Red worth shooting with without a big post budget?

[omar robles]

So i am still looking into shooting my project with the red. However someone advised me that unless i have the money for post production (such as plaster city) to get the best image out of the red its not even worth shooting with it. I spoke to someone who said that they edit and color correct their red footage on their desktop computers. And they seem content with their work.

So who is right in this? I have both a mac book pro and a mac pro desktop. :skep:

[Stephen Gentle]

So i am still looking into shooting my project with the red. However someone advised me that unless i have the money for post production (such as plaster city) to get the best image out of the red its not even worth shooting with it. I spoke to someone who said that they edit and color correct their red footage on their desktop computers. And they seem content with their work.

So who is right in this? I have both a mac book pro and a mac pro desktop. :skep:

The RED workflows with Final Cut Studio and Adobe CS4 have improved to the point where you should be able to do it without too much trouble. I'd be more concerned about lighting and shooting the piece well enough to get a really good image...

[Ben Holmes]

Add a copy of final cut studio, and you have all you need to edit and colour your footage. The process is pretty easy, and all explained by the whitepaper you get with the RED FCS installer.

It doesn't make you an editor or a colourist though.

[Dan Hudgins]

It costs no more to post a RED project than anything else frame based for the most part, all you need is some harddisks to put the output frames on.

My DI system is freeish for RED users or other filmmakers, and can produce good results all output to 48bpp TIF files ready for the film recorder... It also does a good job of sound mixing and color correction, as well as editing etc.

Maybe not as fast as compressed systems, but no compression artifacts after you output the TIF from REDCINE.

[Mark Allen]

I think DV is a lot easier to post. :)

Okay I'm joking - my point being, it really depends what your comparing. Film is a lot more difficult. I don't think anything that has the quality (or near the quality) of the RED is any easier. Sometimes having options makes things seem harder.

[Noah Kadner]

Well it doesn't color correct itself but the tools themselves are completely affordable- as affordable as working with any prosumer HD camera.

Noah

[Gunleik Groven]

The answer depends...
The tools to get a good/decent result are cheap. Inclusive basic hardware.
But you'll have to spend some time on understanding the format and the tools.
If you do, it may not be hard.
And it can well be cheap.

[Jeff Dunant]

I just edited a short on a Two Intel Xeon 2.6ghrz processors, 2 gigs of RAM, and Windows Vista 32-bit, and Adobe CS4. Was it painful? Extremely. Did it work in the end? Absolutely! As far as color correction goes, I found Color Finesse bundled with CS4 to be adequate, and if you are using FCP then you don't really have anything to be worried about.

[Casey Schendel]

If your doing everything yourself the only extra cost would really be hard drive's/raid's for your footage.

[Graeme Nattress]

I shot my daughter Colette's first steps on the RED, in 4k. I guess I could have got out the little PDX10 DV camera instead as the video was just destined for my facebook page.

I enlisted elder daughter Megan's help in coaxing Colette towards the camera. We got the shot, popped the CF card into the mac, straight into FCP, a quick edit, then into Color, back to FCP, then scaled down and compressed for the web.

Ok, but I'll tell you this. I would have still been capturing the DV from tape by the time it was uploaded on facebook. I'd have had to mark out, rewind, mark in, capture in real time just to get it on the timeline. Copying a CF card is so much quicker, and so less user-intensive.

I'd seriously look at a RED Rocket. Think of it as a fraction of the cost of a SR deck :-)

Graeme

[jimhare]

Good advice. A Red Rocket changes everything. You can quickly create offline or online files and completely ignore other workflows. That's what I do and I work quickly, my stuff looks great, and I do it all by myself.

Takes all the heartache out of the equation. Just add it to the cost, you will still be six figures ahead of the closest competition!

[Mark Phelan]

So i am still looking into shooting my project with the red. However someone advised me that unless i have the money for post production (such as plaster city) to get the best image out of the red its not even worth shooting with it. I spoke to someone who said that they edit and color correct their red footage on their desktop computers. And they seem content with their work.

So who is right in this? I have both a mac book pro and a mac pro desktop. :skep:

It's not hard at all, so don't pay attention to your first source. There are several methods of workflow and the one I have used for the past year is great. I'll even say it's better now with Snow Leopard and the color changes it brought. I'm just using RedAlert and Final Cut Studio and it's working fine. I can't output 4K, but I can output 2K and that is plenty for my needs at present. Like Graeme said, a Red Rocket would be nice, and I'll get one as soon as funds permit. Not having it has not been a problem yet, but I'm not a big post house either.

[Reinhold R.]

So i am still looking into shooting my project with the red. However someone advised me that unless i have the money for post production (such as plaster city) to get the best image out of the red its not even worth shooting with it. I spoke to someone who said that they edit and color correct their red footage on their desktop computers. And they seem content with their work.

So who is right in this? I have both a mac book pro and a mac pro desktop. :skep:

Post with the RED One is as easy as (or as hard as, as some might suggest) working with most other prosumer/professional cameras. You don't need any special hardware except for maybe a fast raid system and a RED Rocket (which are both optional). The weakest link (aside from the person in front of the computer) in most home-grown post production suits imho is the monitor which should be hardware calibrateable (is that a word?) or at least software calibrateable if you can't afford a professional reference video monitor.

Cheers,
-Reinhold

[david_winters]

As a production company we turn around a lot of new titles every month. We transitioned from 100% DVCPRO50/HD and HDCAM to mostly Red. Our turn around time, labor, cost is equal or less than the previous tape based workflows.

[BradWright]

As a production company we turn around a lot of new titles every month. We transitioned from 100% DVCPRO50/HD and HDCAM to mostly Red. Our turn around time, labor, cost is equal or less than the previous tape based workflows.

Wow! That should make Sony and Panasonic nervous. I can't wait for fixed lens Scarlets.

[Felix K.]

I shot my daughter Colette's first steps on the RED, in 4k. [...] I would have still been capturing the DV from tape by the time it was uploaded on facebook.
Graeme


Gosh, seem like she started of with a marathon. How long did you shoot? :001_cool:

Congratulations to you and her of course! :)

[Gunleik Groven]

If you shoot it like video (redspace, auto WB etc) and use the cam-proxies in FCP studio, the turnaround is amazingly short (much quicker than P2 or XDCAM) and the results eternally more satisfying than the mentioned formats.

If you shoot it like film (shoot for the native sensor, onelight to log/high bitrate rgb-"whatever" or full.bitret lin-whatever), grade and post like film, you'll have spent more time and money, but you can output to DCP/film or high-end TV with great results.

Just choose which path you need to follow for the particular project...

Flexibility is the strong- and the weak point of RED.

But it doesn't need to be expensive...

[Duncan Hill]

I think a lot of people have blown the post work on Red out of proportion. Color correcting is important no matter what camera you're using. You need a colorist that knows their stuff. If anything, Red has made beautiful images and striking resolution more attainable for people on a budget.

[James Press]

I agree with everyone's posts here. It's all not only possible to do it on a basic system, you can, and people are, achieving superb results.

I would just also add that by shooting on red you are future proofing your project-- even if (for whatever reason) your attempts to do it yourself (somehow??) are not acceptable, you can easily give the raw material to someone else (whether a small, independent operator (like yourself) or a bigger organisation (like Plaster City)) to finish, and they will be able to achieve the maximum your material has to offer.