shootwithred.com » Post-Production

Video Resources Inc hosts OC Red User meet up and hardware showcase

bradvr — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:45:11 +0000

Back in the Fall of 2011, fellow Orange County Red User Justin Nguyen initiated the idea of a Red User get together. The goal was simple – just to get as many of the OC Red owners of Red Ones, Epics, and Scarlets together to share experiences and tips. Well it finally happened last night and we were happy to host it at our Santa Ana facility.

About 20 folks showed up (see picture below of most of them) – most were Red Owners, but several were working DP’s and crew that just wanted to learn more about Red. We spent about 3 hours socializing, and then held a round table discussion about all thing from prep, to rigging, to workflow, to post. Everyone loved sharing all of our unique and common experiences with each other. It was especially helpful to see the various rigs, lenses and accessories that everyone has discovered and are using in the field.

POLLING: We even tossed in a few informal polls on favorite workflow tools. To my surprise, the majority were now using Adobe Premiere. At VR, we certainly own Premier, but are enjoying our upgraded Avid Media Composer Systems running 6.0 and still working with FCP 3 everyday. For backup in the field, most everyone is using finder drag and drop, and back at their facilities, it was 80/20 finder copy over R3D Manager. Everyone was making dual copies when possible for backup and safety, Red owners, were happy with the performance or the cameras in the various shooting conditions. For most projects, Epic shooters are shooting 10:1, but for web deliverables, a few were using 12 or 13:1. We generally shoot between 8:1 (green screen) and 10:1.

Contribute your own experience by completing the poll on the right —->
We will collect the results and share them on our site.

My favorite “hands on” were with the Wooden Camera bits and the 3rd party Canon mount still lenses. Also super cool to see half a dozen OC based Epics and a Scarlet in our studio.We plan to do it on a semi-regular basis, and Justin and I talked about scheduling another around NAB time. If anyone wants to join us, drop me a note here or on reduser.net

BTW: I received our Canon mount for one of our Epics today. It is way cool. I ordered a second one already and I expect to get a lot of use from them

January Orange County Red User Meet-up

Red Digital and Canon go head to head with competitive announcements tonight

bradvr — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:07:12 +0000

Both Canon and our Red Digital neighbors are holding press events tonight promising big announcements. What will they be? Both companies have been tight lipped and their is lots of industry speculation.

Will Red introduce Pro Res as a recording option? Will they deliver Scarlet? Will Jim buy Canon? Canon buy Red? Will Canon introduce the long awaited dedicated video camera based on the Canon 5D mark II large sensor? What is your guess? The clock is ticking.

Here is an article published in the Orange County Business Journal discussing a little Red innovations and the pending annoucements.

OCBJ Canon & Red announcements

Visit the Orange County Business Journal website to view the entire publication.

Kazakhstan Television Crew contract VRi in the USA to train on RED Workflow

bradvr — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:07:12 +0000

The guys from Kazakhstan along with some of our friends, crew and the Russian translators

Not to be confused with the parody of the country featured in the movie Borat, these guys are from the very real, and very prosperous country of Kazakhstan. Temirbek Amanzhol, Duman Kozhakhmet, and Altynbek Bektassov were part of a television production team that choose Red as their high end production format. They choose Video Resources to train them on everything from camera operation, to data wrangling and creating dailies, through post workflow.

Here is summary agenda of those days:

Day One:

Production Training on Red Camera:

1- Technical aspects of the camera and its operations — Conducted by Brad Hagen and VR staff

2- The accessories needed and how to best utilize them — Conducted by Brad Hagen and VR staff.

3- Lighting for the Red camera — Conducted by John Frost, DP

4- On location filming test – Supervised by John Frost, DP

5- Data management — Conducted by Joe Hedge, Assistant Editor and Expert Data Wrangler.

Day Two:

Red Camera Post-Production workflow: (using the footage that was filmed on Day One)

1- Exploring the different post-production workflows — Conducted by Brad Hagen and VR staff.

2- Down-converting the R3D files for editing in Final Cut Pro and managing and organizing the files in Final Cut Pro.– Conducted by Joe Hedge

3- Exporting and confirming files Online process – Conducted by Joe Hedge

4- Color Correction using R3Ds using Color — Conducted by VR staff

5- Exporting media for different delivery formats — Conducted by Loren White, Brad Hagen.

If you are interested in a private workshop on the RED drop us a line to discuss schedule and other details.

Zeiss Compact Primes used on Zeiss Commercial

bradvr — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:52:42 +0000

Last year we produced a national spot for Zeiss Vision using our Red One. Of course, it was a natural to use Zeiss optics and the spot turned out great. We partnered on the creative and shot the spot on green screen in our studio space. All the VFX was done in house and using the 4K real estate of the RED image we did all re-cropping and zooms in post. This was shot with the original Mysterium chip in our Red One.

I have included a behind the scenes little promo we did for their national meeting in this clip.

Hope you enjoy.

Discussion on using DSLR’s in production

bradvr — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:38:56 +0000

At Video Resources we are all about finding the right solutions for each project. Though we love the RED images and workflow, sometimes other cameras such as a DSLR fit the bill or compliment our RED footage. DSLR is simply shorthand for Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera. More relevant is the video component of these DSLR cameras, which confuses the situation and the naming scheme as you will also see references to HDSLR or VSLR.

Today the most popular cameras in this arena are the Canon 5D, 7D, and the new, reasonably priced 550D/Rebel T2i, the Nikon D90, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1. We own Canon 5D and 7D camera systems with various lenses and accessories and find that they suit our needs very well. I will plan a special report on how we use these cameras in our productions, but in summary we use them as primary cameras, but mostly for B-camera and background plate work.

Canon 5d with Z-Finder

This week we are co-hosting an event at our Orange County location on using DSLR in production. This overview is from the MCAI website:

Shoot a Film with a Still Camera? No Doubt you’ve been reading about DLSR Videography in the trades. Now find out in person why and how DSLR works and if it’s right for your next production. For the MCAI Feb 2010 meeting weâ??ve gathered 3 experts to cover all the bases from technology to practical shooting tips…

What is all the buzz about DSLR? “I am thankful for the hybrid DSLR. It has changed things in so many ways: it has created an unprecedented level of price and performance for shooting motion video that was previously unthinkable at this price point. Perhaps most importantly it ‘let the cow out of the barn’ that a huge 35mm chip that shoots video is possible at a very low price. Camera manufacturers previously led us to believe it would be too expensive, but Canon has proved them wrong!” Brian Valente, Redrock Micro

So, how does DSLR work, how does it compare to other HD cameras and how different is it to use for HD video? Answering those questions and more are a trio of experts: from Canon USA,http://www.usa.canon.com Michael Cutler, will explain the EOS 5D and 7D. Bob Wilde, video expert and Regional Sales Mgr from Samy’s Camera www.samys.com will compare DSLR cameras, discuss purchase, ownership and accessories including those from Red Rock Micro,www.redrockmicro.com RRM is a developer and manufacturer of some great gear which makes handling a 35mm still camera practical for film production. Last but not least is Cinematographer-Producer Rob Terry. He recently shot a series of videos on DSLR and has plenty to tell you about the good and bad of his experience, including capture and editing.

Our moderator and host for the event, Brad Hagen, the owner of Video Resources Inc.www.videoresources.com/ has shot with a DSLR. And VRI has two Red One cameras on their rental list as well as numerous other models, so Brad has a great basis for comparison. Three experts and a knowledgeable moderator will insure you get all your questions answered. For an in-depth discussion of the pros & cons of DSLR videograpy do not miss this important program.

As always, with MCAI meetings come early to network with our guest speakers and other professionals. Bring resumes, brochures, headshots, DVD reels and any other promotional materials for your business.

EVENT: MCAI LA/OC Chapter February Meeting
DATE: February 17th, 2010 Wednesday
LOCATION: Video Resources, Inc.
1809 E. Dyer Road Suite 307
Santa Ana, CA 92705
Phone: 949-261-7266
www.videoresources.com/

Mysterium X vs. Mysterium – Your input wanted for RED Shoot Out

bradvr — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:26:24 +0000

It seems like all of Hollywood is abuzz about the new Mysterium X sensor from RED. The good news is that the Epic will feature this new improved sensor when they ship. However, what if you already have a RED ONE camera, what then? Well the REALLY good news is that RED is offering an upgrade path to the Mysterium X. But is it worth the cost for most of RED ONE owners? Well we at Video Resources have decided to see for ourselves and share the results.

The testing will be relatively simple. Since we own two RED cameras that are nearly identical – serial numbers 15 and 16, we decided to upgrade one camera at a time so we could more easily compare the images. Since #15 was older (but just by a few minutes) she went in for the upgrade last week.

We expect our upgraded camera back any day now so please feel free to submit your recommendations for shooting environments and scenes that you feel would best represent the real world situations. Using the comments posting feature of our blog (see above), post your requests and we will do our best to accommodate them.

Here is the basic criteria for our shooting test:

Outfit both cameras with the same glass
Run both cameras simultaneously (we have a mount for this)
Shoot interior and exterior scenes
Shoot day and night scenes
We hope to have some live models (actors) available for the test
Don’t put the cameras at risk – no car mounts, crash cams, etc.

We expect to do the testing end of this week or next and create a Apple Pro Res split screen of the results. Vegas odds (and the other tests I have seen) say the X blows the Mysterium out of the park and sets a new industry benchmark.

PS: If you are in the Orange County area and want to be part of the crew, drop me a note using the contact link above to let us know you are interested.

Our RED ONE Camera featured in Western Digital advertisement

bradvr — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:13:31 +0000

When Western Digital wanted to introduce their convenient “Studio Edition II” drives to the video community they choose to feature a RED ONE Camera. Well, not just any RED camera but our very own Ripley, also known as Serial No. 15. Holding our super handsome camera is our beloved Jeff Killian, shooter and editor extraordinaire. I guess everyone deserves their 15 minutes.

One Image, Many Visions. We posted a single R3D image for others to color correct

bradvr — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 08:19:18 +0000

The Red camera technology and REDCODE raw have put the power of traditional cinematography in our hands. As you have seen, the depth of field control and image quality is as good as anything we have worked with in our career. The images below demonstrate the literal flexibility of the raw image format that the Red One camera creates.

Let me explain. A high resolution frame from a sequence shot the first week we had our camera (August 2007!) has been made available to the RED user community. Various users downloaded the image and subsequently posted various efforts at color correction and image looks.

Our gallery of images shows the power of the R3D image format. Like RAW images that are now common with many still cameras, the Red native image format allows for broad color and gamma correction after the image is recorded by the camera.

This is a JPEG of the original file:

Reference image in JPEG format of the non-corrected image

To see how others have interpreted and manipulated the image visit our interactive gallery. To try your hand at color correcting this file download the TIF original file (41MB) here. Please post your comments about the experience and upload directly to our webgallery. To receive credit on any images you post, include your reduser names as a title for each image. If anyone wants their image removed please send a request my way.

Update: Read more about the power of the RED image format in this post by Oliver Peters

Authors note: At the time of the original post, software to read the R3D files was not readily available so I made a TIF file available to allow others to try their hand at color correction. If there is enough interest, I can upload an R3D version of the clip.