Are any of the major news or Broadcast Production facilities looking at the RED

[johnnydiesel]

Hey All,
I posted this question on the RED user main forum and was slammed by the "FILM" lovers of the world. I have plenty of film experience, but I now work for a cable company and am looking to justify a RED to my Management. I know I can't get one this year, I need to justify it for next years purchasing.
For some reason my uppers like to follow the leader, so if I can tell them that Time Warner, ABC, CBS, NBC are using this camera, or hire those who own or will own this camera that will make my job easier.
I have done some of the research to back up why I want the RED, and another producer has filled in the blanks as he understands the workflow of the camera better that I. We work in a large market with over 3,000,000 subscribers. It's a local market, but we believe local doesn't have to look local and we have clients coming back to us with great success in the campaigns we have produced both in HD and SD. We need to be HD compliant by 2009 and I don't want to be limited to the Vari-cam of today or have to wait for "the same" RED technology that is at least two years away with the others.
So I closing, I have been slammed enough by the "FILM" Guys (of which I was until a year and a half ago) I just need a little help in convincing the Number Crunchers who sign the checks why this camera is the way to go.
And to Gibby,
Thank you this forum, Just because we don't use a crew of over 50 or have budgets under $55,000 does not mean, the cable industry isn't worthy of having a camera that will speed up workflow on over 600 commercials per year.
Thanks
Johnnydiesel

[number6]

Great post... wish I could help, but I have no expertise.

[Steve Gibby]

Johnny,

I understand your dilemna. I work in three industries: television, film, still photo. I also work in multiple genres and sub-genres within those industries. Sometimes media convergence is frustrating for sure. When traditionally separate industries converge (or sometimes collide), there is bound to be traditionalism, protectionism, elitism, and bias. Progress and change are not exactly easy for most workers to swallow. We all get in a comfort zone and with everything would remain the same within it. Technology progresses, and the motion media industry straddles the respect for the aesthetics of the past, overlaid by the technology of the present, and pointing to the tech of the future.

Broadcast and cable networks, except HD Net, have not come forward and specifically stated that they are adopting RED One and RED lenses/accessories for their production needs. That said, keep in mind this February 2007 statement of Ted Schilowitz when I interviewed him for a magazine article I was writing recently:

“If you took a world wide poll on the most influential filmmakers, producers, directors, production companies, and asked them what is the camera they have the most interest in, and do they have reservations on that camera, it would be quite a long list. I won’t break confidences by revealing names, but if you’ve gone to the movies or watched any episodic television in the past year, you have definitely seen their work there, and a lot of them are standing by to use RED on their next project.” – Ted Schiliwitz

RED One is positioned first as a D-cinema camera, and thus the beta testing by the likes of Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, etc. But Rodney Charters recently tested a RED One prototype for use on a high-profile broadcast network episodic television series (“24”). Features are a drop in the bucket in terms of number of productions, when compared to the vast numbers of EFP productions worldwide. RED One is a D-cinema camera system, but far and away its largest market is the broad spectrum of EFP productions each year worldwide.

I have contributed several hundred EFP productions that aired on 12 different broadcast and cable networks. I’m in close communications with those networks, and I have multiple series packaging proposals, and contract production deals on the table with several of them – at the network level. A huge percentage of the total programming you see on broadcast and cable network is produced by independent packagers and independent self-syndicators. Networks publish Producer’s Guidelines with technical parameters of acquisition formats/resolutions, delivered master specs, etc - and these must be followed. That siad, many networks are now re-writing their Producer's Guidelines to include RED One as approved acquisition equipment - and their competition will obviously follow when they get around to it.

Due to NDA, for the same reason that Ted couldn’t name exact entities in his statement above, I can’t give you the exact broadcast and cable networks I deal with who are adopting RED or interested in doing so, but I can say that I’ve had absolutely no negative feedback about my company’s intended use of RED for our upcoming projects, in fact the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. As I outlined in my “EFP/ENG Explanations” sticky on this forum, the RED One camera system is highly-suited for non-hardlined EFP production, reasonable well suited for hardlined EFP, but has only limited application for ENG. Now, if you take those EFP definitions I gave in the my sticky post, and simply overlay them on any particular broadcast or cable network, then you can deduce the logical networks, and portions of their programming, that will be good candidates for RED One system adoption. Very shortly when RED One and it’s lenses and accessories start to ship, I’m sure you’ll see a plethora of trade magazine articles featuring broadcast and cable television networks, and their packagers/self-syndicators, who are using RED One camera systems for series and one-off programs.

That’s the most specific info I can give you Johnny. If executives in your organization have their ear to the ground, and closely analyze what I’ve stated above and in my EFP/ENG for RED sticky, they can draw their own conclusions on RED’s future in the EFP production industry.

Hope this helps…

[Craig Bowman]

If it helps at all you might say:

Craig Bowman Corp, (CBC)
All Bowman Corp, (ABC)
National Bowman Corp, (NBC)
British Bowman Corp (BBC)
Craig's Broadcasting System (CBS)
Public Bowman Stations (PBS)

have all got a reservation!

(Now if I could just do something about Fox!)

[Sam Druckerman]

LOL!!!

If it helps at all you might say:

Craig Bowman Corp, (CBC)
All Bowman Corp, (ABC)
National Bowman Corp, (NBC)
British Bowman Corp (BBC)
Craig's Broadcasting Corp (CBS)
Public Bowman Stations (PBS)

have all got a reservation!

(Now if I could just do something about Fox!)

[deepfreezevideo]

I fail to see why protectionism and general huffiness should abound at all because RED is fulfilling its aim, to wit:
"providing a cost efficient 2K/4K camera at a heretofore unheard of price which will leverage all levels of digital acquisition."

Said price all told is in line with "ancient" BetaCam outfits well stocked and accessorized.

What's the big hairy deal? You're getting more camera dollar for dollar and pound for pound than was technically feasible prior to today.

As a recovering analog dinosaur making his way in a digital world I find this a lot more comforting than I found the overnight depreciation of my three tube cameras due to the arrival of the Sony DXC-3000.

If electronic film production is to be a world where paradigm shifts occur as frequently as strippers on Howard Stern and every year is a decade, at least let those paradigm shifts be less painful. A RED is within the reach pricewise of any serious filmmaker with a solid business plan.

That's how it should be.

JeffH in Occupied TX

[number6]

JeffH in Occupied TX

:shiftyph34r: There's a meeting of the underground at the usual place. BYOB:shiftyph34r:

[Petr Dvorak]

Maybe Mark Cuban will help you:

HD Net Makes 4K Plans
Media entrepreneur Mark Cuban, founder of HDNet says the hi-def network will eventually go all 4K with a mix of 3D. Cuban, the co-founder of HDNet, said the 4K cameras from Red Digital Cinema have been ordered, and plans for field tests are under way. ...

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0092/t.6046.html

[number6]

Maybe Mark Cuban will help you:

HD Net Makes 4K Plans
Media entrepreneur Mark Cuban, founder of HDNet says the hi-def network will eventually go all 4K with a mix of 3D. Cuban, the co-founder of HDNet, said the 4K cameras from Red Digital Cinema have been ordered, and plans for field tests are under way. ...

http://www.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0092/t.6046.html

Hah! yeah, he's sort of an underground guy... at least NBA referees probably think he is some kinda terrorista or something.

Can't be all bad... if he's a RED reservist, then he's one of us.

[Simon Dunne]

I know for a fact the BBC R&D dept. has an order and will be getting their hands on one soonish for testing and evaluation. One of the first things they'll be doing is giving it to their Colorimetric expert, who's top notch at what he does. I'll let you know when the white paper get's published with his results. On the strength of these results, the company i work for (Global TV network based UK/US/TK) will also be looking at these cameras for our upgrade to HD.

This camera is making alot of waves not only in film, but TV circles too,

Simon :matrix: