (3FCS Suites):
http://idisk.mac.com/elcuradin-Public/edit3JH12.jpg

Seems awful bright in those rooms - probably just to shoot the picture. I prefer my little "edit cave."

[Tom Lowe]

Those suites are cool, but they don't seem much different from a home setup.

I only shoot outdoors and on location, and I plan to do all the editing and grading in house, on a super-high-end PC. Sound I will take to a sound-design studio and pay a good part of my budget for the best sound I can get. Final mastering... I'm not sure. I guess I can finish at DCI 2K on the home system?

[Rob Lohman]

Looks nice & clean Elcurado!

Keith: thanks. I know NewTek (as a company) pretty well through LightWave releases and the toaster. I touched LW once or twice, but mainly through a friend of mine. Cool software.

[planet e]

nice facility, elcurado. you should have spiffed up the staff a mite, however, if only for the photo op. they kind of contrast with your sharp, well-lit space!

we're small (3 bays, with room to expand to six), but we're cute!

[Corrado Silveri]

Nice facility! ;)


Seems awful bright in those rooms - probably just to shoot the picture. I prefer my little "edit cave."


Those suites are cool, but they don't seem much different from a home setup.

I only shoot outdoors and on location, and I plan to do all the editing and grading in house, on a super-high-end PC. Sound I will take to a sound-design studio and pay a good part of my budget for the best sound I can get. Final mastering... I'm not sure. I guess I can finish at DCI 2K on the home system?


Looks nice & clean Elcurado!



nice facility, elcurado. you should have spiffed up the staff a mite, however, if only for the photo op. they kind of contrast with your sharp, well-lit space!

we're small (3 bays, with room to expand to six), but we're cute!


Thanks to all...

And, yes, too much bright in this picture (just for the shoot), the staff must be spiffed up and all the suites are quite similar to some "hard-pumped up" home setup.

I will post some more pictures, if anyone is interested... :umm:

[Tonaci Tran]

Here is my RED STATION. Rockin 8 core underneath.

[Tonaci Tran]

I will post some more pictures, if anyone is interested... :umm:
Yes more pics please.

[Corrado Silveri]

Okay,
give me just the time to organize a new shooting...

[Ben Ponce]

In house as well. I love the ease of having total control over my work. Nice studio Elcurado! Quick question for you guys. Is media, video, editing your day jobs or are most of you hoping to break in? Just curious as I do very well with my still photography business but my true passion is to make films (or should I say 4K video!).:spidy:

[Jeremy Torrie]

For my group we pay the bills exclusively by working in the business. Now of course we write scripts, treatments, Bibles, line produce, executive produce, direct, run the post side of other clientele's work, and so on, but when we're not shooting a project ourselves, we have ancillary cash flow. One must be creative in this business just to survive.