Peter Jackson interview...

[Jannard]

“Ready for takeoff” from New-Zealand magazine “ONFILM” (May 2007)

In making the WWI-set short that has just screened at NAB, you obviously took the opportunity to put the HD 4K RED camera through its paces – what’s your verdict at this stage of its development?

That literally came out of nowhere. I’d been curious about the RED 4K camera for a while, and had pre-ordered five of them, just in case it turned out to be all that was promised. I figured five is the minimum number you’d need for a feature, including a second unit. I had a look at some early tests in LA a while ago and they looked great, but their prototype cameras had never been out of the lab.

I liked what they were doing – making a digital camera of the utmost quality, and making it affordable for indie filmmakers. It also looks like film – it has a very attractive quality to the image – none of the “digital” look I’ve seen with some other HD cameras.
I gave them an open invitation that if they ever wanted to field test the camera in a “real world” situation. I’d be happy to help. I was also keen to put the film through a full professional post-production pipeline, just to ensure we could use the data all the way through to release.

Of course, two weeks before NAB, Jim Jannard – the founder of RED – calls and says, “Can we come down and shoot something for NAB”! I asked him what exactly. And he said that we could do anything we wanted. With so little time, I immediately thought “Milford … Queenstown .. Jet Boats”, but then I thought, “Stuff it – let’s make a real movie.”

The First World War is something of a hobby for me, and we participate in a few NZ airshows, where we fly WW1 aircraft, and have uniforms, tanks and artillery for the “ground theatre” aspect of the airshows. The RED jet, with two prototype cameras on board, was in the air and heading our way and we had 48 hours to figure something out. I decided to grab all this WW1 gear and make a 10 minute war movie. Caro Cunningham went into overdrive and pulled a great crew out of thin air. Dan Hennah had 48 hours to create a battlefield with trenches, etc, I had 48 hours to write a little script, and we suddenly found ourselves shooting – for only two days. We then had to edit, do sound design, push the film through Park Road Post for colour timing, digital finishing at 4K and a sound mix. We had about five days to do that before the finished result was hand carried to NAB for screening.

I should say I have no financial involvement with RED, and received no payment. I’m sure other companies are developing similar products – in a hurry! But I will say the image quality was excellent. And these were prototype cameras. The real thing will have several stops more latitude, variable frame rates and shutter angles which we didn’t have available to us. If you shoot at 4K, but want a “film look”, then you finish at 2K and add some grain. It’s easy. It looks like film. However, if you finish and screen at 4K. the result is like shooting in 65mm, like the old epics used to do. It’s pretty exciting, and will have a major impact on indie filming – but we could see no reason why you couldn’t use these cameras for any type of movie. I’m seriously considering using RED for The Lovely Bones.

The interesting by-product was the speed at which we shot. I operated one camera, and Neill
Blomkamp the other. We did aerial dog fights with choppermounts, and a pretty big battle scene. Over the two days, we probably shot upwards of 100 set ups – a speed that would have been impossible with film. Our crew, many whom were veterans of the grueling 300-plus day LOTR shoot, had big smiles on their faces at the end of the two days. We all shook hands and said, “Why aren’t we making more films like this?” That was the biggest thing I came away with – the desire to get back to that type of fun low budget filmmaking. If I get some RED cameras, that’s one of the things I’ll be using them for, I’m sure.

Does this mean making, say, a sequel to Bad Taste during your weekends – as you’ve threatened in the past – is that much more likely then?

Whatever they run out to be, the RED shoot has really fired me up to make some smaller, quicker films.

[Casey Green]

Very Inspirational! Thanks for posting the article. It just goes to show you whats possible when people put their mind to something and get creative.

Can't wait for the coming years of Red Movies... it's gonna be great.

[Emanuel A.]

I just second that!

EDIT -- After a glance, it's quite promising especially still coming from who's coming. And on such video-style shooting convenience without compromising the film-like outcome.

[IAN SUN]

WOW, congrats Jim, I can't think of a better endorsement than that.

If Peter LOTR Jackson thinks RED makes for a faster on set work flow than film, and that finishing at 4K is equivalent to 65mm then who are we mere mortals to argue?

[Alexander Nikishin]

If it's good enough for Peter....... :biggrin:

[IAN SUN]

Jim, I sure everyone here will agree that that the excitement level boils over on the board whenever you start a new thread.
Let's see... mid month is just around the corner, more excitement ahead I'm sure

RED Dawn.:w00t:

[Post]

Wow, got to love that endorsement. Just another testament to the hard work and effort that the RED Team has put into making this exceptional high quality camera. Congrats to Jim and the team at RED

[Poi Boy]

That is what I've been waiting to hear ! gimme gimme !
Aloha
-A

[Tonaci Tran]

"If you shoot at 4K, but want a “film look”, then you finish at 2K and add some grain. It’s easy. It looks like film. However, if you finish and screen at 4K. the result is like shooting in 65mm, like the old epics used to do. "

This is why I say may film rest in peace. I still give respect to those who shoot film, however, I'm just grateful that RED exists.

[johannperry]

just woke up in the uk to this article. Nice way to start the day. :love:

[Álex Montoya]

"Shutter angles". Hmmmm... A small piece of spoiler hidden in the interview.

[Moir]

"Shutter angles". Hmmmm... A small piece of spoiler hidden in the interview.

Huh??

[PaulClements]

A great read, thanks for sharing that Jim, I'm a bit miffed that a minimum of 5 is required for a feature though hehe! :)

[Sanjin Jukic]

A great read, thanks for sharing that Jim, I'm a bit miffed that a minimum of 5 is required for a feature though hehe! :)

If you know-how you could do the best feature ever shooting with just one RED camera.

[Alexander Nikishin]

If you know-how you could do the best feature ever shooting with just one RED camera.

On a large scale feature involving one time shots, you'd definitely want 4 or so cameras.

Those 4 cameras would be key for large scale battle sequences, stunts, explosions.......etc.

Also, It's pretty much common practice for a production to adopt an A/B camera shooting sysytem.

A second unit is also common practice in order to keep the production on time or to pick up slates, landscapes, inserts. All of these situations require multiple cameras. Think A/B cameras for the first unit, and an A/possible B for the second unit as well.

Persoanlly, I only feel comfortable shooting with Cinematographers/Operators with whom I've worked with before or had the chance to see their work.

Mny producers and or directors will request a B camera and 2nd unit DP whether you agree with the choice or not. So sometimes you just havee to bite the bullet and hope for the best.

[Sanjin Jukic]

On a large scale feature involving one time shots, you'd definitely want 4 or so cameras.

Those 4 cameras would be key for large scale battle sequences, stunts, explosions.......etc.

Also, It's pretty much common practice for a production to adopt an A/B camera shooting sysytem.

A second unit is also common practice in order to keep the production on time or to pick up slates, landscapes, inserts. All of these situations require multiple cameras. Think A/B cameras for the first unit, and an A/possible B for the second unit as well.

Persoanlly, I only feel comfortable shooting with Cinematographers/Operators with whom I've worked with before or had the chance to see their work.

Mny producers and or directors will request a B camera and 2nd unit DP whether you agree with the choice or not. So sometimes you just havee to bite the bullet and hope for the best.

I was more reffering to a drama than an action movie. Drama is always cheaper to produce than action movie.

[Darwin]

Alexander, You make a good point. However you could get by with one camera and rent more cameras as needed. Another exciting possibility is useing RED's upcomming pocket camera as a B roll camera, that is to say if it matches up well.

[Karl H]

"The real thing will have several stops more lattitude"

Can this be true? The prototypes were 11.3 stops, so we'd be lookin at more like 13 stops and over.

I wouldnt get too excited until I heard it from Red personally.

Great kudos for Red though.

[Sanjin Jukic]

"The real thing will have several stops more lattitude"

Can this be true? The prototypes were 11.3 stops, so we'd be lookin at more like 13 stops and over.

I wouldnt get too excited until I heard it from Red personally.

Great kudos for Red though.

Each stop more than 11.3 stops would be great.

[Zk2007]

Great read indeed.
I would love to know how much that 10 minutes cost.

About multi camera shots, most DPs hate that because it complicates the lighting. Unless it's a big complex one time type of shot, one camera is enough.

[Stephen Gentle]

Great interview! Jackson seems really impressed.

I also would like to know the budget of that shoot.

[gbalaji]

Thank you Jim for the posting Peter's Interview.

Come on Jim you need to gear up and make RED a default Digital Cinema Camera and we are there to support you.

When can we see the real light!

[Rob Lohman]

About multi camera shots, most DPs hate that because it complicates the lighting. Unless it's a big complex one time type of shot, one camera is enough.

Don't forget about multiple units shooting etc.

[Brice Ansel]

"The real thing will have several stops more lattitude"

Can this be true? The prototypes were 11.3 stops, so we'd be lookin at more like 13 stops and over.

I wouldnt get too excited until I heard it from Red personally.

Great kudos for Red though.
Huuummmm, I think with a 12bit native raw you can get 12stops at the max or am I missing something?
Cheers

[Nick Shaw]

I think PJ may have been refering to the fact that the prototype cameras he had did not reach 11.3 stops, but the production versions are expected to do so.

[Brice Ansel]

...So lets wait and see, btw 11.3 stops and the modularity of red will make alot of dp's the hapiest in the world.

[PaulClements]

I was joking about the 5 camera thing by the way. I'm sure when Jackson shoots he'd have the crew to handle shooting 5 at once, he certainly has the post production in place for handling masses of content.

One red camera will certianly be better than using 5 crappy cameras, it might take a little longer on some occassions but I recognise it's entirely feasible.

[Shane Betts]

“Ready for takeoff” from New-Zealand magazine “ONFILM” (May 2007)
none of the “digital” look I’ve seen with some other HD cameras.

Hate to correct the great man but that's because this is a digital camera, not a bloody video camera.

One day soon all those barely souped up SD ENG cameras will be history and real digital cameras like RED will dominate, just like in the stills business. I can't wait!

[Chris Gearhart]

A/B for units one and two, and one backup camera, then all five for big action sequences.

Yum.

[RED-Tank]

Wow, nice sweet interview ! I am not a director but I love Peter's work, I am not a pro, but I love RED. Well done again Jim :D.

[Michael Schrengohst]

Don't forget about multiple units shooting etc.

Yes, we will be available for 2nd unit work, pick-ups etc....

[David Wyatt]

Just about every feature and tv drama I've ever worked on had a spare camera body, so with a seperate second unit that's four cameras already. Having said that most productions end up using their spare body as a B camera for 2 camera shoot days which seems to defeat the object...then again it's not my money ;-)

[Joel Kaye]

Whatever they run out to be, the RED shoot has really fired me up to make some smaller, quicker films.

Great. Now I'm competing with Peter Jackson for the little stuff too. Gee thanks Jim. Way to go. :sarcasm:

[RayFrisby]

I think Peter's remark about shoting at 4K and finish at 2K is the most telling
piece of info I have heard about the Red in ages.
This is exactly what we need to hear from a practitioner; sound advice, and practical realworld workflows; no fuss; thanks Peter !

As I am not an editor it would be great to have a sticky made up giving an idea of workflow options (hardware requirments, storage and monitoring options) for working and outputting in 2K for film transfer and 1K for TV Broadcast in FCPS6 on the Mac Platform.

This really would be invaluable to indi and low budget director like myself.
I am on a learning curve when it comes to the Red and workflow and have gone through so many posts on different topics I'm finding it difficult to pull all the info together to get a definitive overview of requirments. Any help would be appreciated.

[perturius]

Do you know the title of this movie and any ideas where i can see or download it ?

Thanks

[Adrian T.]

Do you know the title of this movie and any ideas where i can see or download it ?

Thanks

It's called "Crossing the Line" and an extract can be seen on http://www.red.com/gallery-video.shtml

[Joel Kaye]

"The real thing will have several stops more lattitude"

Can this be true? The prototypes were 11.3 stops, so we'd be lookin at more like 13 stops and over.

I wouldnt get too excited until I heard it from Red personally.

Great kudos for Red though.

Jackson's cameras were getting about 9 stops. The RED we get should be in the 11+ stop area. 12 is the theoretical max for a 12 bit camera as I understand it.

re: 5 cameras - you know he shot that short with only 2 cameras in 2 days... so I think that speaks volumes about what you can do with less than 5 cameras.

[zak forrest]

Jim Jannard is THE MAN

[Ben Ponce]

Getting an endorsement from Peter Jackson was one of the smartest thing you could've done Jim. It makes more people hop on board Red. Now you just have to work on that stubborn guy...what's his name? Spielberg I think...

[Ken Corben]

Now you just have to work on that stubborn guy...what's his name? Spielberg I think...

I would guess that PJ's comment that he may shoot Lovely Bones with RED will be the soft sell for Mr. Spielberg for several reasons. DreamWorks, aka, Spielberg beat out the competition to finance PJ's LB pet project for $65M. My favorite part of the deal is PJ gets $20M advance against his 20% of BOG (box office gross).

Lovely Bones:
http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=2dfdcb1e-4b2f-4aff-a007-7967759e3f9b

PJ and Spielberg have partnered to produce Tintin trilogy. The interesting point to this project, beyond the PJ signature simultaneous trilogy production technique, is that this project is slated as digital 3D using performance capture technology.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117964927.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

IMHO, the use of RED cameras is the best technical choice to shoot Tintin in 3D - it's a no brainer - size, workflow, resolution, etc - something tells me that two of the smartest guys in the business may choose the best tool for the project.

[Gregory Karydis]

thanks for posting this.

[Mardi_Gras]

Very nice, Jim. A very inspirational post.

[Don Woods]

That is very Exciting

[Corrado Silveri]

That is very very very exciting...

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

Yeah you definitely don't NEED more than one camera to film a movie, but if you were doing action it makes a *lot* of financial sense to have four or even five cameras shooting something at once. Imagine you're like all set to go with your great pyrotechnics sequence and you're spending $1 million on this one shot, you have your one camera setup, there goes the explosion... and someone left the lens cap on. haha, j/k, but the point is you can't very well say, "Yeah that was a good explosion, let's do it again though because we didn't really get it perfect."

With a lot of movies, though, there's no reason you couldn't do it with one camera. It's more a matter of wondering what would happen if you're shooting and everything is going pretty well, then all of the sudden the camera won't work. That'd be a big problem. I have just one RED on order, but my friend David has one also, and I'm intending to make him my producer on my features so we'll have use of two cameras for filming if necessary, and for what I'm doing that will be redundant for sure.

[Greg Voevodsky]

Oh my God! Tintin in 3D?!

Now you need 5 REDs per feature (for A and B units plus backup) x 3 simultaneous feature shoots x 2 (for stereo RED Eye - 3D - Ultra Ozzy Vision) = 30 RED Cameras need for a simple boy and his dog story.

Eat your heart out Lassie. Go home!

[Chris Stout]

>>>I had 48 hours to write a little script, and we suddenly found ourselves shooting.

So THAT'S what a Peter Jackson entry to the 48 hour film festival would look like.....I always wondered!

[Rocco Schult]

cool, just cool.
and indeed very independent. Nice report.

And, heard ? The RED jet... wonder if its only red or red-camo...

[Jared VanLeuven]

cool, just cool.
and indeed very independent. Nice report.

And, heard ? The RED jet... wonder if its only red or red-camo...

Last we saw, it was greyish (urban camo if you like). Who knows, maybe Jim will have her painted soon... :biggrin:

http://www.jimjannard.com/media/Life2004.jpg

[Craig Ryan]

Awesome interview; the meat and potatoes we were all waiting to read. PJ is the man I knew all along would be an early RED adoptor. It's nice to see that he himself was inspired on his own RED shoot; it's all about those creative short-thrown together-low-budget zingers that get anyones creative spirit riled up.

PJ's comment about finishing in 2k with grain and 4k DC for epics really gives us a clue to the real advantage this camera has. We looked at it as a 35mm equivalent, which technically it is in resolution...but the reality is its closer to 65 projection when you have true 4k Digital projection, and the production speed is clearly miles ahead of film. I think we have a winner. So Stevo, ready for digital yet? Maybe there should be a fake film reel attatchment to RED so Spielberg can smell the film as he shoots. :clown2:

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

Spielberg is probably the most old-school famous director there is -- doesn't he still like editing on an old Moviola? LOL, at least Lucas was joking around about that ;)

[Jason Murphy]

Michael Kahn (Spielberg's editor), last I heard, still does like to edit on a Moviola. Don't think it was a joke.

And quite frankly, there are some artistic advantages to editing on a Moviola. The main one being, since it is not random-access or non-linear, you have to physically go through each frame of film to get to the point that you want. It forces you to pay attention to all of the footage that's been shot, and not summarily dismiss or skip through them with a mouse click. It also forces you to deal with the sequential nature of film. It's an excellent discipline, and more than one editor has made a major artistic breakthrough while editing a film because of this. Sure, it's slower and more cumbersome, but slowing down and making more deliberate edits is in most cases an artistically good thing rather than a bad thing.

[Nick Shaw]

I would say that in many ways editing on a Moviola is pretty non-linear. In fact the way non-linear editing systems work is based on the film concept of trim bins (which effectively are random access.) And a time-line is kind of like a strip of film. Editing on film is certainly way more non-linear than editing on tape.

[feb31films]

I would say that in many ways editing on a Moviola is pretty non-linear. In fact the way non-linear editing systems work is based on the film concept of trim bins (which effectively are random access.) And a time-line is kind of like a strip of film. Editing on film is certainly way more non-linear than editing on tape.

Well said, Nick Shaw. For those of us editors who were around at the dawn of computer based editing (it wasn't THAT long ago!) that's exactly what got us excited about the technology. It was freedom from the shackles of linear based tape editing (A/B Roll edits) and a return to a more film style approach of trim bins (now clip bins) and being able to easily change sequences. Computer based editing's big advantage (over film cutting) was that it was non-destructive. But, it's interesting to remember that until computer processing power really started taking off, editing on film was still FASTER than editing with a computer. Of course, that's all changed now! And MOST of us editors couldn't be happier.

[Jason Murphy]

I would say that in many ways editing on a Moviola is pretty non-linear. In fact the way non-linear editing systems work is based on the film concept of trim bins (which effectively are random access.) And a time-line is kind of like a strip of film. Editing on film is certainly way more non-linear than editing on tape.

Point well made, Nick. I misspoke by saying non-linear. I meant that film isn't a random-access medium, even with the use of trim bins (even though they do provide for fast access).

And just to clarify, I wasn't trying to make the Luddite argument that editing on film is better, but just that there are some features to working directly with film that, while more cumbersome than editing on a Mac Pro (or a laptop), can end up being artistically advantageous. Of course, the ability to try any number of things out in a non-destructive environment is an unbelievably huge advantage as well (and just for the record, yes, I edit almost everything on my Mac, and prefer it to cutting film for almost every project that I've worked on).

[Ramesh Jai]

RED is bringing passion back into film making...atleast for moi!

[Paolo Tinari]

Some threads excite me, some depress me, Jonathan posts irritate me....
This forum is my emotional roller coaster.
Anyway, I hope many things.

[Leo Ticheli]

I don't know how many old dogs like me are around this forum, but actually film editing is totally non-linear and random access. It's just a royal pain in the...

When I first moved to Avid from my Steenbeck, the biggest drawback was that I couldn't glance at a clip in the bin and know how long it was by the physical length of the film strip!

I didn't like the feel of running the footage via mouse or keyboard either, so Avid introduced at "Steenbeck" controller to give us the familiar feel. I don't remember now, but I believe it was actually manufactured by Steenbeck!

I don't believe many were sold; we very quickly embraced the new way of doing things and it was pretty wonderful even though, on the first Avids you could barely see the lips move, much less lip sync with it.

Jobs that took days to edit on film can now be accomplished in hours, and, in my opinion, better. We're able to quickly explore more options.

One interesting note, cutting film does force you to do more noodle work and to become more deliberate and thoughtful about telling the story; you develop quite a sense about it. For example, you couldn't preview dissolves, you just marked an "X" the length of the dissolve on the film, but when it ran through the viewer, you could actually "see" the dissolve in your mind.

Things change.

I'm glad!

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo

[Leo Ticheli]

How I do love Google! Here's the Steenbeck controller:

http://www.dovebid.com/assets/display.asp?ItemID=tbd335005

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo

[Bill Anderson]

Cutting on film, like painting on fresh plaster before it dries, might also inhibit creativity, investigation, and so forth. It's admirable in some ways that Spielberg chooses to continue to edit on film (if this is indeed the case). But there is no reason that non linear digital editing technology should turn a passionate eye into a sloppy or uncaring thing. The care to understand and acknowledge individual frames I think begins before we sit down to edit. And I think, over time, now that we have the tools, filmmakers will be as comfortable in the editing room as any editor has ever been. Many say that the two skills are not necessarily linked, but I think that's a pretty bold statement when one considers it's modeled on past associations between the filmmaker and editor; practical associations born in a period very different from these times. Having been a fine art photographer for twenty five years or so I have known printers who weren't the best photographers, but I've never known a great, or even decent, photographer to be a poor printer. Analogies can be problematic though.
Perhaps tools like moviolas might have more efficiently weeded out the dabblers- it's hard to say since moviolas were part of a more elitist type of technology and denied many an opportunity.

I look forward to hearing new, fresh voices; ones that will add to the dimension of the art of filmmaking. I say add, and not replace or excel, because there is no replacing masterworks. Each to his or her own.

[Greg Voevodsky]

I miss film about as much as the cost. I'll take $1 a gig any day for my digital cinematography over a $1 a foot of 35mm film.

Oh, and don't forget the hungry Moviolas. They would love to eat film and tear the sprocket holes to death - not to mention, the artistic beauty of a strip of splice tape every few seconds.

[Robert Sanders]

I miss film about as much as the cost. I'll take $1 a gig any day for my digital cinematography over a $1 a foot of 35mm film.

Oh, and don't forget the hungry Moviolas. They would love to eat film and tear the sprocket holes to death - not to mention, the artistic beauty of a strip of splice tape every few seconds.

And then running your neg through yet another one-light process to get new workprint material because you need to completely rethink your edit and the old print won't get through a projector without falling apart because there's too much tape holding it together.

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

Yeah I'm really glad I didn't come along like 30 or 40 years ago, because I'm not sure I really would have gotten into film. I probably would have stuck with what my dad does, real estate, because filmmaking is a big enough challenge without having to deal with shooting a bunch of rolls of film and editing on ancient machines, etc. I knew years ago when I wanted to get into the film industry that it was my goal never to touch film, but I wasn't sure quite how because at that time it seemed more like if you wanted professional quality you either needed a few hundred thousand for the Sony F900 or you needed to shoot on film.

Now RED has changed everything.

[Keith Nealy]

Congrats, Jim... It doesn't get much better than this.

Aloha,

Keith

[Alexander Nikishin]

Yeah I'm really glad I didn't come along like 30 or 40 years ago, because I'm not sure I really would have gotten into film. I probably would have stuck with what my dad does, real estate, because filmmaking is a big enough challenge without having to deal with shooting a bunch of rolls of film and editing on ancient machines, etc.

Changing a mag only takes a minute, not very time consuming or difficult if you enjoy your job and the film making process....

And as far as editing goes, that's not your job anyway! Let the editor deal with the specifics and tools used to edit, you just worry about the cuts, not the tools used to cut.


I knew years ago when I wanted to get into the film industry that it was my goal never to touch film,

Why? Really, if you haven't ever shot on film then where's the bias toward digital coming from?

I for one LOVE film. You can't argue that film isn't absolutely beautful when shot right. After all, YOU grew up watching and loving FILMS!

Name some of your favorite movies, or movies that motivated you to attempt a career in the motion picture industry, guess what, they've ALL or atleast very many of them have been shot on FILM.

The only real problem with film is its initial cost and post costs.


but I wasn't sure quite how because at that time it seemed more like if you wanted professional quality you either needed a few hundred thousand for the Sony F900 or you needed to shoot on film.

Now RED has changed everything.

The F900 IMHO looks hardly like film, if you want the look of film.....shoot film, if you enjoy the beauty and clarity of 4k RED, then shoot RED, just don't go around making neive comments about tools you've never even used, it makes you sound like a fresh out of college film school noob.

[John K]

Yeah you definitely don't NEED more than one camera to film a movie, but if you were doing action it makes a *lot* of financial sense to have four or even five cameras shooting something at once. Imagine you're like all set to go with your great pyrotechnics sequence and you're spending $1 million on this one shot, you have your one camera setup, there goes the explosion... and someone left the lens cap on. haha, j/k, but the point is you can't very well say, "Yeah that was a good explosion, let's do it again though because we didn't really get it perfect."


Actually it's normal practice to round up as many cameras as you can get your hands on for "when all the dynamite goes off" scenes. Most of those huge rolling explosions you see in movies, that seem to go on forever, are actually all over in a couple of seconds. By having multiple over-cranked cameras shooting from all sorts of different angles they can stitch all the footage together so that it looks like multiple explosions.

Older cameras like the Arri 2C and Arri 3 are popular for this, because apart from being built like brick sh!thouses, their replacement cost isn't so high if something goes wrong. Also you can switch them on by a simple 2-wire remote control cable, and they don't draw any battery power in standby. This is very important because once all the explosives are in place, nobody is allowed near the set. A lot of newer model cameras have to be left switched on standby for the remote control to work. If the pyro crew spend several hours setting up, the camera batteries can go dead before the shooting starts, and you can't go up there to change them!

I wonder if the RED will have a "hibernate" mode like my Compaq laptop, where you can switch it completely off, and have it come back on with exactly the same setup conditions, rather than simply re-booting to a default condition.

[Jaime Vallés]

Great interview. Thanks for posting this. It feels really good knowing that he gave a glowing review to my future camera!

[Tom Lowe]

haha, AWESOME interview.

[JasonAvalos]

there is a god and he decided to dabble in a thing called RED! = ) thank you PETER JACKSON

[Michel Hafner]

The only real problem with film is its initial cost and post costs.

And that it degrades with each copying step and during traditional projection. Copy you must and mechanically project you must unless you go all digital after scanning the negative.

[Daniel Reichenbach]

Had a long discussion today with a postproduction house owner in Switzerland. He is convinced that:

1. Peter Jackson and Soderbergh are payed by RED in the millions to shoot with RED
2. RED don't deliver real 4K
3. I won't get my RED 222 end of october (he bet a beer on that)

And the best: He is a fresh reservation holder

RED realy shake up the world of filmmakers. Don't matters what's the truth, RED forces to engage in discussions about the future film technologies and behaviors between traditional film and digital cinema.

[Joel Kaye]

1. Peter Jackson and Soderbergh are payed by RED in the millions to shoot with RED
2. RED don't deliver real 4K
3. I won't get my RED 222 end of october (he bet a beer on that)


1) If they did pay to get 'em to shoot the cameras it would be smart business. Not saying they did - but I sure wouldn't hold it against them. Kodak is falling all over themselves to give away film to up and coming filmmakers. Does film suck because of that?

2) Based on the resolution side by sides so far it looks like 35mm isn't delivering RED resolution. 4K or not is almost irrelevant when you consider that point.

3) You can still toast RED on the 31st regardless of who's paying.

[Jannard]

Had a long discussion today with a postproduction house owner in Switzerland. He is convinced that:

1. Peter Jackson and Soderbergh are payed by RED in the millions to shoot with RED
2. RED don't deliver real 4K
3. I won't get my RED 222 end of october (he bet a beer on that)

And the best: He is a fresh reservation holder

RED realy shake up the world of filmmakers. Don't matters what's the truth, RED forces to engage in discussions about the future film technologies and behaviors between traditional film and digital cinema.

Tell your buddy in Switz that it is time for his medication.

We don't pay Peter Jackson or Steven Soderbergh anything to shoot RED.
Define "real 4k". Whatever the definition he chooses, RED has more than film. So what is his point?
222 will be close. If you lose the bet, I'll pay for the beer.

Jim

[Sean]

Tell your buddy in Switz that it is time for his medication.

We don't pay Peter Jackson or Steven Soderbergh anything to shoot RED.
Define "real 4k". Whatever the definition he chooses, RED has more than film. So what is his point?
222 will be close. If you lose the bet, I'll pay for the beer.

Jim

Love it. The secret to Jim Jannard's success? He's an original.

Maybe there's hope for me yet.

[Daniel Reichenbach]

Tell your buddy in Switz that it is time for his medication.

We don't pay Peter Jackson or Steven Soderbergh anything to shoot RED.
Define "real 4k". Whatever the definition he chooses, RED has more than film. So what is his point?
222 will be close. If you lose the bet, I'll pay for the beer.

Jim

I like your style, Jim. Thanks.

[Sanjin Jukic]

Jim is a charming businessman.

[donatello b]

what happens to all those sony , panasonic etc sales /engineers that swore it was not possible , told persons on floor at NAB 2006 ( some still in 2007) RED is never going to happen . ...probably told their higher ups it ain't ever going to come to market and when it does it would never be Red building it etc ...

seems the CEO's or head of those division has got to be wondering what kind of persons they have working for him/her ??? if i had a engineer working for me that swore up & down it ain't gonna happen and then i look at today i'd be calling for a meeting ... would i take the persons advice in the future ??? or would it be time to clean house ???

[Finner]

Had a long discussion today with a postproduction house owner in Switzerland. He is convinced that:

1. Peter Jackson and Soderbergh are payed by RED in the millions to shoot with RED


Hell Jim I'll cut you a great deal and shoot a red for 100-grand.

Where do people get this shit? Sure it may be a good hype bussiness plan but if you have a good product you don't have to pay anyone anything. If you have a crappy product no matter how much you pay a figure head to hype it the truth would come out real fast after it is released. In the end it would be a bad bussiness decision and what bad bussiness decisions have you seen Jim make.

[Gavin Greenwalt]

yeah because Peter Jackson is short on cash. :D

[number6]

Can't believe I missed this thread the first time around. Thanks JasonAvalos for resurrecting it.

[El_Mariachi94]

Wow, Neill Blomkamp, the director of the future Halo movie shot with the Red. I wonder if he'll shoot Halo with it.