RED's militaristic branding and marketing.

[Dominik Muench]

I think my RED fits in nicely with my other shooting utensils

[Raymond Zananiri]

We're in a terrible age of repression and intolerance. Very saddening. I recently dug out an old script that I wrote long time ago and found myself needing to change something in every other page, fearing that I might offend someone or another. When will all this be over?

[Robert Hart]

QUOTE: "I think my RED fits in nicely with my other shooting utensils."

You Americans really get to play with the best toys. Here in Oz, cameras and handthrown rocks is about as good as it gets for the humble cit who does not live on a broadacre farm or station (ranch).

Even this thing will get you a tap on the shoulder these days. When I was a kid in the 1960s we could wear them as a necKlace and the cops would just stop you to ask for directions to an address in the neighbourhood before street numbers were allocated.

SHANGHAI.jpg

[Misha Engel]

After seeing RED’s new Youtube videos touting “RED TECH | ARSENAL '' posted the day after Jan 6, I couldn’t stop thinking about how so much of RED’s branding throughout the years has always alluded to weaponry and how it plays right into America’s culture of violence. I don’t know about anyone else, but especially after the events last week here in the US, I’m pretty tired of seeing the glorification of guns and war overall, but I’m especially discouraged to keep seeing it featured so prominently by RED in our community of filmmaking.

Shit got real this week.

Shit is real in countries like Afganistan, Jemen, Irak, etc.. they where invadid by the US-military and private military companies like Blackwater and not with RED camera's but with the killing stuff. When Wikileaks uncovered this with the help of Manning and Assange... well we all know(or atleast should know) how that went. RED with it's skull branding is just fun for people who live in a "free" country. I'm more worried about how US-tax money is spend outside the US and Trump being the first president who didn't start a physical WAR(where most if not all previous ones since WOII did).
Let RED keep it's branding and hope more people understand the horrors of WAR financed with US tax-money.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4785472/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

[Dominik Muench]

QUOTE: "I think my RED fits in nicely with my other shooting utensils."

You Americans really get to play with the best toys. Here in Oz, cameras and handthrown rocks is about as good as it gets for the humble cit who does not live on a broadacre farm or station (ranch).

I'm based on the Gold Coast mate ;)

[Jaime Vallés]

Agree completely with the original post. It's time for RED's branding to grow up.

[Christoffer Glans]

I've never been a fan of the military aesthetics of Red. The same ways I'm not a fan of alienware and similar computers when trying to get performance equipment for post-production. I think it's juvenile and unnecessarily niche.
But when it comes to technology, there's a reason why Apple makes big bucks on clean and smooth design. They're the only ones who seem to have a good sense of the design and function combinations while everyone else, literally, everyone else don't.

I'm glad that the military-style seems to be an outgoing trend though, hopefully, it never comes back. I remember when Weapon cameras even got held up at airports due to the name "Weapon" being on the delivery papers.

I also don't understand why it has to do with cinematography and photography. Only recently when Jarred expressed his love for old medium format cameras in relation to Komodo did I sense a more logical sense of design around the love for images. I think that a proper design and naming for camera equipment should celebrate the art of cinematography, filmmaking and photography rather than the mess that Red gear has been under.

I would hope that the DSMC3 system would be renamed to something more in line of smooth and clean design. Just look at the clean design, name and feeling of quality of Hasselblad or Leica. When people mention or holds a Hasselblad, it is something impressive. A Red with the "Weapon" logo screaming at the front does not feel quality for anyone but the ones who knows about Red's quality cameras. So I'd wish we get a 180 turn of these things into a more prestine slick and quality-oozing design and naming.

In my opinon, the Komodo is the best designed camera from Red ever. But I think the paint and markings could look better and less chaotic. Having a background in design work, I think Red can do better going forward.

[Ryan Sauve]

Personally, I was excited to see the potential opportunity for RED to move from military-themed branding to space-themed when the Gemini came out (if we're going to have themed branding at all). Alas, it didn't stick and I find that quite unfortunate.

[Alexander Sutton-Hough]

Next thing you know, it will be uncalled for to say "I'm going to go out and SHOOT with my camera" As much smack as I talk about RED the naming conventions will not be one of them..

Growing up in San Diego in school in the 2000s there were a lot of school shootings from white teenage boys trying to shoot up high-schools. My highschool was because the boy was rejected by the on campus military recruiter for being overweight. He came back with a shot gun and tried to kill everyone one in the office and was shot in the street by off duty police officer who was dropping his kid off. In the lockers near by still had bullet holes for years to come. This was two weeks after the Santana high school shooting few miles away and a kid killed bunch of students. My Dad grew up two blocks from the famous 70s girl who hated Mondays and shot up a whole elementary school. So yeah I make it a habit of not to say shooting and say filming instead as often as I can. Also grew up in school during 9/11 and at my school had a lot of mild eastern families in a very Republican racist area. So the notion of watching what you say was also on every student's mind to protect our mild eastern friends. Also watched a lot of friends go to war after highschool and regretted it. So I keep respect by not devaluing their service and playing into juvenile views of playing pretend soldier with my camera gear and cinematography career. Also my country just had a domestic terrorist attack by white guys fantasy they are some kind of revolutionary soldier.

[Mark Phelan]

I've never have an issue with the "militaristic" naming convention used by RED. Like Phil, I thought calling the viewfinder a BOMB was going to be an issue at the airport, i.e. "You can't say bomb on a plane" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCN31uK45GE

It's all a bit of fun and people in 2021 are WAY TOO easily offended. People are looking for reasons to take offense, and I find that offensive.

If there's anything I'd like RED to change, it'd be the use of the name RED multiple times on every bit of gear. It's almost as if they think we have amnesia and can't remember the name of that company the Oakley guy started. What's his name?