film schools

[Peter Lyons Collister ASC]

When I went to USC film school in the med 70's we had Bell & Howell 70 Drs and one CP16 from Cinema Products and 10 Eclair NPRs for 16mm production.

I believe that the Scarlet will be the perfect Film School camera. Affordable, and sturdy. With multiple lens mounts and with high enough resolution for any project.

WHat does everyone think about that?

Peter

 

[paulherrin]

I agree. Now convince the schools...

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

People say the tools aren't what matters... that's bullocks. I can't count how often in film school a decent 800 ISO camera would have been a life saver. I remember spending so much time just trying to compress the dynamic range of a scene to fit the miniscule window of the sensor--which was a completely different experience from shooting on film and just trusting the medium to keep up. I think something like Scarlet-X would be perfect, it's digital so it lets you see the effects of your work on the monitor immediately and encourages experimentation while also having the dynamic range and resolution to let your work shine.

 

[Jared Caldwell]

I think Scarlet will be perfect for film schools...but I'm unconvinced film schools are perfect for filmmakers. :}

 

[Nick Wernham]

People say the tools aren't what matters... that's bullocks. I can't count how often in film school a decent 800 ISO camera would have been a life saver. I remember spending so much time just trying to compress the dynamic range of a scene to fit the miniscule window of the sensor--which was a completely different experience from shooting on film and just trusting the medium to keep up. I think something like Scarlet-X would be perfect, it's digital so it lets you see the effects of your work on the monitor immediately and encourages experimentation while also having the dynamic range and resolution to let your work shine.

This is bang on. There's only so much that you can do artistically with a 1/3" sensor camcorder like an HVX200. Cameras like that have their purpose and I can see plenty of reasons why at one point they were the best thing going for film students, but that time has long since passed.

 

[Joseph Hutson]

I think Scarlet will be perfect for film schools...but I'm unconvinced film schools are perfect for filmmakers. :}

It seems to have panned out pretty well for our friend, Peter.

I have a feeling that a lot of one's success is not owed to film school, but the individual's knack/intuition/drive. (at least that's what I hope) hehe. From what I have seen, Peter, you are such a rad dude.

 

[Jared Caldwell]

I think that whatever you are passionate about, it is ALWAYS good to put yourself in an environment where you are surrounded by people you can learn and grow with. Film school can be that very place for a lot of people, so you can't say that film school doesn't work.

I do think that there are other environments that can also help a starting filmmaker become successful (Joseph, you are a prime example!). The difficulty I think that comes with film school is the cost vs. payoff for many. For a lot of film students, the payoff never comes.

What I do think is excellent about Scarlet is the price. As technology becomes more affordable, those savings can also be passed down to film students, alleviating somewhat the financial burden of film school. Price versus payout becomes a lot more attractive at that point. :}

 

[Nick Wernham]

It seems to have panned out pretty well for our friend, Peter.

I have a feeling that a lot of one's success is not owed to film school, but the individual's knack/intuition/drive. (at least that's what I hope) hehe. From what I have seen, Peter, you are such a rad dude.

I've been finished film school for a couple of years now so this would not apply to me, but it would be really cool if once distribution of the Scarlet stabilizes a bit and some of the technology in it because somewhat less expensive to produce they started offering student discounts or packages for film students. Perhaps throwing in a "starter kit" of some basic rail components, a matte box, and some extra batteries and media at a comparatively reduced price (not suggesting free, obviously).

 

[Detlev Eller]

When I went to USC film school in the med 70's we had Bell & Howell 70 Drs and one CP16 from Cinema Products and 10 Eclair NPRs for 16mm production.

I believe that the Scarlet will be the perfect Film School camera. Affordable, and sturdy. With multiple lens mounts and with high enough resolution for any project.

WHat does everyone think about that?

Peter

... i guess, the film schools need to catch up with modern style and methods and buy epics + scarlets ... ;-)

hehe

 

[Peter Lyons Collister ASC]

Film Schools

Film Schools

What is great about Scarlet is that it may be the perfect digital cinema camera for film schools. When I went to film school back in the 70s we had Bell & Howell 70DRs for non sync, a few Arri S, a CP-16R and 8 Eclair NPRs. Except for the B&H's all of those cameras cost more than 10,000 in 1974 dollars!


I have loaned my RED One MX to film schools for semesters at a time and they loved it.

So I think Jim has done a great service in that now film schools can have a rugged camera capable of shooting 4K and modular and upgradable.
They can have PL glass AND Canon glass.

 

[Jeff Lower]

A fantastic thought.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

It seems to have panned out pretty well for our friend, Peter.

I have a feeling that a lot of one's success is not owed to film school, but the individual's knack/intuition/drive. (at least that's what I hope) hehe. From what I have seen, Peter, you are such a rad dude.

It varies wildly based on the film school too. I honestly think though I could teach everything useful I learned from class in film school in less than a week. Everything else is just learning by example, how do you solve XYZ problem? What film school does do that you can't get anywhere else is very easily is a safe environment to fail. I believe if your thesis film is ANY GOOD at the end of film school you've failed. That's the only time in your life you're going to be able to go *WAY* outside your comfort zone to try something that is more likely to fail than not--once you have clients and budgets and you have to succeed more often than not to make back your investor's money you can't throw stuff against the wall anymore to see what sticks.

Watch all of the great directors' super early work from film school or as a kid. You can almost always see their distinctive and distinguishable style. It's almost always unwatchably terrible but you see those handful of shots and creative choices that you can clearly identify and say "oh, that's a Ridley Scott movie".

I think circumventing that process on your own or in film school endangers you to becoming a very capable artist but not one that has anything to make them stand out from the crowd. But honestly I think all of that is less useful than being a well rounded person who has something to say. If I could 'go back' and do it again I would have gotten a degree in philosophy or something else equally impractical. Ultimately though Drive and courage is more likely though to help you be successful than anything else. And you can't teach that anywhere.

 

[axel ebermann]

damn. that must have been a fancy film school you went to. at brooklyn college we had moldy ceilings, a couple of beat
up Arri SRs (still the best camera EVER) - one noisy SR1 and an asthmatic Eclair NPR.
but that was in 2000 !!!

Oh - we had escalators. I don't think they ever worked though

What is great about Scarlet is that it may be the perfect digital cinema camera for film schools. When I went to film school back in the 70s we had Bell & Howell 70DRs for non sync, a few Arri S, a CP-16R and 8 Eclair NPRs. Except for the B&H's all of those cameras cost more than 10,000 in 1974 dollars!


I have loaned my RED One MX to film schools for semesters at a time and they loved it.

So I think Jim has done a great service in that now film schools can have a rugged camera capable of shooting 4K and modular and upgradable.
They can have PL glass AND Canon glass.

 

[James Drake]

The film school I went to had a Red One. Fantastic learning experience, likewise and even more so with Scarlet. The Red army continues to grow...

 

[Scott Miller]

Like James, the film school I went to also had an R1, later MX. Of course it is still here in my classroom/living room/DIT suite.. I think you get the idea

When I was a teenager, we bought a Canon S8MM and that is what we shot on. It was the tool we could afforsd, a good one at the time, and we did the best we could. We read, we watched, we worked to afford film stock and developing. And to build sets.

So in short Peter, yes, brilliant observation. Whether you are attending a real, brick and mortar FS or buying your own and making your own FS in your spare time, it s a great tool and will allow you to capture nuance of light and shadow far beyond what was available @ that price point. And what you can then craft and coax from your negative AFTER shooting will stun these students. RAW is amazing.

 

[Peter Strietmann]

Yep, perfect for film schools. Beats the hell out of a scoopic.

 

[Tom Greenberg]

As the Cinematography instructor at a very committed and progressive film school, I have to agree with Peter...Scarlet is indeed the perfect camera for us. We are not teaching a broadcast or typical video production curriculum...we teach cine-style production, DIT and post. It is a highly accelerated program where the students earn a 60 credit hour Associates of Science degree in 12 months....they work their butts off.

We want our students to learn and train on the same equipment and software tools that they will encounter out in the "real" world. Because of budgetary limitations we have been shooting mostly with DSLRs and Canon L-series glass (at least students learn about DOF, focal length, exposure and dynamic range). Thanks to some DP friends at local production companies, a couple of times a year we bring in a RED One with RPPs and do some serious in-class training. We also try to arrange for our students to use RED Ones when they shoot their thesis projects.

In the past, we've talked about purchasing a RED One, but unlike those of you who use your camera for commercial projects, we have no revenue coming in from clients to pay for our gear. All of our equipment budget comes out of tuition dollars or donations (we are a private school and receive no state or federal funding). The cost of a RED One at $27K plus accessories has been prohibitive for us. The idea that we can now have digital cinema cameras that shoot 4K at 24fps for under $10K is a huge benefit to us. We can invest in quality camera support gear and glass and build our inventory up over time. And we can have more Scarlets, and share accessories...more Scarlets means more students get their hands on cameras more often. And that is our real goal...get our students as much hands-on time as possible.

The other huge advantage to us, is that Scarlet has the exact same menu structure, controls and accessories as Epic. When we are training our students to be employable after graduation, if they have learned on Scarlets, then they can step right into an Epic shoot and know exactly how to run the camera, change lenses, adjust support gear, and generally be way ahead of the learning curve.

I've just finished preparing my budget for the coming year and it includes several Scarlets, some SSD media, and various RED accessories. To me Scarlet is indeed the perfect film school camera!

 

[Enrique Blein]

I went to film school and I went to university. I always felt antagonistic to many of the ideas I heard, I also embraced the ones I agreed upon. At the time I thought as Joseph did. Now I feel they formed a vision in me far more important than the technical aspect.