Using the RED Camera
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The Producer, AC/DIT, Client and myself arrived on the location in Iowa 3 days before the shoot to run tests and get used to using the RED camera. Everything in Our package arrived except the sliding base plate, the one that came with the camera was for an Arriflex, but the RED has a higher inset on the flange and it would not work, so Indie Rentals shipped us another base plate. Unfortunately Fed X lost the first one, and the second one was lost in a snow storm the next day. By the time we received the third one it was 3 days into our shoot with no base plate for the camera. We survived with the help from Peter Clemence our key grip and Simon the AC who re-constructed the camera to fit on the gear head and the remote crane head with little or no problems. At this point we did not have a remote start / stop for the camera on the crane and had to quickly shut off the camera when using the 8 gig flash cards in 4K. In 4 k the 8 gig flash cards were good for 4 minutes, just like shooting a 400 ft magazine of 35mm film. So in all we were used to the procedure. Although we did come up with a system for the production. We shot all the 4K footage at 24P on the 320 gig hard drive provided by red. and all of the 2K footage on flash cards. The reason for this : in 4k you are shooting in 35mm format, in 2K you are shooting in 16mm format. So I opted to shoot in 4K with 35mm lenses for most of the production and when shooting at off frame rates as in 89, (our version of the red software went to 89 frames a second) you have to shoot in 2K and remember your Lens coverage on the sensor. For longer lenses its a great plus, but for wider lenses you lose out. So I added a wide 16mm lens to the package just for that situation. So think, 4K 35mm, 2K 16mm. I know I'll never edit 4K and I believe there are only 6 places in the country that can, I just wanted the best for my client and the ability to use 35mm lenses with the shallow depth of field. I am used to shooting everything on 35mm so the lenses and camera were just like shooting with an Arriflex or Panavision.
AC/Simon "I LOVE THIS CAMERA" Manses:
"I first started working with Kevin Cable as his assistant cameraman/gaffer around 1980. When Kevin called me and told me that our next job would be with the RED ONE, I said to myself "Oh here we go again, another new camera system for poor Simon to research, another new system". HOWEVER upon researching the system I noticed that the camera system made sense! It is as though the manufacturer actually talked to some D.P.s and some camera assistants and maybe some Hi-Def artists as well and made many wonderful decisions. Kevin generally shoots 35mm and my comfort level lies there as well "ahhh, the smell of emulsion in the morning..." This camera is perfect for us old time film guys (I've been doing film professionally since 1973). We get to use all of our favorite Zeiss lenses, Arri follow focus, rods and mattebox, and a virtually infinite combination of filters. The camera body provides a plethora of mounting points for crane, stedi-cam, hostess tray car mounts, and receptacles to install rods on top or bottom. The auxiliary hard drive provides over an hour of recording time between (mag) changes....I love this camera. I could go on for hours and hours but am packing for an upcoming shoot with Kevins' client (scent-lok) in Michigan. In a few weeks when I get back I will do some updates to this article, addressing such subjects as configuring the body, reboot tricks, things to remember, things you can now leave in your garage, and other general tips for the A.C. or gaffer."
A lot of rain and cold weather did not bother the camera as much as it did the crew. We were all cold most of the time and full of mud. Considering the weather, waiting on camera and miles of mud everyone did a great job. As I write this the footage is being processed and will be ready for edit by next week.
Executive Producer: Mike Andrews and talent Tiffany looking over the scripts.
The theme was 360, so we spun the RED camera around a tree on the jib arm
Simon "I LOVE THIS CAMERA" Manses AC/DIT with Executive Producer Mike Andrews
Simon "I LOVE THIS CAMERA" Manses loving the camera
Crew and talent waiting around on production ...
Interested in RED Rentals call Chris at Indie Rentals...
Chris Doody Indie Rentals P 323.465.7700 F 323.297.2773 1350 N. Highland Hollywood CA 90028
Cinequip lighting and grip Chris Beales Rental Manager 612-627-9080 Cell 763-516-3751 Fax 612-627-9789 Crane & Jib Rentals Picture Factory, Inc.
800.336.0838
612.968.2191 mobile
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I started researching this camera for two weeks before production. At first it was a little confusing about 2k and 4k and workflow for FCP or Adobe Premier CS3. I must say it all came together very easy. THE CAMERA IS AWSOME! I was going to off-line on my PC with Adobe Premier, which is what I have been using to cut demo reels. We will post the on-line on FCP at the clients studio where they have three systems running. If you are a ENG shooter, as in news, sports, magazine, it's not your camera. This is a higher end video cameraman's camera or basically a film cinematographers dream. The reason I say this is it's like picking up an Arriflex! You have to build the camera to use it. It does not come out of the box like a Sony or a Panasonic HD camera, and it's all manual just like shooting film. So you cannot pick it up and start shooting and then dump the footage into the edit box and away you go. Maybe in the future, but not right now. You have to process the footage through their software because you are shooting in RAW, just like shooting digital stills. There is no ENG style zoom lens with auto iris or zoom control on the lens, there is no viewfinder yet. ( I sure hope there will be! The little monitor does not move with your eye as a viewfinder does on a dolly or crane.) I had a set of zeiss primes, canon 300, 12mm zeiss, 100 macro zeiss and a RED short zoom 18-50. 6 brick batteries that don't last as long as video camera batteries. Arriflex Matt box, wireless focus, zoom and iris, along with standard follow focus. For support we used a fisher 11, a gear head, O'Connor head, and a remote head on a 20 ft. crane You may see in a few photos that we were outside in 30 degree weather and sometimes the wind chill was in the 20's. The RED kept on running! The only problems I noticed was a lag of video in the monitors that eventually went away. We used John Deer tractors pulling trailers and Bad Boy electric buggies to get us around. Eventually the 4 wheel trucks and even the grip trucks got stuck, but John Deer pulled us all out.
Its great that the camera has so many options on how to mount it and rails top and bottom. Although our camera had different size rails and we had to reconfigure our lens motors along with any adopters needed. Chris at Indie Rentals was on top of everything for us and made everything happen quickly.
Nick Andrews capturing a few behind the scenes and working with Tiffany in wardrobe.
Director/dp Kevin Cable and Executive Producer Mike Andrews
Simon and Peter Clemence working with 2nd camera assistant Silent Matt Delong
Marking the scene with RED What is nice about the RED camera is being a modular design. Its a rugged aluminum alloy camera that they say is made for lightweight EFP style or feature. As it is now I don't really think EFP style unless you have a different outlook of EFP. It's a wonderful camera and I will definitely use it on every shoot from now on, but I would not be in a hurry to shoot anything. It takes time to build, I know its still BETA so we will give them time to transform the RED for many different styles of shooting. As I stated before, if you shoot ENG style and want one auto zoom lens, it's not there yet. Maybe in the future they will have one for the ENG shooters. I don't see this camera being any faster to set up than a Arri 35 camera package except you don't have to load mags. Although you do have to initialize the camera and do the setup you need. The version we had was 15 and it took about 60-90 seconds to fire up and many times it had to be done two or three times. Again BETA version. In all, It's a great camera and made for film style shooting.
Need an AC/DIT & Director of Photography shooting on RED....
Kevin Cable : DP Simon Manses : AC/DIT Kevin E-Mail - kcable@imageskc.com Kevin Voice - 954-931-4084 Simon "I love that camera" Manses - <esmanses@hotmail.com> Simon Voice - |
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