Middle East RED community

[Kujtim Ereqi]

My first question:Why many producers in Arab Area That produce TV seriese Specially in kuwait refuse to work with Red ?

There are several reasons IMO (at least here in Kuwait)
1- They do not shoot those TV series with film. They shoot with HD, which is pretty close to DigiBeta (which they used for so long time). So you can't blame them for not using RED, because shooting with RED is more difficult and costs more than HD. It's a fact that a lot of series do not have enough budget..
2- Most directors are from video background. They are comfortable with the idea of WYSIWYG. When it comes to RED they have to develop new skills to deal with focus, exposure, lenses RAW etc, which is not always an easy thing to do.
3- You can't easily get good CC people. This means that you can't pull out the proper beauty of "raw". With HD cameras the first CC is done on set. With RED you have to do it in post..
4- It's not easy to find crew who know to use RED properly.
5- Many of them believe that RED is not stable, especially in hot conditions. You know Gulf area is a very hot one at summer. Most people are surprised when I tell them that we don't have problems with our RED even in summer.

[Mohammed El Sharqawy]

There are several reasons IMO (at least here in Kuwait)
1- They do not shoot those TV series with film. They shoot with HD, which is pretty close to DigiBeta (which they used for so long time). So you can't blame them for not using RED, because shooting with RED is more difficult and costs more than HD. It's a fact that a lot of series do not have enough budget..
2- Most directors are from video background. They are comfortable with the idea of WYSIWYG. When it comes to RED they have to develop new skills to deal with focus, exposure, lenses RAW etc, which is not always an easy thing to do.
3- You can't easily get good CC people. This means that you can't pull out the proper beauty of "raw". With HD cameras the first CC is done on set. With RED you have to do it in post..
4- It's not easy to find crew who know to use RED properly.
5- Many of them believe that RED is not stable, especially in hot conditions. You know Gulf area is a very hot one at summer. Most people are surprised when I tell them that we don't have problems with our RED even in summer.

I'd add to this list from my view:
6- people are used to tape workflows.. which already doesn't take much post while they do half of the work on-set (pre-editing on the fly..).. also tape workflows are cheaper and somehow limiting to the crew in terms of acquisition length..

.....
not having heat problems in the summer of kwait?? hey,, that reaches 50C at some time of the summer.. I'm really impressed by this statement.. coz here people complain about heat issues where they have to restart the camera few times during the shoot and we rarely see 40C or 42C in our summer..
is this a user problem?

[Mohammed El Sharqawy]

After being "pushed" from you.

It's really a pleasure to be part of this group..

Its a Pleasure here too..

May I had used a different word?
you know it happens.. my english isn't that great :-(

[Andrew clemson]

.....
not having heat problems in the summer of kwait?? hey,, that reaches 50C at some time of the summer.. I'm really impressed by this statement.. coz here people complain about heat issues where they have to restart the camera few times during the shoot and we rarely see 40C or 42C in our summer..
is this a user problem?

Heat isnt an issue as long as you take the correct measures. If you have a camera running 12 hours in direct sun with no cooling or shade its going to crap out. Treat it like a member of the crew (ie give it shade, and a break in the cool every now and then) and you cant go far wrong. We get hit with 50++++ heat and we've never had a single heat crash.

[RikiButland]

I agree with Andrew, I have never had a heat issue with my camera's, which always surprises me

[Ido Karilla]

There are several reasons IMO (at least here in Kuwait)
1- They do not shoot those TV series with film. They shoot with HD, which is pretty close to DigiBeta (which they used for so long time). So you can't blame them for not using RED, because shooting with RED is more difficult and costs more than HD. It's a fact that a lot of series do not have enough budget..
2- Most directors are from video background. They are comfortable with the idea of WYSIWYG. When it comes to RED they have to develop new skills to deal with focus, exposure, lenses RAW etc, which is not always an easy thing to do.
3- You can't easily get good CC people. This means that you can't pull out the proper beauty of "raw". With HD cameras the first CC is done on set. With RED you have to do it in post..
4- It's not easy to find crew who know to use RED properly.
5- Many of them believe that RED is not stable, especially in hot conditions. You know Gulf area is a very hot one at summer. Most people are surprised when I tell them that we don't have problems with our RED even in summer.

All true here as well, but, we have convinced one TV series to shoot with RED, it was on air last week and you can here the buzzzzzzzzz

It is five chapters each 50 minutes. I think all involved will not shoot something else for long time. The director for sure, the production company, and the channel that understands that RED means quality image and might push for it for its premium productions.
On the expense argue all in all it gets to maybe 10-15 percent more in post. Here in Israel you save in the rental when you shoot RED compared to an HD cam with pro35. So the total difference is less then 10%.

Bottom line I think a lot of TV is going to go RED in the near future.

[Esmaile Neissi]

guys Don't you think the Rental fees in golf area is way high ? we Rent our pack with Anamorphic set for 500$ for features,But as Mohamade said it's too high in egapt

[Andrew clemson]

Guys, dont you think Gear Ads should be kept to specific or dedicated threads? ;)

Rental fees are what they are for a reason. Comparitively there arent as many cameras in this region as in America or Europe. On top of that the cameras that are going cheap tend to be incomplete kits. (and there are a lot of incomplete kits)

Remember costs reflect the overheads in a given country. If your full kit is going out at $500 a day with lenses it must be very cheap to operate a company where you are based.

[KamalTerro]

Hi all, I'm a RED one owner and user in Dubai and Beirut, Lebanon so its a great idea to have this group for Middle East to share opinion ,
Thanks Kujtim.

[KamalTerro]

Heat isnt an issue as long as you take the correct measures. If you have a camera running 12 hours in direct sun with no cooling or shade its going to crap out. Treat it like a member of the crew (ie give it shade, and a break in the cool every now and then) and you cant go far wrong. We get hit with 50++++ heat and we've never had a single heat crash.

I'm with you andrew don't know why some people had that problem i never had this, especially with the desert as yesterday its 45+ and all are happy with the camera,
cheers