HD for Indies

Check out this trailer for The Fall. If the imagery doesn’t grab you at first (I saw posters on the street walking to work, and I literally stopped to gawk at the one sheet), how about “David Fincher and Spike Jonze Present.” Directed by Tarsem, known for his music video work.

Wow.

How gorgeous is this? In the middle of a 60+ hour work week, I watched the trailer 3 times, with co-workers, dimming the lights, waiting for the 1080p to download, and standing enthralled.

I took the time during lunch to scroll through, find 20 amazing stills in it, copy/paster to Photoshop and save’em out as JPEGs so I can have them rotate out as desktops every few minutes.

It is THAT good.

Plus, it looks like a good story, unlike some technically proficient, but plastic spastic blockbusters opening today. Which imagery do you think will stay with you, haunt your idle reveries, more?

-mike

John Galt (Panavision) and Larry Thorpe (Canon), two well respected industry veterans, gave along talk at the Hollywood Post Alliance about how to really understand what is going on in digital cameras. It went over so well they revised & expanded it and did another one at Panavision, entitled Demystifying Digital Camera Specifications. This is looooooong, but HIGHLY recommended if you want to really understand what is going on. As a Red owner, I couldn’t help but notice that the press release mentioned something about “pixels aren’t resolution,” which is true, but clearly a response to the Red One’s 4K resolution. I haven’t had a chance to watch them all yet, so I can’t fairly state whether there is an agenda at work (it would be somewhat fair to presume that Panavision and Canon cameras won’t be looked on TOO unkindly), but these two guys are well known and respected, and have been doing this stuff for a long time. Chime in with comments about your take on it all - I’m prepping for a big client demo, no time to watch today…

-mike

1.) Red Scarlet/Red Epic - one for home, one for SERIOUS D-cinema work. Scarlet is easily summed up - “3K for $3K” - with 3K sensor that can shoot up to 120 fps for under three grand, when it ships in 2009 it will be a tough price point to beat. Red Epic, meanwhile, with better quality Redcode RAW, and 5K resolution at up to 100fps for only $40K, should be an indie filmmaker’s new Must Have.

2.) Codex Portable - record dual link HD-SDI or even RAW formats the latest cameras using 4:1 wavelet technology, on a breadbox sized package you can sling over your shoulder. Add the virtual file system on top of that, as well as the ability to transcode material in-the-box, you’ve got a helluva solution for a damned attractive price.

...so besides Scarlet, Epic, and Red Ray, there was (Oh Yeah!) news for Red One too. They have some new lenses, accessories, and firmware builds coming for the Red One. I got hands on with the big honkin’ 18-85mm zoom, and it is GOOD. I looked at the new 7” Pro LCD and I like it. Read on for the details that aren’t on the website.

On the show floor, I’ll try to clean this up later, but here’s the scoopage:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Playback device, 4K in, 4K, 2K, 1080p, 720p, or SD out from Red Disc, Red Express, or native R3D files from CF

RED / RED RAY

Favorite quote from Ted Schilowitz, Leader of the Revolution for Red:

“We consider 1080p Blu-ray to be a stopgap solution. The future is way beyond 1080p.”

Read on below for all the nifty details:

Again, I’m on the show floor and working fast, so here’s the scoop on Red’s new professional camera that is high end consumer priced:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: 3K for $3K, 2/3” Mysterium X Sensor, 1-120 fps (180 fps burst mode), up to 100 MB/sec Redcode RAW & RGB recording to dual compact flash, 4.8” LCD, 8x T2.8 Red Zoom lens (fixed lens), full auto or manual shooting modes, HDMI, HD-SDI (4:2:2 likely), FW800, Still mode, WiFi control, compatible with many Red One accessories (as shown on show floor).

RED / SCARLET

Here’s some of my own pictures of the prototype.

Read on the all the gory details: