RED announces ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Epic’!
Red has got loads of attention, without much publicity. The information comes from their website and spreads across rapidly to the people concerned without any advertising efforts. When RED one was announced, it was perceived as a scam. But now 100s of features are being shot including the world’s most recognized directors going for it.
Few months back a weird announcement was made of launching a 3K version of RED technology named ‘Scarlet’. The most astonishing was its price tag of 3000usd. The design did have some limitations. Most of the people had problem with the fixed zoom lens being offered. They wanted a PL mount. There were others, who wanted a 35mm size sensor and were willing to pay little bit extra. The argument was that a bigger sensor would need a bigger circuit, which would increase the cost. If the PL mount was incorporated, the buyer will have to spend extra cash to buy lenses, which again would not be cost effective. There were people, who suggested used 16mm glass. But when Scarlet would come out, the 2nd hand glass lenses would vanish from the market. There won’t be many left to satisfy the huge demand. There were few, who told people wanting theses additional features to buy a RED one instead and pay the extra cash. In addition to Scarlet, Red had also announced their 5k camera called Epic.
Mr Jannard and his team did take these inputs seriously and told everyone to hold their breath for their next announcement. 13th Nov 2008 was the chosen date.
On 13th RED enthusiast were stumped by the announcement. RED team had incorporated the PL mount and bigger sensor, a super 35mm size for those, who could afford to pay little bit extra for 7000usd. Instead of calling it a body, RED came up with a term ‘Brain’. For those, who could afford to pay much, have the option of going for a smaller sensor camera, with or without a fixed zoom lens. The price has not being announced yet for these models.
The unique feature of the RED design is its modular concept. You have a brain, which consists of a sensor and lens mount. You attach a battery unit, lens, matte box, hard driver, viewfinder etc to make your camera as you wish. Modular prevents it from going obsolete. If a new technology comes in you just have to turn in your brain and get a new brain. I think you would be getting refunds for your old brain.
You can find all the information at the following link:-
http://www.red.com/epic_scarlet/
But will providing cheap technology makes film making cost effective? It’s a very tricky question. Until and unless one knows, what he is doing it won’t be cost effective. The biggest problem is insecurity! Do you need expensive lenses for you project? Can you shoot your project on a set of Nikon or Canon primes? Independent films are not just low budget films or big budget films without stars. There has to be independent thought involved. Understanding of medium is important. Or one should be so passionate that he is lost in the medium. Coming back to Nikons, they could be the best solution coupled with the REDs for cash strapped makers. The image formed by Nikon or say a Cooke 50mm prime is same. The major difference in a film lens and SLR lens would be its breathing problem. When you zoom a film lens, the transition is smooth, while in SLR lens it would be jerky. So if you do not to zoom or putting it aptly, you can avoid zoom in your film then Nikons would make sense. There would be a bit of problem in pulling focus, may be smarter shot divisions could make it easier.
So simple things like these would determine where the budget ends up.
I came across a camera renting firm, which has Viper, varicams, cinealtas etc. Viper’s rental is around 30,000rs/day. I enquired if they would be getting any REDs. They said they would be getting it soon. I said, ”But what would be the rental “. The answer was that it would be around the cost of viper. But I said,”it’s so cheap than a Viper”. The reply was,” but we will have to buy a lens package of 60 lakhs with it otherwise none of the people in Bollywood would rent it”.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Hi Manjeet,
This was a very informative article. I am currently studying (part-time) film making at NYU but have a very limited knowledge on the equipment used in Bollywood; cameras-lenses-lighting equipment; I frequent the ASC website but there is no Bollywood equivalent of the same. You seem to be more technically aware and urge you to continue providing more technical inputs; dont feel shy to start from the very basics or even providing information like rental rates. This more than all the other review-type articles will help some of us to actually start making our own movies.
Greatly Appreciated,
KV
Handn’t expected a technical article when I read the title..
Thanks for sharing. I shall hopefully appreciate the equiment more now..
“Achamundu achamundu” a
tamil movie is first indian movie to be shot using RED. Actually its earlier than mainstream hollywood use it…
Thanks for such tech blogs… Keep up the good work…
Great article… but the only downside of the RED is the post production work flow. From first hand experience, I can say that In Hollywood, the average post house has a circus trying to incorporate a work flow for RED projects.
I have been asking around here in Mumbai, for those that can handle and manage RED media, and so far I haven’t gotten much positive feedback.
If you guys have any input on post facilities in Mumbai that can handle RED, I would love some feedback.
Thanks!
Manjeet
There is no way in hell the image quality of a Nikon Lens would be the same as that of a Cooke. Cookes for my money are the best lenses in the world and even the rentals are almost double that of the Zeiss Ultra Primes. Consider a Nikon lens which costs maybe 1k to that of a Cooke S4 Prime which is about 40k.
Thanx for the info Manjeet, i like your passion for red cameras! but i believe there is only one company in versova that rents it out, that too with an editing set up.. i am still trying to figure out the complications in post after using red? one being that most of the studios are not adepted to work in hd..
@Mitch: will the depth of field of a Nikon will be diferent from the cooke? or will it treat the light entering the lense differently? please elaborate what u mean.
Manjeet comparing a Cooke S4 Prime with a Nikon SLR lens is like comparing a F1 Car with a Toyota Corolla (My Car). The issues apart from the fact of vignetting, chromatic aberration and breathing is also one of size. The Red’s CMOS is designed to be used with Cine Lenses and not still photography lenses. You will be getting maybe a quarter of the possible resolution and color rendition. Also there is the question of speed. My Nikon zoom lens is T3.5 at full wide and T5.6 at full zoom. In comparison the Cookes are T2. One of the biggest advantages of using HD is the possibility to shoot in available light. Try shooting Night exteriors at T3.5 without rating the ASA at a min of 1000 and you prob won’t even expose anything. The RED is generally rated at ASA 320 so you will need a ton of light for exposure. Bang goes your low budget theory.
What will happen is that people will start using cheaper cine style lenses to shoot projects. One of my fav music video DP’s used Lomo Anamorphic lenses (Cheapest possible Russian made Scope lenses) on a Phanton HD camera to shoot this music video. For all practical purposes the look is as good as film and he got the characteristic anamorphic flaring as well which I think is gorgeous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzEPFqvG5tI
@mitch:nikon zooms can’t be used as explained earlier. the nikon primes must be having bigger aperture, even bigger than F2? may be as fast as 1.2?
BTW the music video looks awesome…how much do these lenses cost?
I think he got a set of lenses for 30k. With a Nikon lens also keep in mind you will have to use an adaptor like the PS Technik which also eats up at least 2 stops. I’m not sure but I think RED has discontinued making mounts apart from the PL mounts.
But the problem with HD especially in India are as follows:
1. High rental as mentioned in the article,
2. Lack of proper guidance in terms of choosing the right HD camera / package based on requirements,
3. Lack of proper workflow guidance,
4. Lack of proper 35mm transfer houses,
5. Transfer is still expensive negating whatever cost benefits that are obtained in shoot time if any.
This has been my experience so far.
Can anyone tell me if I can shoot a feature on HD at 25fps and easily convert it to 24fps on film for a theatrical release?
Also am looking at shooting on one of the Prosumer Cameras which I intend to purchase. Any Idea which one would suit my purpose best considering there are so many around?
And what’s the best resolution to shoot in? 1080? 1080p? 1080i? 720????
Yes my budget is Ultra low, and I know I should be shooting on film and all, but I figure this is the only way I’ll get my film made since I’ve already tried everything else. Besides I think I’ll enjoy making my film this way more.
any help on my queries will be appreciated.