L.A. User Group, February 7th

[Igor Ridanovic]

RED LOS ANGELES USER GROUP
February 7th, 2009
9:00am - noon


Please RSVP:

http://www.redusergroupla.com


Please register early. We have filled our capacity at the January meeting and expect to have a full house again. To receive our early notifications in the future please subscribe to the RED Los Angeles User Group Twitter feed. (http://twitter.com/REDLAUG)

Don't miss a chance to see Quantel Pablo Stereoscopic primer. Quantel's artists will go through the basics of 3D using RED stereoscopic footage. This will be a great opportunity to see and understand how the RED and Pablo work together in producing outstanding stereo images.

ASL Gear (formerly Toys 4 RED) will show their RIP KIT (http://aslgear.com/ripkit.aspx). This versatile breakout box augments the RED camera I/O and control section allowing operator easy access and improved operational flexibility. Drop your card at the door for a chance to win $500 gift certificate from ASL Gear.

Director of Photography Jeffrey Seckendorf (www.snaproll.com) will be screening scenes and discussing elements from the EA video game, "Need For Speed."

Shot on the Red, "Need For Speed" includes over 50 feature film style narrative scenes interlaced inside the game. Jeff will be showing both original footage and processed scenes from the game. Produced by Eric Mofford, directed by Joseph Hodges, and starring Maggie Q, NFS was just nominated for a Visual Effects Society award.

The Owners' Circle will meet as usual to discuss any issues that pertain to current or future owners and operators of RED ONE.

Check back for updates. Watch RED User Group previous meetings and presentations on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/REDLAUG). There's a lot of value packed in 10 minute clips!

JUST ANNOUNCED: 2 more door prizes at $660 total, courtesy of Kappa Studios -- 2 seats at RED Boot Camp class (http://www.kappastudios.com/?page_id=96).


COMING UP IN THE MARCH MEETING: Pictorvision, Inc. will be demonstrating the use of the RED One in their Wescam gyro stabilized aerial camera systems, as well as giving a basic primer on what you need know when planning for aerial shooting.

[michael zaletel]

Sweet!

-shooter

[Tim Whitcomb]

so?? how did it go?

[Igor Ridanovic]

It was our biggest meeting so far. Quantel demoed a solid workflow for the RED although the presentation was a little skinny on the stereoscopic side. But they only had half an our per session to squeeze all that.

There are some photos at www.redusergroupla.com and we'll be uploading videos to our youtube channel soon.

[markh]

Just wanted to update the thread with the latest Red-related Quantel developments and answer a common question.

There are three upcoming developments:

Red partial settings transfer
2048x1024 playback in Quantel eQ and Pablo HD
Red Audio Import

Here’s the detail

Red Partial Settings Transfer

Everyone is familiar with the metadata toolset for setting a colour 'look' during a shoot - but many Red projects can't use this information efficiently in Post because it is not carried through to Online (e.g. you need to use workflows that require generating intermediate DPX files, either using on set devices or within the post house).

The Quantel workflow already retains this information. Post houses who are now using Quantel systems on Red projects told us they wanted to choose how much of the metatdata to use. For example, a colorist might want to use the Exposure settings the Cinematographer chose but override the Gain, Brightness and Contrast settings. Now it is quick and easy to try out mixtures of settings to get the desired result.


Red 2048x1024 playback in eQ and Pablo HD

As widely discussed on the thread, Red cameras are being used for everything from feature films to standard definition commercials. Some postings on the forum suggest that people would like to Post on Quantel but they feel that our systems are out of reach. In fact as well as big DI projects on big Quantel DI systems, Quantel eQ and Quantel Pablo HDs are also being widely used for Red projects with HD or SD deliverables. Some customers also want to work at higher resolutions on eQ or Pablo HD. So in our forthcoming V4.1 release, realtime playback of Red 2048 x 1024 is now supported on eQ, and Pablo HD.



Red Audio Import

As Red use increases in Broadcast and Long Form applications, Red audio will become more important. In both the Import and Conform menus there is now a check box that will allow audio to be imported with the .r3d file or brought in on the rush as part of the conform.

RED Audio import is also released in V4.1.


Finally, not a news item but a frequently asked question. We get asked a lot about our offline to online workflow with Final Cut so here is a quick heads up of how it works:

The system of choice for Red offline today is Final Cut Pro because of the Red specific developments Apple have made.

Final Cut Pro has a comprehensive XML based offline project metadata format which can be read via the Automatic Duck Pro Export plug-in into Quantel systems.

This means that layers, dve, text transitions etc. created in Final Cut Pro can be used during color correction or finishing on Quantel eQ, iQ or Pablo.

Take a look at the ‘Offline Interchange’ demo on the Quantel website:

http://www.quantel.com/gallery.php?a=Video&as=Demos

It's worth mentioning that Final Cut Pro offline to Quantel online also benefits from the fact that all Quantel Pablo systems (or Quantel eQ and iQ systems with the QColor option) include both fully featured color and fully featured online finishing tools. They aren't simply color correction systems or finishing systems, they are capable of doing both (if that suits your workflow). This in practice is very useful on Red projects, for example for color correcting multiple layers in context (rather than treating each layer as an individual entity) using effects tools to achive complex color ‘looks’ and solving color problems like sky replacement that normally involve using compositing systems.

There's an updated version of our Red white paper coming out, if anyone wants a copy just email me at mark.horton@quantel.com