Thinking about the Red for an Outdoor/Lifestyle show

[Justin Talley]

I'm Producing an Outdoor/Lifestyle show that also has a still photography HD photography focus. Both myself and the creator of the show have Photography/Cinematography backgrounds, and I'm being courted heavily by some rental houses to go with the Red for the program. I'm very interested, and I'm currently trying to set up a test with the camera, but I'd like some input about integrating the camera into a multi format, multi cam shoot. Are there any workflow considerations when doing lots of format changes?

I thank any and all for their input!

[Steve Gibby]

ProfNoxin,

Outdoor and lifestyle television production can, and is being done with RED ONE. Our production group is currently in production on several documentaries in the nature and adventure travel genres.

For our programs we're using seven RED ONE cameras, one Sony HDC1500 (in a gimbal mount), one Sony F900R, and two Sony EX1. The Sony's are naturally shooting 1080p. With the REDs we're shooting primarily 4k but also some 3k for higher frame rates. Frame rates we're using vary from 23.98 to 59.94 depending on the subject matter and the motion of it.

For longform programming production with RED ONE and other cameras involved, data management, backup, and logging is critical. Each day when the shooting finishes, the rest of the work starts: cleaning equipment, charging batteries, checking dailies, and backing up the RED r3d files.

As we approached our productions we talked at length with our editors about their specific needs, considered the Producer's Guidelines for the networks our programs will air on, and then made a master grid chart mapping the formats and frame rates we wanted each camera type to shoot.

Our editing is via Final Cut Pro and SCRATCH.

If you go with RED, you'll also want to have an experienced RED data wrangler with you on your crew who knows how to process RED files quickly and efficiently. If your field crews are real small, one of your team will need to spend the time to fill that data wrangler role. Don't underestimate how important data management is on a RED shoot.

Beyond the above, I'd suggest you look through this EFP/ENG forum, where you'll find a lot of useful info for what you're trying to do. I'd also read as much as you can in the Workflow forum, and use the RED User search tool to keyword search some of the targeted questions you may have.

There is a learning curve involved with beginning to use RED. Plan on taking some time for that.

We've been shooting with our RED ONE cameras for eight months now. The results have been excellent.

Hope this info helps get you started...

[Noah Kadner]

It's certainly a bit more cumbersome to setup with and shoot RED than your average shouldered ENG camera. But the results in terms of imagery are well worth it, IMHO. A test to see if the workflow is compatible with your style of shooting is a must though.

Noah

[Justin Talley]

Thank you very much for the replies. I'm still looking for my A camera, but it's nice to know that people are employing the Red in the outdoors world.