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A friend of mine invited me to a screening of her short film. She must have noticed my usual excuse of not having a car and proceeded to add further incentive by promising “free beer and food”. Needless to say I was sold but I had to convince another friend of mine to tag along and did so by offering “free beer, free food and lotsa hot girls”. The last bit was shameless conjecture on my part but happily I was proven right.

So there we were last week on a Sunday in a full house auditorium in Little Tokyo watching screening of short films based ostensibly on the issue of human trafficking. I think there were bout 10 films in total. Some were ok, a couple were good, a couple were basically youtube videos masquerading as shorts and one was an extremely offensive piece of christian missionary propaganda bullshit which almost had me leave in disgust. I almost did but the grim realisation that I would have to develop a much thicker skin if I was to flourish here made me stay. Thankfully though the next film restored my faith that the future of America isn’t “Jesus Camp”.  

The grand finale of the evening however was a very slick film called “The Debt” directed by a fellow named Andrew. I was blown away by the production value of the film. It was shot on the RED with 35mm primes and the bokeh on the film was just gorgeous. It was the first time I had seen a film shot on the RED and not just test footage and I was sold on the look of it.

It was a 20 min film shot on a budget of 10k in three days and quite a few locations. The cinematography was the best part of the film while the acting came in second. The story however felt like a chicken soup for the sould anecdote but who am I to complain ? I still cry every time at the climax of “Chariots of Fire” and “The Iron Giant”.

So apparently while the shooting went smoothly enough, post production was an absolute nightmare with major issues cropping up related to downconverting the footage. A huge amount of time and money was spent in R&D but things can only get smoother and better in the future. More and more indie shorts and features are being shot on the RED with even studios tentatively testing the waters.

A caveat I must add is that all the Cinematographers I have spoken to which included ASC members concurred that it was still in BETA stage and anybody attempting to shoot a film on would have to contend with a very steep learning curve and the equipment not being rock solid as compared to other cameras. A friend of mine got his package a week ago and I’m chomping at the bit at the prospect of doing some tests.

So what does all this mean for the filmmaker looking to hit the big time ? Well in simple words movies will def look better but that doesn’t mean that the films themselves will be better. A camera or a format is just a tool to tell the story and the general audience doesn’t really care what the acquisition format is of for other technical stuff for that matter. It’s people like me who will see a bad film just coz it had good technique though even I draw the line sometimes. Cases in point would be “21″ and “Doomsday”. Ordinary technique and extraordinarily bad films.

Production costs will come down considerably but only with regards to acquisition. It will take the same amount of time to shoot and in most cases a lot more compared to a film shot on celluloid because directors would want to improvise. It’s also tougher to light for HD than film coz of the reduced latitude, a lesson I learnt the hard way. Crews still have to be paid and fed and actors still have to be paid their salaries so all in all film budgets won’t lessen that much or maybe not at all.

However it is now possible to shoot a very slick looking feature in the wonderful state of California for anything between 25k to 50k with the crew being paid and not having deferrals which never come to anything anyways. This is of course is just the production cost and the figure is for an intimate drama and not Michael Bay-esque blockbusters with things blowing up every 2 minutes.

Getting a distribution deal still remains a huge bottleneck and it’s a scenario which isn’t gonna change for a while yet. The reason being….ok ask yourself this question. How many people would pay the same amount of money to watch an indie film with actors they have never heard of, an unknown director and a limited marketing when up against it is the next studio blockbuster. Some crazies like me would go but a vast majority wouldn’t. Heck my parents won’t go watch a film in the theatres unless it has some of their fav stars in it. Who can blame them ? It’s their money and they are free to choose their form of entertainment.

It’s churlish to expect patronage without laying the groundwork for it. Sure Soderbergh shot his biopic of Che on the RED but he has 2 decades of massively solid indie and studio cred behind him. Plus he has Benicio play Che. I would watch Benicio play a dead body after his performances in “Traffic” and “Things we lost in the Fire” But even Soderbergh couldn’t make waves with “Bubble” which he shot with unknowns. Not many people have even heard of the film so even his cred couldn’t pull the magic trick off.

So IMHO the RED is a great tool but that’s what it is and nothing more. Anybody expecting a revolution which will shake the feudal structure of the film business by it’s roots is in for a nasty surprise. In the meantime it’s an awesome oppurtunity to get your filmmaking chops and not have the result look like a youtube  video shot on your mom’s handycam.