Quick note on some things:

a.) Busy, not dead. Waaaaaaaay busy.

b.) The trailer is (finally) out for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was shot digitally on the Viper, recorded to S.two recorders. I’ve been working with the vendor that provided the gear, it is nice to see what masters of the game (director David Fincher, DoP Claudio Miranda) can do with digital tools when they commit and know EXACTLY what they are doing.

c.) Red Build 16 is imminent, and it is a Big Deal for those tracking Red. Months later than wanted/expected, but major new stuff in there. IF it does what Jannard and crew claim, I’d say the Red will have finally, fully arrived, fulfilling virtually all of the promised capabilities. (How soon till we can save curves on Red Alert and load into camera?)

Some Jim Jannard entries of note on Reduser.net:

Build 16… taste – Reduser.net: “I shot these on Build 16 with each one adjusted 1/3rd stop to match the corresponding ISO. I opened in RA! REDspace and made absolutely no corrections whatsoever. I then saved out a 4K tiff, opened in Photoshop and scaled to fit this page. I made no adjustments in Photoshop except to scale.” This one has a picture that you should check out.

Build 16 Warning! – Reduser.net: “Build 16 is a monumental change to everything RED as far as the image quality, DSP and methodology is concerned. You may be surprised at how different it is from previous builds”

Build 16 ISOs… – Reduser.net

Testing shows… – Reduser.net: “Testing shows…
After some of the comments from today’s posts we decided to test thoroughly to see what the ideal ISO is for the RED ONE camera… least noise with the widest range.

Answer is: ISO 320″ Read on for more (if you’re that kind of geeky, and I am).

Build 16 Preview… – Reduser.net: “Build 16 Preview…
So what can you expect from Build 16? Many things. But here are the BIG THREE.”

9 1/2 stops… – Reduser.net Bonus points if you know who the picture is of.

: )

(Hi M!)

Clarifications… – Reduser.net: “Clarifications…We have done quite a bit of work on the DSP in the last few days and need to report a few things.”

#1 Problem… – Reduser.net: “#1 Problem…
with Build 15 and before… was missed exposure. We have seen so much footage that had to be fixed in post from this that it motivated us to fix this in Build 16. Missed exposure happened both ways. Over-exposed footage clipped the highlights and lost latitude. Under-exposed footage was pulled up in post and noise was introduced. How did this happen?” This one is REALLY GOOD if you’ve shot some Red and wondered why you had to go digging to rescue a half a stop of lattitude. This is probably one of the most relevant posts to read if you’re planning on shooting on Red with Build 16 or thereafter. And I’m SO glad they are doing what is discussed here, it has been one of the biggest issues for processing footage – with build 15 and before, you had to hand touch every shot to regain that lost half a stop of highlight detail. This meant no automated Compressor or Redcine or Redline conversions – a MAJOR issue if trying to process hours and hours of footage.

16GB for B16… – Reduser.net: “We just have internally certified the only 16GB CF cards fast enough (read and write faster than our 8GB cards) to handle the RED ONE. They are custom developed for RED.

Expect these cards to be available in about 4 weeks. Price will be $550 ea.”

OK, that’s enough Redness for now.

PS – another Red tidbit – been working on some bidding for some Red related jobs that are working with facilities, and Doing Red Right while working with a facility – if they convert your media for offline editorial, if they make multiple LTO-3 backups of your data…reminds me that this is a digital cinema camera, not a P2 camera. Be prepared financially.

-mike

UPDATE WEDNESDAY

Just got an email from Red:

The beta version of Build 16 (v3.1.2) RED ONE Firmware has been posted on www.RED.com/support (password-protected download).

AS THIS IS A BETA BUILD, THIS FIRMWARE IS RECOMMENDED FOR PREVIEW AND TESTING PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR USE ON COMMERCIAL PRODUCTIONS.

….and since I rent out my camera through a facility (The Camera House, be sure to ask for #417!), it isn’t wise for me to update it since I can’t roll back to the production stable version after doodling over the weekend as I’d planned…..damn.

-mike