Life after Red

[Erwin van Dijck]

Found this article, don't know if it has already been posted:

http://wideopencamera.com/skid-row/c...ife-after-red/

[Sergio Perez]

Interesting article. He is obviously entitled to his opinion, but i have to say my experience with Red has been nothing short of excellent so far- from costumer support to the products themselves. I think lots are in the same boat. Love the workflow, love the dynamic range, the frame rates, the indie friendly Canon Mount, the absolutely ground breaking form factor and battery solution (redvolts), love the resolution, love the images and how flexible everything is in post.

Competition is good, but competition never committed to "Obsolescence Obsolete". The competition can very well bring new products with better features, but I'm sure Red will not leave us behind and offer similar or superior performing products. I feel that I'm in safe hands as a client of Red. If I purchased a C300, for example, I would be really pissed with the introduction of the C500, or a FS100 and later an FS700, or on the high end, an F23 to F35 to F65...

Another big aspect that people neglect is that Red created a different mindset in the industry, disrupted the "elitist" mentality of the High End Lobby of Film Production. It allowed for films like District 9 to appear, by relative unknowns that where supported by independent producers. This pissed off a lot of people in the High End production World, but allowed a Cinema Revolution worldwide. Places like Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, even mainland China benefited immensely with the Red Revolution and the knowhow sharing the Red mentality brought to the filmmaking and content creation World. I, for example, met redusers from around the world and they've all been helpfull and with a very proactive, boundaries pushing attitude. This is something that the others cannot "sell", because this attitude and spirit came from Red's "gut" , its heart- to empowering filmmakers independent of their background.

Business is important, but the way a company relates and speaks to you, their commitment to us clients, independent of our background, is worth my support and loyalty. From all the competition in the market, I see Red as the company with the biggest possibility to improve and push boundaries. While the other brands have big ressources, they have business models to protect. They will probably "follow" instead of "lead". Even if they do come with a superior product, it will be a niche, expensive one- a "prestige" product destined to a selected few. Red's mentality is different. It commits itself as a Digital Cinema Company pure and simple- this commitment allows it to supply tools not for a niche prestige elite but for all filmmakers, without the constraints of having to protect "consumer divisions".

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

It allowed for films like District 9 to appear, by relative unknowns that where supported by independent producers.

Isn't this example a bit over-stating? Neill Blomkamp worked with Peter Jackson and a studio for years at a Halo-movie. When that didn't happen, Peter Jackson believed enough in Blomkamp to tell him: "make what you want to make for 30 million dollars, and I'll produce it."
They choose the RED probably because they loved lots of aspects of it. I don't think RED made THIS movie happen.

I get your point about RED democratisizing some parts of the movie-making process (and agree) but just don't think District 9 is that good of an example of it.

[Sergio Perez]

Isn't this example a bit over-stating? Neill Blomkamp worked with Peter Jackson and a studio for years at a Halo-movie. When that didn't happen, Peter Jackson believed enough in Blomkamp to tell him: "make what you want to make for 30 million dollars, and I'll produce it."
They choose the RED probably because they loved lots of aspects of it. I don't think RED made THIS movie happen.

I get your point about RED democratisizing some parts of the movie-making process (and agree) but just don't think District 9 is that good of an example of it.

Yes, probably not the best example, but it was a "Hollywood like " Blockbuster, big effects movie done with a very"indie" language. Those effects and the budget could only be done by the Red at that time, I think, and, also, it was the type of project I think "studios" would say immediately No. Sure it was PJ that gave him a hand but (maybe I'm wrong again) he only had a short in his resume... I know nothing about economy but I'm sure 30 million is a bit inflated for that movie. It made a lot, lot more in the B.O, and films that do so end up posting a production budget a bit "higher". That's not the issue in discussion here, so, Mathieu, appologies if this movie doesn't represent what i intended to say :) You got what I meant !

[hans de vries]

Tssss, when are people going to learn? There is no afterlife, deal with it. You live and die with Red.

[Andy White]

LOL - I'll post here but I can't see the thread being here for long as I've just read the article.

The article is one person's view & that's fine. I'm sure it doesn't match that of others...

It's a shame, it starts off fairly balanced - and then degenerates towards the last few paragraphs.

[Michael Ou]

Life after RED? I seem to recall life before RED. . . I like life after RED much better! :)

[Joseph Hutson]

Life after RED? I seem to recall life before RED. . . I like life after RED much better! :)

Boom!

[Jaakko Rinne]

Life after RED? I seem to recall life before RED. . . I like life after RED much better! :)

Indeed.

[patrickortman]

Well, to me that's the point of the article: RED created something really cool. A lot of us embraced RED, and did well by our trust in them. Life after RED is much better! And now, thanks to RED, there's competition coming up. Choice is good. Competition is good, as long as it's fair.

He didn't at all go into the specifics of some peoples' problems with RED, although he did say RED needed a better attitude. RED has been gracious to me on a couple of occasions when I needed them to be. Certainly there's been a few well-publicized PR black eyes RED has gotten (Bloom?). But that's what you get when you're dealing with passionate people who love what they do, right? While SONY may not ban you from their forum for criticizing their products, with RED one can get the attention of Jim and Jarred and sometimes even effect change. It's a trade-off.

And some of his points about RED being a pain to work with on set and in post are absolutely true- shooting 4K is often totally overkill. That goes 4x for 5K. That's why I'm also buying a Blackmagic Cinema Camera or two, before I even think about replacing my still-working, still-makes-great pictures, utterly-reliable RED MX that even has some features the Scarlet is missing. And yes, I'm bummed that RED killed the original Scarlet, but I understand Jim's reasoning for doing so.

For me, due to RED's long delays in getting Epic Stage 3 happening, I decided (on Jarred's advice) to go ahead and upgrade my RED to MX with SSD and get started on my film and specs. It hurts a little, I'd really have liked to have had my Epic. But truth is, Epic wasn't ready, and by using the tools I had, and putting my Stage 3 money towards upgrades and a steadicam, I turned out a killer film and several commercials that are getting me a ton of work. I'm telling you guys this because you as a filmmaker need to use the right tool for the right job. Sometimes a C300 is a better choice than an Epic. Sometimes Epic is a better choice than Alexa. But the worst thing we can do is spend all our time obsessing on gear and forgetting that our jobs are to put out films. Sure, we're passionate about our cameras- for many of us, they're our most prized possessions. But putting RED on a pedestal and becoming immune to differing points of view is like those arch conservatives who only get their news on FOX (insert your own liberal example here). It's myopic. Cult-like.

And that's why I welcome what the other guys are doing with their cameras. And I expect that RED will continue to innovate, and I'll continue using their products when I'm working on a project where they're a great fit for me. Which is often.