Filming on the Red One

Filming on the RED was a new experience for most of the crew on the production of Light Rain. We chose to use this as opposed to the Arri D21 for a variety of reasons - the main one being cost. But with over four times the resolution of HD, for the first time a digital camera is achieving the same quality as a film camera!

The RED has a great reputation in the industry for producing images of a comparable quality to the that of a 35mm camera, so at a fraction of the cost it is no wonder that big Hollywood blockbusters like The Knowing, The Lovely Bones, District 9, Gamer, Angels and Demons (and many more) are choosing the RED over the more traditional and more expensive film alternatives.

Typical high-end HD camcorders have 2.1M pixel sensors and record with 3:1:1 color sub-sampled video at up to 30fps. RED offers the super 35mm cine sized (24.4×13.7mm) sensor, which provides 4K (up to 30 fps), 3K (up to 60 fps) and 2K (up to 120 fps) capture, and all this with wide dynamic range and color space in 12 bit native RAW. At 4K, that’s more than 5 times the amount of information available every second and a vastly superior recording quality. There are two major benefits gained from these formats; when shooting at 4k the depth of field is the same as 35mm film, giving a look that is appreciated by most directors. When shooting 2k it is possible to shoot high speed, up to 120fps, which is the rate we shot at for al of the slow motion shots on Light Rain.

Even at its lowest setting, the RED One has a bitrate of around 225 Mbs, much higher than the 140 Mbs of HD-Cam and considerably higher than the BBC minimum requirement for HD material of 100 Mbs.

Jason Torbitt was my cameraman on the production of Light Rain, he has used the RED a few times now and so he had some good feedback to give...

'Once we, as a crew, became familiar with the regime of drive changes and card changes, and waiting for the camera to initialise, it was very straightforward to operate. The camera menu is thoughtfully laid out in a well-organised way, and makes it straightforward to locate and adjust settings...

Most importantly, the quality of the image and the sheer beauty of the pictures which come from the RED, for the price, are quite incredible. With a depth of field so shallow it could easily be mistaken for 35mm, and full HD images where every drop of water stands out to the human eye, it looks stunning!'

As a director using the RED was quite an effortless process. It comes with an on-board 5.6" LCD screen which is very clear, even in bright light with rain drops all over it! I could easily view the screen which is either mounted on the camera or hand-held with a 2m cable. And it was also possible to connect up to an HD Monitor where I could view the playback at a higher quality and check the framing, composition and focus.

It also had the added bonus that the lenses where easy to change. Most lens changes require quite a bit of dexterity and time, but the RED was quicker and easier which gained valuable time in change-over between shots.

However, I can't sing the praises of the RED too much. As Jason reminds me that it becomes a very bulky creature when it is fully-loaded with accessories. I remember on the day of the shoot I had allocated 30mins of stedicam work for Jason and this meant running along side the actors with a very heavy rig. I don't think I was too popular at that particular time! Add to that a production matte box, filters and follow focus, handheld work with the shoulder brace on an 85mm became a definite challenge, but at least he had a good workout!

Jason also mentioned that there are also some minor glitches and errors which can occur, including errors with recording to the drives, or issues with capturing in post.

'There are also odd faults with differing builds. One such example is during playback. I’m told it is a problem which sometimes occurs with Build 17 – that if sound is being recorded directly into the camera, during playback of files a green flashing occasionally flashes up on the output image. This is resolved by disconnecting both EVF and the LCD, then reconnecting them...and the fault is cured!'

Unfortunately camera errors can occur on any camera, but as technology increases and brings more options and menu setting, the likelihood for errors increases. From a director's POV the worst thing would be wasting precious production time trying to fix them or wasting time trying to work out the menu screen. That is why it is an absolute MUST to have a qualified DIT on site at all times. If you choose to cut this cost from your budget to save a few pounds, you are risking everything...my advice is, don't be penny wise and pound foolish...always to have a DIT on site!

So with a good DIT available and a cameraman with hulking muscles, I think that the RED ONE is the logical choice for any director who wants to achieve a high quality finish at a fraction of the costs. I can't wait to use it again!

http://www.steadicam-facilities.co.uk/

http://www.vladmartins.com/

http://www.red.com/