Red Scarlet X #316 "Skully"

[Peter Mosiman]

there seems to be many Scarlet and Epic shooters in LA, so maybe you guys could cook something nice since the internet audience is really "hungry" for Scarlet content!

I'd love to be apart of something like this Phil. Just let me know when and where!

[Phil Holland]

First, Phil, can't thank you enough for all these helpful, detailed posts. You could almost write a book with this- think about it, many Scarlet users (even Epic!) would buy it for sure.

I know you're doing this on your free time over your busy schedule, but, for sharing sake, do you think you can accept a small "challenge?" Can you just go out and try to do a small short just at night, natural lighting, with footage ranging from ISO 800 to f ISO 12800 - denoised, sharpened, etc with a 1.2 or 1.4 lens- a bit like "Vincent Laforet Productions" to share with us? No artificial lighting- ok, one or 2 portable LEDS :) - shot in a "Dogma"/Verité style? Sebastian from Cinema 5D shot a beautiful natural day light short, how about pulling something like this but at night on your beautiful LA setting? Just to see how far one can get away with it. I challenge you because Your stills look absolutely stunning and there seems to be many Scarlet and Epic shooters in LA, so maybe you guys could cook something nice since the internet audience is really "hungry" for Scarlet content! Maybe someone could help you with the post-production side, since it seems like it will be the most time consuming part?

Just asking, Phil! What you've done so far has been, like I said, a must read and a very important ressource for upcoming redusers!

What's our budget? :) Much of that "Hollywood Night" video was ISO 800-6400, with only the cityscapes being ISO 320 and 640. When I'm in Austin next week I'll see if I can put something like that together. Maybe when I'm back in LA. Depends on timing.

I'd love to be apart of something like this Phil. Just let me know when and where!

I think around February, once more people have their cameras, it would real cool to have a big Scarlet meet up. I have a space for this. It could be fun. Then again Red has Red Days occasionally and I'm sure they'll have at least one event this year. I'll have to bounce this around in my noggin for a bit and see what others would be interested in.

[Mike Halper]

I'd be open to joining the shoot, even just to help out if I don't have my Scarlet yet. Let me know please.

[Ben A.]

Hey Phil,

Do you ever work with Syntheyes and 3D tracking? Im dying to get my Lcd and SH so I can shoot something to track with my steadicam. Oh and I bet Green screen is going to be ridiculously easy vs. HVX footage which was that much easier to key than the DVX!

Has there been any advances in making spherical maps in the last 6 years. I played with a mirrored gazing ball with my canon 10D, but I gave up real quick, lol.

I have been dreaming of shooting over cranked to help with 3d tracking, then speeding it up to normal. I bet I could get amazing tracks with bouncy footage at >48fps... but test test test.

Btw, are you using any LTO's to back up to?

[Armando Barker]

Incredible post.

I'm also in LA. While I don't have a Scarlet yet, I'd love to help out in any way at this potential Scarlet Mexican Standoff.

[Sergio Perez]

Please do it, Phil :)

[Phil Holland]

Hey Phil,

Do you ever work with Syntheyes and 3D tracking? Im dying to get my Lcd and SH so I can shoot something to track with my steadicam. Oh and I bet Green screen is going to be ridiculously easy vs. HVX footage which was that much easier to key than the DVX!

Has there been any advances in making spherical maps in the last 6 years. I played with a mirrored gazing ball with my canon 10D, but I gave up real quick, lol.

I have been dreaming of shooting over cranked to help with 3d tracking, then speeding it up to normal. I bet I could get amazing tracks with bouncy footage at >48fps... but test test test.

Btw, are you using any LTO's to back up to?

Hi Ben. I haven't used Syntheyes yet, but I've seen it in action. I have experience with two studios proprietary 3D tracking software packages though. Without overcranking the higher resolution of the Red versus HVX/DVX/HDSLRs will assist you greatly for all your tracking needs. Slow motion can certainly help out if you're getting crazy with the camera.

The increased resolution and color depth makes keying a breeze. Especially if you're coming from the HVX. Just remember to light your green screen/blue screens properly and it's a fairly trivial process. You'll still have to deal with things like lace or slightly transparent fabrics, but it's so much easier.



I'd say there's been some advances in the last 6 years when creating Spherical HDRIs :) I've developed some software called "Panorganizer" that makes on set HDRI acquisition an easier process for the HDRI Operator. The rigs I'm building are extremely cost effective and outperform "the other two big guys" which land at $50k-$96k. I've got the time down to 19 seconds for 8k (32 megapixels), 40 seconds for 15k (112 megapixels), and 60 seconds for 20k (200 megapixels) depending on the setup. There are now 36 of these rigs out in the wild being used on productions all of the world. Movies I'm not even working on. Pretty cool actually.

If you'd like to read up on more about that and see the interface here's a link: http://www.artbyphil.com/phfx/panorganizer/index.html

I will likely be purchasing an LTO-5 setup within 30 days. I currently have triple redundancy with my drive setup. This works nicely, but it's also not the best solution. Also, when material is sent to studios they back things up with their own methods. I might build a half rack storage solution to have back at "headquarters". I'm also exploring building a quarter rack DIT station to haul out on set. So much to do! Much of my concepts and solutions on this front will be determined by work I'm doing this year. I'm in the talks for something very "nature" based at the end of the year and I'd probably want somewhere around 40TB in a field unit for that type of work. If that gig a go I'll be designing a fairly customized rig that I can travel with.



Globalmediapro Battery Review: As Zac C mentioned, these suckers are powering the Scarlet for around 3 hours. Which is very nice. They report their percentage back to the camera just fine. I'm still waiting on the DSMC Side Handle as I feel the added functionality of hot swapping and having a more accessible controls for handheld/shoulder setups is worth the price. I will be ordering two more GMP 160Wh batteries though. I've shot with them for a couple days and have had no problems whatsoever. On that front, the x IDX V-Mount Quick Back is working like a champ. Popped it off for a compact setup the other day and mounted it on top of the camera. Fast and functional.


Red Workflow: Over the course of the last couple days I've met with several "industry" folk out and about here in LA. Notably Steve from Zacuto and Bob Primes, ASC. Lots of tech talk about working with different systems discussing things like image quality, weight, and usability. Interesting stuff. I sought out a lot of advice from Bob Primes about some career decisions I'm making right now on a couple projects. He's walked about 10 miles in the direction I'd like to be going and his words certainly had a lasting impact. Very grateful for that talk.

Also ran into some fairly "anti-Red" folk out there. Showed them the Scarlet X and the material it was producing after having a quick meeting discussing several other cameras, both out now and not announced yet. It was a real eye opener for a few of them. I'm a little shocked by the fear, confusion, and misinformation. Mostly due to a lack of information post processing and workflow of the material. After showing off literally 15 clips there was a lot of "there's so much detail", "I can't believe the latitude", "I can see the dirt on the ground". That kind of stuff. There is certainly something about Red that gets people's blood moving.


Resolution: If shooting at 4k or with Red is new to you, once you get your post workflow down you're going to notice that there's just a lot of resolution and detail to be had in your R3D clips. One clips I showed off to the people mentioned above was shot at f/2.8.



Full resolution image here: http://www.artbyphil.com/phfx/photog...obTattoo4k.jpg

There really aren't many digital motion picture cameras out there that can do this. Red makes 3 of them though.


Black and White/Color:

One thing I really wanted to try out was some black and white work. Oddly, I've never produced anything in black and white with any of the Red cameras until my last shoot. The freedom you have grading your images in post is astounding. The tonality is really wonderful. You can crush your blacks, lift your darks/midtones, and retain your highlights with no problem at all. This for me is a huge selling point on the camera.



Color is equally as impressive. If you want to crank up the saturation on something to "surreal" levels you can without an issue at all. In fact I don't know if I've used a camera that you can do this much pushing to and have it hold up.



Here's a quick shot of that setup as well:



I found an old Manfrotto HDV501 head in storage and I'll be using it with this Kirk Low Pod for some very low level shooting. This was just a test to see if the head could pan smoothly at macro and how the body balances on the Kirk Low Pod. It did fine. I loathe this head, and I've been using it only for support on my Cobra Crane Backpacker. It's found new life here and with this setup I can get a bit lower than my Hi-Hat.

For those following along you'll notice I've changed my top handle a bit to add support for quick release 15mm. This is to assist with supporting longer telephoto lenses, which I needed to do yesterday for sunset shot. That is indeed the Redrock Micro DSLR baseplate mounted upside down on top the Scarlet X.

I'm still waiting on my machinist to finish up my "exoskeleton" for the Scarlet. I have to say though, I'm having way too much fun with my little hacked together rig and all the strange configurations different shoots have led it too. The 3 pronged leg thing happening on the shoulder rig I'm absolutely sold on. It's somewhat similar to how the Clutch sits on the ground. I'm going to have him build a dovetail on the bottom 15mm rods so I can properly balance the rig with longer lenses. I'll also tackle the shoulder support pad too. Kinda dislike this one. Good for all weather situations, but bad for comfort on real long days.


I'm off to Austin for a about a week, but I'll be checking in and shooting along the way. Might even post some pictures from the road.

[Trevor Meeks]

Dude, that pushed saturation example is outstanding. Looks INCREDIBLE, and you're right... I can't think of another camera that creates footage that will handle a crank up in saturation like that!

[Luc Bouvrette]

Phil, I can't thank you enough for posting these. Really informative and gets my creative juices flowing while waiting for my Scarlet.

[Peter Staubs]

I can't say this enough, Phil is one awesome dude!