RED Visit, 21 September: EPIC!

[Update 2010.09.27: Spanish version / versión en español with thanks to / gracias a Carlos Zapater.]

At five minutes to midnight on 13 September, I received a short message from RED Digital Cinema’s Jim Jannard: “Want to come to the studios and get a sneak peak of EPIC and the soon to be famous HDRx?” Eight days later—this past Tuesday, at high noon—I stood at the gates of RED Studios in Los Angeles, not really sure what to expect.

I wasn’t disappointed.

HPA Tech Retreat 2010 - Day 3

The Tech Retreat’s third day covered regulatory issues, HDR imaging, using a plasma for reference monitoring, SOA, networking, file-based workflows… and Mo Henry.

HPA Tech Retreat 2010 - Day 2

The 16th Annual Tech Retreat was officially opened by HPS President Leon Silverman today. (As with yesterday’s coverage, this’ll be stream-of-consciousness coverage.)

RED Day

On Saturday 16 January, RED hosted three open-house sessions in Hollywood, for CML (cinematography mailing list) members, ASC (American Society of Cinematography) members, and for RED ONE owners. I attended the CML session, and here’s a quick writeup on what we learned. [updated 10:15pm PST: M-X performance details]

“Droidmaker” available as a free download

Michael Rubin, the author of several Mac and editing books, wrote a Lucasfilm/Pixar-centric history of the development of nonlinear editing and computer graphics for film production.  The book, Droidmaker, gets rave reviews, as well it should: it’s a great snapshot of the early days of NLEs and CGI, as well as the politics and soap-operatic dramas surrounding them, written by a guy who Was There When It Happened.  You can download it for free, and if you want to add a dead-trees copy to your library, you can do that, too. Highly recommended!

HPA Technology Retreat 2009

How is the Tech Retreat like (and unlike) a location shoot? Why does New York’s Metropolitan Opera put ten minutes of solid white at the tail end of each live HD cinemacast?

Sweetening the Depresso

Suddenly, Hollywood Seems a Conservative Investment, writes Brooks Barnes in The New York Times. His thesis? “Wall Street, real estate, the art market — all of those other supposedly stable investment areas — are now such a mess that Hollywood is one of the safer places you can park money.” But, he goes on to say, it’s not the established players as much as indies who can exploit these shifts in economic fortunes. “The big studios probably won’t be able to rely much on this pitch. Their upfront needs are too big ... and Wall Street and the real estate market may sort themselves out before their current slate deals expire. ... But for independent producers — especially ones that operate in a transparent manner — the strategy could offer a lifeline.” He does warn that it’s not the art-house pics that will get this funding; you still need to have a commercially viable pitch. Remember, there’s a reason it’s called “show business”, not “show art”.

NAB 2009: no RED tent

RED Digital Cinema’s Jim Jannard has announced that RED will skip NAB 2009. A delay by a supplier means “too many non-working prototypes at NAB” (no snide comments, please), so RED will skip the big industry confab in favor of their own “RED DAY” event(s).

Both Avid and Apple skipped NAB 2008, and Apple is dropping trade shows altogether in favor of other, more Apple-controlled marketing channels, like Apple Events and customer contact through Apple Stores and the Apple website. RED has often been compared to Apple (mercurial, visionary CEO; “thinking differently”; rabid fanboy community), and this only amplifies the parallels. It’ll be interesting to see if RED returns to IBC or to future NABs, or if they’ll depend on RED owners and third parties like accessory vendors to spread the word henceforth.

So if you want to see the 18-85mm in the flesh (in the glass?) this NAB, or any of the other RED bits that might help you decide on a purchasing plan, better hope that Element Technica, Redrock Micro, Air Sea Land Gear (a.k.a. Toys4RED), and/or View Factor have enough kit in their booths to feed your hunger.