ECG’s Production mananger Josh McGill recently attended a seminar on the RED one camera.  He took copious notes on the event.  Here is what he learned.

ABOUT THE SEMINAR

- organized by WIFTA (Melissa Randle, president, acted as moderator)
- Joe Kleber was the speaker (he is the founder of Red Acquisition Warehouse) owner of the RED#43
- founder and inventor Jim Jannard (Oakley founder) was always a camera enthusiast (rumor has it he has every camera ever made…) but he wanted a video camera that utilized a DSLR sensor (used in high end digital still cameras) - He got together a world class team of designers and fabricators (some from Apple) and built a camera that has analog acquisition processed digitally.

ABOUT THE CAMERA

-CMOS sensor (DSLR) is the size of a single frame of 35mm film masked at 16:9

- This sensor system is different than all other HD and SD cameras because it does not split the image into three colors to get picked up by three separate sensors rather one sensor picks up all the information at once

- The camera uses a PL (positive lock) mount for lens

- Canon and Nikon lens will fit

- the cards are CFC 8G (RED is coming out with a 16G card)- in 4K you get 2G per raw minute

- with the proprietary RED drive you can get 2 ½ hours  (the drive is RAID maximized for speed not security)

Stuff to know when shooting on the RED:

- Look out for highlights because of the electronic acquisition

- does not have the contrast ratio of film (so you will need more fill)

- Jim McKinney (DP) spoke about using the RED and mentioned that he only uses the monitor for focus and framing- uses a waveform/histogram for colors

- RED is weak when it comes to quick horizontal pans, fast lateral subject movement (train) or flashes. The rolling shutter is the reason it has these problems.

- You need a proper film crew when shooting on the RED- loader, ACs, DP and light crew that can light for film

- You need the proper camera prep (treat like a 35mm shoot)

- Joe mentioned that ENG workflow for the RED is in development

- undercranks to 120fps (2K) using the RED drive (does 113fps when using the CFC 8G)

- uses 19mm (West coast standard) steel rods for matte box and other accessories (available adapter will allow you to use 15mm)

- Some negatives about the camera is that the 4 channels of audio are not XLR but miniXLR which you need an adapter- the BNCs have the same problem they are smaller than regular BNCs

- There are QUICK workflows and progressively (tons of choices) more ELABORATE ones. The post production process needs to be involved day one (workflow depends on the eventual use of the footage). It has to be mapped out considering time limit, editor expertise,  and available technology. A quick workflow involves color balancing as you go and utilizing the quicktime proxy RGB files which can be dropped right into a timeline using RED free online software.

-The RED One is bad ass because it is fully upgradeable. It can be upgraded with RED firmware updates (using the CFC cards- but soon you will be able to hook the camera right up to your computer). There is a firewire 400 port which can be utilized by third party vendors for accessories. Also the actual chip is upgradable.