The latest production diary from The Hobbit covers their impressive use of dual Red Epic and a Beam Splitter rig from 3ality to shoot the new film in 3D. They cover much of the technical details of the rig, and show lots of how they’re doing their video capture, preview work, and review.
Definitely check this out.
The Hobbit – Production Diary Video #4 [HD] [Official] – YouTube.
Some great news from NAB, Assimilate is first out of the gate to announce full Scratch support for the new RED Epic 5k. Assimilate has been a big part of the RED story for a long time, and they continue the tradition with this offering.
Ted Schilowitz of RED, commented, “SCRATCH was the first DI tool to support native RED workflows from the original RED ONE, and it’s been right there with us through every innovation since. Now everyone, who wants to invest in our new Epic camera system, will have immediate availability to a solid and streamlined set-to-post workflow in the form of SCRATCH.”
But that’s not all. In addition to just announcing it, it’s already getting some play with Company 3 in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Started with the usual RED load, they eventually switched to the Epic 5K and found no change to their workflow, even with Stereo 3D, after simply upgrading to the new version.
“We got a new build of SCRATCH from ASSIMILATE, dropped the Epic 5K 3D stereo footage in, and it just worked,” said Dylan Carter, director of non-linear workflow at Company 3, responsible for the overall design, build and management of the 3D stereo workflow on the feature. “Although this is a big story, there’s no story. The message is that SCRATCH already works perfectly with Epic 5k, and on 3D stereo too, just as easily as it does with RED ONE and RED MX cameras.”
Get both press releases after the break.
Louisiana-based Digital FX got their hands on the coveted RED EPIC-M, and managed to shoot a little ‘feature reel’ showing some beautiful closeups and details using the original 4K RED ONE M-X.
Lousiana post-production company Digital FX lovingly fondled EPIC-M #98 on camera, not to mention goodies like the Bomb EVF and 5-inch touchscreen LCD, and you can watch, drool and share your oh-so-envious thoughts with us right after the break.
It’s a beautiful camera, but for $58,000 I wouldn’t expect anything less.
Hands-on with the Red Epic-M from Digital FX on Vimeo.
via RED EPIC-M stars in gorgeous vid, RED ONE jealously shoots the footage (video) — Engadget.
Let’s start off a holiday Monday with a clever and funny look at the Arri Alexa and the “Direct To Edit” feature, courtesy of Sensible Digital Cinema.
To add even more to the humor, it was shot on RED.
Electronista is reporting that a Spider-man remake is being shot with RED’s EPIC cameras in 3D. I think that is pretty cool, but when you read the article, you also find out that The Hobbit is being shot with RED’s EPIC camera as well. Somehow I missed that bit of information. The EPIC camera has a 5K sensor, a five-inch touchscreen, and four 128GB SSD cards. Less than 100 of the EPIC cameras were made, and The Hobbit is using 30 of them. Spiderman is using four of the cameras.
Cinematographer John Schwartzman talked about his experience on the RED User forum, and calls the EPIC camera a “true game changer.” The film is being shot in 3D, using the cameras mounted on two 3ality TS-5 rigs. High speed shots were taken as part of the 22 set-ups. Schwartzman continues with the praises, saying only bulkier IMAX cameras offer more resolution than the EPIC. The camera is said to weigh 5lbs with an ultra prime lens mounted.
via Spider-man remake to be shot with RED’s EPIC cameras in 3D @ Electronista
RED’s Scarlet camera has suffered continual delays and price increases, and has become somewhat of the black-sheep of the impressive RED portfolio. In an amazingly candid post on their forums, Jim Jannard admits that the concept of Scarlet has a consumer-grade camera was flawed form the beginning.
The concept of RED was to build a camera with as much capability as possible… for the professional market. Then we thought we could extend it down a bit to the prosumer level. Apparently, that was a mistake.
Apparently, they will refocus their Scarlet efforts on making a “professional” camera, at “professional” prices.. Which means Expensive, but nice.
The big difference between the two (Scarlet and EPIC) is processing power inside the camera. That means frame rates and REDCODE capabilities. EPIC has every capability. Scarlet does not. EPIC has all the “hard stuff”. We have to look at Scarlet S35 pricing since we are adding capability (HDRx™).
Although, at this point the difference between EPIC and Scarlet is shrinking, and you have to wonder if the price difference is justified.
Personally, I’m glad to see RED getting out of the “consumer” Space alltogether. They make great professional-grade products, and trying to target the DSLR space is a dangerous “race to the bottom” type market, that’s already pretty well dominated by Canon and Nikon. Best let them do what they do best, and focus on the high-end.
via EOSHD.com – Jim Jannard admits defeat against DSLRs, says Scarlet was a mistake.
Big announcements from RED today as they’ve released new firmware for their RED camera to support the now publicly available Mysterium product and a new version of REDCINE-X. One of the biggest features that users will love in REDCINE-X is that they’ve finally added R3DTrim support so that you can trim clips down to exactly what you need. But that’s not all:
Changes from 320 to 321:
- Multiple Rockets supported
- Rocket Video Out fixed.
- R3DTrim added to REDline.
- REDlog Film added to REDline
- RMD files are now saved along with Trim Exports.
- Close button on video player will no longer show up in the middle when fullscreen.
- 64Bit builds have quicktime wrappers working.
- Fixed some dependency issues with Windows 64bit.
- Snapshot file naming for when unique names are needed.
Remember that nasty Firmware bug that had the RED EPIC and SCARLET so far behind schedule that some of us were beginning to wonder if it would ever come to market? Well, a new update from RED on their forums today indicates that the bug has been squashed, production is back on track (albeit late) and they’ve even decided to add just over a centimeter (13mm actually) to the size which gives them new space to add more features.
We are not just behind schedule anymore… we are embarrassingly late. Trust me when I tell you this is a complicated and aggressive project. When one of the most respected companies in the industry is just releasing their brightest new star that does 1/5 of the resolution, half the maximum frame rate, in a box three times the size and for 3 times the price… that should tell you how tough a trick EPIC is.
Having said that, we have located the wicked, mean and nasty bug and our engineering team has put a bullet in the back of it’s head. That pesky bug has put us behind in our schedule (obviously) since it also held up the work that followed it. We are now making the type of progress we had hoped to be making a few months ago.
We have working EPIC cameras… and are adding features on a daily basis. Firmware upgrades are happening fast and furious. But please remember that we are not going to release a buggy camera with limited features this time, so keep that in mind. Lots of testing, upgrading, new features, bug patrol… and all of the above happening now. The RED ONE is now one of the most reliable cameras in the industry (after a humble beginning)… EPIC will not be a step backward.
During this development/testing time we have made the decision to add 13mm of length to the brain (about 1/2″ for those who are metric challenged), which means lots of new board spins to fit. This is small stuff compared to the battle we just had on monster bug patrol.
Tattoo cameras will go out as soon as we have a stable platform with a standard set of features… production to follow as soon as the Tattoo owners give us the thumbs up. We are in a hurry… but not so much as to get it wrong. I don’t think it is productive to promise another date… but we all are on the same page. The sooner the better.
Scarlet is moving along side the EPIC program as the big bug hit it as well. Production of Scarlet will trail EPIC… not exactly sure by how far. A lot of it has to do with just how fast we can get EPIC production rolling and solid.
In the end… we have a great project going on here. Once again… this is not an easy task (neither was the RED ONE)… which is exactly the way we want it. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else doing anything different.
Here’s hoping it’s dead and gone (the bug that is) and the EPIC comes along soon.
While official release of the RED EPIC has been delayed considerably, that’s not holding them back from preparing a whole suite of accessories to complement them upon release. The latest tidbit is an impressive 3D Rig capable of merging two EPIC’s operating at 5K resolution into 3D stereo.
The Element Technica rig is said to weigh just over 45lbs, which is apparently very light for such a setup. The package can be made even lighter if the dual RED Brick batteries are replaced with lighter EPIC-X batteries.
The rig is a prototype, and may be called Pulsar when it is officially released by Element Technica. It’s a modified Neutron rig with a larger mirror box to accommodate the two 3D cameras and their lenses and some other, undisclosed modifications.
The RED Epic and Scarlet still have a ways to go before they catch Duke Nukem Forever, but their legacy as a vaporware product in the video space is well-known. Finally, company founder Jim Jannard has announced what’s been holding them up, and sadly announced that the resolution may lead to even more delays. Apparently there has been a significant firmware bug compounded by manufacturer problems.
The CEO also warned that the issue was compounded by manufacturer problems. He wouldn t name the builder but said it had “significant issues” and that an attempt to build the EPIC camera in the US wasn t working. RED is now looking for a new partner and may see additional delays without a replacement arriving in time.
via RED EPIC, Scarlet hit by major bug, dropped manufacturer | Electronista.
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