Originally Posted by
Shawn Nelson
I managed to sneak in through a side door half an hour early, though it didn't do me any good, as Red had two enormous bodyguards (think pop star bodybuards) standing at the front of the booth. So I stood a few feet from the red rope waiting. With T- 10 minutes they passed out the pricing brochures. Wow! Mostly what we've known, except obviously prime lenses and the new 18-50mm lens.
I was in the first batch to see the new Peter Jackson short film projected on the 4k projector. Wow!! Not wow like "oh hey, that's cool" but more of a "f*ck me!" sorta wow. It's a good short film, WWI in the trenches, in the air, explosions, etc. It's beyond gorgeous and clean. It's all outdoors and just looks fantastic!! :-) After I got out I saw this man who looked in his late fourties looking very distraught, I mean the way a 13 year old looks immediately after getting dumped. This guy looked important, nice suit, etc. Then...I glanced down at his badge...ARRI. Hahahaha. That's right buddy, it's real! He had a friend nearby, a DP, and she was just glowing about the Red footage and his lip literally was quivering with nervousness and he tried to smile. :-)
Outside I shook Jim's hand and congratulated him. He later said he was glad to meet me finally and I thanked him for coming here on Red so often. I told him I'd bring the whiskey by later :-). I then walked over to a Red unit they have set up and Jarred was gracious and gave me a walk through. (I also passed along the message from my wife that she hates RedUser and DVXUser and he howled with laughter). As for the lens, the 18-50mm is NOT a replacement for the 18-85mm. However, any zoom reserve holders can transfer their reservation over to the 18-50mm. The advantages are 1) cost, the new 18-50mm is only $6500, 2) availability: this new lens is available with your Red and the 18-85 is not available any time zoom and 3) macro!! It can focus down to 8". Jarred stuck his hand in front ofthe camera and focused down to the ridges of his thumb print!! Oh yeah :-) As for me, I'll definitely be switching to this. Now what do I do with my Nikkor primes? Oh well :-)
I asked Jarred if Cooke made the Red lens and he started giggling and smiling then said "Red made it". Sure... lol, so take that for what you will.
Then I meandered over and checked out the LCD and the EVF. Okay guys, I was a little unsure between the two but now there's no comparison. GET THE EVF!! It's beautiful, gorgeous and very, very pro looking/feeling. The LCD requires you to be dead on to see it right, the colors shift a lot if you stand to the side. So if you go with the LCD, expect only one person at a time to get a decent view. But forget that, get the EVF :-).
I was able to actually play with a live Red myself using the EVF, the new 18-50mm lens and an Arri follow focus! Guys, it really is all that. I was able to easily focus between 4 different people in the booth. The images were sexy as hell.
I then talked with Mike Curtis, great guy. He was super friendly and started walking me through work flow on the Red. You can dial in your Red settings on RedCine then transfer them via cf card to the Red! I then saw Evin give a great presenation on RedCine workflow. One disappointment is that FCP 6 will NOT ship with native Redcode support, that will come sometime later.
I'm now sporting the "Red Reservation Holder" badge they gave me. It's my badge of honor! I'll be going by the booth again tomorrow to give Jim his whiskey I brought (I didn't want to bring it first day, too crowded). Well, I'll post again tomorrow with my second adventure.
-Shawn
