Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Combat RED

Scott M

Scott M

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 1, 2007
Messages
188
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
CONUS
As I've mentioned before, it's been a dream of mine to be able to film service members while deployed on a camera capable of archival quality, and now I'm able to do so on my current deployment.

First, thanks to my partner in crime MrDorf, Bret Weeks and Pywl for jumping through a bunch of hoops last minute to get the equipment out to me so that I could put it to use for a couple weeks.

They managed to ship the camera (#97x) to me along with an Angenieux 20-120 and our only currently available tripod, the Cartoni Focus. Here's a shot after I put it together.

redaf03cx1.jpg


Those of you already squirming at the idea of the Cartoni, rightfully so. I've tried to make the best of it, but let this be a lesson to the very real need for a capable tripod when using the RED. No matter how I try to cradle the setup, I just can't keep it truly steady.

The footage is of course all on the fly, natural light at either 1/60sec or 1/92sec shutter that I've been able to capture in about 1.5 hours of spare filming time here so far, I'll put something else together with more footage when I get back home.

Combat RED - 28MB H.264 480P 2mb/sec (low bitrate because my upload speed here is 2kb/sec) 4K 2:1 and 2K 2:1 for overcrank, no color correction applied, just white balance and exposure reset. Edited together off proxies in FCP.

I've only shot on it for a short bit of time here, no issues so far shooting on build 14. The weather isn't bad right now and I've been blowing the camera down with compressed air as often as possible in response to dust. Everything that's not being used is tapped up with gaffer's tape.

Edited to add the following clips and photo and interview:

 FINAL EDIT - 280MB - or Vimeo at http://www.vimeo.com/1021632 <<16MAY08

FXGuide INTERVIEW http://www.fxguide.com/redcentre Episode #015 <<21SEP08

Mission Complete - 10MB H.264 480P 2mb/sec

Aerial Afghanistan - 13MB (same as above)



redafpn2.jpg
 
Wow! That is great looking stuff, I like it even without the color correction. The little tripod must be frustrating, it looks like you are getting along ok without it though! Try one of those 50cal mounts!

God bless you and your service to our country.
 
get the equipment out to me so that I could put it to use for a couple weeks.
Click to expand...

Just a couple of weeks? If your going to have it longer I have a o'conner 50 I'll send you.

Great little clip, really nice.

Cheers,

Nick
 
Way cool and thanks for the hard work!
 
Ditto all the above...

Jim
 
Great job editing this. I love the counterintuitive music and the way you put this together.
 
Inspiring on so many levels. The footage, the cause, everything.

It also has inspired me to finally pack up the camera and get out of the studio where I have been shooting charts and things like that. Time to go film the real world.
 
The big zooms are tricky for handheld. I'm still getting a feel for my rig. Need a bit more of a cushion for the shoulder pad and need to get the balance just right.
 
Yeah, the setup we rigged up weighs almost 38lbs, so he's going to be hurting pretty quick.

It was a challenge in itself just figuring out what to send. When the opportunity came up we had 2 Reds in our shop (2 more have since arrived), limited lens/accessory supply, and productions going on weekly. Deciding what to send out on what could be a once in a lifetime shoot opportunity vs. what to keep in the shop to pay the bills was beyond tough. Add into the equation that there's a higher than average equipment wear and tear (That superfine Afghanistan sand pretty much rendered an XL1 unusable during MrGlory's last deployment), and it's a complete ENG style enviroment where zooms and general mobility are the order of the day and your options start getting smaller and smaller quickly. On top of all that, we knew his deployment ends at the beginning of April, and shipping averages a good week to get there. Assembling the package and getting it off as rapidly as possible was a huge priority and again prevented us from really getting the best solution as opposed to the "right now" solution (hence the Cartoni and 38lb setup). Again, just another giant public thank you to two other Redusers here on the boards, Pywl and Bret Weeks. The setup that made it to MrGlory wouldn't have been possible without their support at every turn.

We had some other unexpected challenges to overcome as well...first and foremost, MrGlory's been fairly disconnected for a few months now, and I cringed when one of his first emails to me after receiving the camera was "Why are my proxies not showing up?". Things we all take for granted now as common knowledge (for the love of god don't upgrade to QT 7.4) have cropped back up in spades. Since he's been out of the loop we've DP'ed and DIT'ed ~15 shows with #97 and #636, so I've been trying to download as much practical working knowledge of camera and its strengths and weaknesses to him as possible. Obviously workarounds have been found, info has been absorbed, and footage is flowing freely. What you saw in the OP was shot and edited less than 12 hours after he received #97x, and it's only going to get better as time goes on.

Oh, and some perspective on just what kind of guy MrGlory is, since it need to be said and he won't tell you himself...He's not just some fulltime combat cameraman, he's a real world DP that shoots for the Army National Guard all over the country with our company Glory Cubed Productions. He's also a member of the Air National Guard (as is his wife), where he serves as a Aerial door gunner in a very unique (and active) Combat Search and Rescue helicopter unit. They fly primarily at night, meaning he's working a graveyard shift and shooting RED during the day, and he's doing it all on his own time, singlehandedly. This is something we've been hoping to do for quite awhile now, and it's only possible because of the personal sacrifices he's making and the support of our partner company DR&A here in Nashville. In short, the guy is a machine and this is the realization of nothing short of his dream to capture this unique footage at this quality.

We'll keep you all as updated as possible...and for our first teaser there's tentative plans in the works to get airborne in the very near future :gun: .
 
congrats for that big rig which is suppose to big enough form combat

situations. Was that in afganistan ?.. ( is it allowerd to shoot in military zone):)

i like angeneiux feeling and it was quite shap footages.:shifty:

i Guess you dsidn't do any grading i think .it needs a little bit up of saturation

good luck .
 
arrinick said:
Just a couple of weeks? If your going to have it longer I have a o'conner 50 I'll send you.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I really appreciate the offer, I would've jumped on it but the remainder of my tour is not long enough to make it worth while.

Thanks to everyone else for the comments, it's a learning experience as usual ;), and thanks to the RED team for providing the tool to make it possible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top