Steve Gibby
Red Savant
As you guys know, Ken Corben and I are now production partners. Both of us make our livings as professional producers/directors/cinematographers. We just received some great news – one of our projects in development has been greenlighted – in other words funded. We’re under NDA on the details of the project, but when we can we’ll release some information on it.
The greenlighting of our project will require us to put nearly all of our time and personal bandwidth into some intense pre-production immediately, and then to launch into the initial phase of field production. We have no way around that, and we had no control over the timing of the greenlighting for the project.
The end result of this is that we have to reschedule LART several weeks later to October. Having the LART tests then doesn’t really impact the value of the tests to the RED community, other than anticipation, since it will happen long before the majority of the RED cameras ship. We’ll post the projected dates for LART when we decide on them. We’re really disappointed about having to do that, but as working professionals we think the members of the RED community will understand. I’ve spent nearly two years on RED forums contributing insight into the motion media industry, tech suggestions for RED adopters, and connecting the dots for RED community members. Ken has also spent a lot of time contributing to the RED community. I think you guys know there is no way we would reschedule LART and disappoint the RED community if there was any other solution for us. There isn’t. We’re working professionals and we need to work on a schedule that is dictated by greenlighting of projects, and the resultant delivery dates to our distribution entities.
This delay has absolutely nothing to do with the delivery schedule of the first RED cameras. The latest word from RED is that serial numbers 1-50 will deliver by the end of this month – and the end of this month is only 16 days away. Our greenlighted project will be using my RED #8 and a few other RED cameras in that first batch of cameras to deliver. In view of that, you can definitely expect to see some posts from us about our RED camera usage impressions on this forum between when the cameras deliver and when we have the LART in October. Those posts will be in-field, on-location insights that many of you will definitely find useful and interesting. We’ll be using a wide range of setups, lenses, and equipment so our feedback should help all of you as you plan your own future projects with RED One systems.
If you think about it, there is also a cool upside to our necessary push of the LART to October. RED has said that the first batch of shipping cameras will be limited in features, but will be quickly upgraded thereafter. If most of the operational firmware for the cameras has been upgraded by October, then the breadth and validity of the LART testing will be exponentially increased – in other words the testing by the LART team would be able to produce a lot more usable data and impressions.
I want to extend my thanks to the LART team for their commitment to be on the team, and invite them to stay aboard for the October testing. I believe my announcement today is early enough to have pre-dated the purchase of any airline tickets and hotel reservations by team members. If not, I’d ask the team members to contact me and Ken via PM or email so we can talk about their situation. I’d like to thank the membership of RED User for their contribution to the LART meals fund. We have those funds escrowed away in an account for use for LART meals in October.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours of my own time establishing and managing the LART testing, and so has Ken. We’re really disappointed to have to push LART, but as I’ve explained above it is absolutely necessary at this point. I think you know we’d do anything to keep from disappointing you guys and we’ve always gone out of our way to help and advise everyone here. We think the October LART sessions will be even better than the sessions we would have had in September, and we are also committed to posting some real helpful on-location usage impressions of RED One that will be very helpful to all of you as we wait for LART.
The greenlighting of our project will require us to put nearly all of our time and personal bandwidth into some intense pre-production immediately, and then to launch into the initial phase of field production. We have no way around that, and we had no control over the timing of the greenlighting for the project.
The end result of this is that we have to reschedule LART several weeks later to October. Having the LART tests then doesn’t really impact the value of the tests to the RED community, other than anticipation, since it will happen long before the majority of the RED cameras ship. We’ll post the projected dates for LART when we decide on them. We’re really disappointed about having to do that, but as working professionals we think the members of the RED community will understand. I’ve spent nearly two years on RED forums contributing insight into the motion media industry, tech suggestions for RED adopters, and connecting the dots for RED community members. Ken has also spent a lot of time contributing to the RED community. I think you guys know there is no way we would reschedule LART and disappoint the RED community if there was any other solution for us. There isn’t. We’re working professionals and we need to work on a schedule that is dictated by greenlighting of projects, and the resultant delivery dates to our distribution entities.
This delay has absolutely nothing to do with the delivery schedule of the first RED cameras. The latest word from RED is that serial numbers 1-50 will deliver by the end of this month – and the end of this month is only 16 days away. Our greenlighted project will be using my RED #8 and a few other RED cameras in that first batch of cameras to deliver. In view of that, you can definitely expect to see some posts from us about our RED camera usage impressions on this forum between when the cameras deliver and when we have the LART in October. Those posts will be in-field, on-location insights that many of you will definitely find useful and interesting. We’ll be using a wide range of setups, lenses, and equipment so our feedback should help all of you as you plan your own future projects with RED One systems.
If you think about it, there is also a cool upside to our necessary push of the LART to October. RED has said that the first batch of shipping cameras will be limited in features, but will be quickly upgraded thereafter. If most of the operational firmware for the cameras has been upgraded by October, then the breadth and validity of the LART testing will be exponentially increased – in other words the testing by the LART team would be able to produce a lot more usable data and impressions.
I want to extend my thanks to the LART team for their commitment to be on the team, and invite them to stay aboard for the October testing. I believe my announcement today is early enough to have pre-dated the purchase of any airline tickets and hotel reservations by team members. If not, I’d ask the team members to contact me and Ken via PM or email so we can talk about their situation. I’d like to thank the membership of RED User for their contribution to the LART meals fund. We have those funds escrowed away in an account for use for LART meals in October.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours of my own time establishing and managing the LART testing, and so has Ken. We’re really disappointed to have to push LART, but as I’ve explained above it is absolutely necessary at this point. I think you know we’d do anything to keep from disappointing you guys and we’ve always gone out of our way to help and advise everyone here. We think the October LART sessions will be even better than the sessions we would have had in September, and we are also committed to posting some real helpful on-location usage impressions of RED One that will be very helpful to all of you as we wait for LART.
