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Werner Herzog and RED

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Phillip Stefani

Phillip Stefani

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Someone just passed along this snippet from an interview with Werner Herzog in the latest DGA Quarterly:

 Q: What about shooting digitally?

A: We used the RED camera for My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. It's an immature camera created by computer people who do not have a sensibility or understanding for the value of high-precision mechanics, which has a 200-year history. It's terrible: Whenever you have to reboot the camera, it takes 4½ minutes or so. It drove me insane, because sometimes something is happening and you can't just push the button and record it. An assistant cameraman said this camera would be ideal if we were filming the National Library in Paris, which has been sitting there for centuries. But everything that moves faster than a library is a problem for the RED.

full interview is HERE
 
Just another example of an old school film maker who is afraid of change...
the camera takes 90 seconds... not 4 1/2 min...

Im wondering if he had a bad DIT onset which made his experience less than perfect.

These guys who know nothing about digital and are unwilling to learn, simply fear it. they feel as if their lively hood is getting pushed aside and they cant keep up with the new tech..
 
yesterday the shatter of a 435 pannavised crash when filming an Audi comercial, the director drove insane... (this is real)

how many times a RedOne needs to rebot??
how many times a Arri needs to re-charge??
 
Wow.

First of all, computer people can't just "make a camera". As the RED team has shown over the past few years, it takes a lot of time and way too much effort to even dive into the thought of it.

Second of all, immature camera? WTF? I'm sure the first R1 camera holders have realized how much the camera HAS matured over it's lifetime, which has only been slightly 2 years. The RED rocks, but as with any single individual it might not be a good fit. For someone like Werner, the guy has been shooting film for over 30 years, of course it'll be hard for him to adapt. He's a classic filmmaker and he perfected the way you use a film camera. He won't be able to just turn around and start getting used to digital in a heartbeat.

And why the hell did he shoot a movie with the cam when he was having all these problems? Didn't he do any tests with it? And if he did then why didn't he notice the problems then?

4 1/2 minutes to boot a camera? Be serious now. That's absolutely ridiculous.

"...everything that moves faster than a library is a problem for the RED." <---I think that's a big HELL NO.

Gamer is a great example of how fast RED can move, plus a dozen other movies, tv shows, commercials out there.
 
Oh I'm sure he'll reconsider eventually. Fool? Doubt it. He's a passionate artist with specific expectations. I remember not long ago I attended a talk featuring Fincher where he dogged the RED as immature blah blah blah. Now he's an advocate.
 
Zakaree Sandberg said:
hes going to fall behind
Click to expand...

Not really, he can continue to shoot film, which at present is better than any digital camera. You could equally say he has an advantage. 90 seconds is an incredibly long time to have to wait for a camera to boot, the new RED cameras will boot in 2 seconds so RED was listening.
 
Wow you'd think someone of his calibre (and the crews he choses to work with) would do a tiny bit of research and invest in a battery hot-swap plate if the boot-up times pain them so much ("4 ½ minutes" smacks of hyperbole to say the least!) :001_rolleyes:
 
yada yada yada, and he might say something just to 'rebel' against independent film culture taking such a liking to RED. Werner Herzog wants to stand alone I'm sure.
 
The number one problem with the Red for me is the boot up time. Just because the Red is a great camera in so many other ways doesn't mean the current start time of the camera isn't a very annoying and recurring problem on set or location. I'm very excited that Red has solved this problem with the Epic and Scarlet.
 
Leave Werner alone... he's allowed his opinion!
Cheers,
Harry
 
Werner Herzog is an old Bavarian film guy and an excellent director who mostly shot his films with ARRI (Bavarian) cameras.

But unfortunately and probably he didn't meet a rental who would provide him a hot swap device like a BeBob Rouge then he could shoot using R1 without booting for days.

Also Werner didn't complain about the picture quality he has got from RED1 and that's the most important for him or for anybody else...
 
I am curious as to what he'd think of something like the D20/21...is he against shooting digital altogether, or is it a specific issues with the Red One, like the boot time?
 
Herzog has a long history of making films on his own terms, I do not believe his comments are based on a fear of change or keeping up with technology and therefore his revenue stream. He has always and will continue to make films on his own terms.

It sounds like his comments were born out of frustrations experienced on set. To speculate on if his crew was lacking in experience, or if the process was untested, or maybe just a bad firmware build... is just that, speculation. Clearly he gave it a try, he shot a whole film with it, so I don't buy the argument he is afraid of change. Is he a completely dedicated artist, and possibly intolerant of technology that gets in the way of the film making process... yes, I'm sure his threshold for technical issues is low.

I think we've all read numerous posts on here about rebooting issues, long reboot times, error messages, corrupt media from CF cards, problems that crop up as new builds are introduced and components are swapped in and out by support like audio boards and drive cables. It's the nature of the beast, to deny that these issues haven't existed is farce. That doesn't make this camera a poor tool in the least, but it's a work in progress and I don't think that is for everyone or every situation.

Maybe Werner should have considered his words a bit more carefully... but I don't think you can challenge his perspective on his experiences unless you were on set with him. He is entitled to his opinion on how a tool performed on his set. His assistant camera operators comments do seem silly, but also borne from frustration. It would be great to take comments like these at face value and move on. Throwing Herzog under the bus is unnecessary just because your a fan of this camera. Just my opinion.

-bk
 
We've been shooting over a year and a half with the red one and the boot issue was only annoying the first shoots. We learned to adopt very fast and our AC's know now when to change batteries (during a new lightning setup; when the director goes and talk with the actors, ...). A good AC with knowledge of the startup time knows how to handle it.

Change the battery and after like 20 seconds the clients monitor shows the image again (even though the camera is still starting up). Never got a complaint.

If you choose your moment right nobody notices the bootup time.
If you wait untill the camera goes dead (mid-shot), well that's something else.

to bad Herzog probably didn't have an AC that anticipated the 'problem'.
 
kobevs said:
We've been shooting over a year and a half with the red one and the boot issue was only annoying the first shoots. We learned to adopt very fast and our AC's know now when to change batteries (during a new lightning setup; when the director goes and talk with the actors, ...). A good AC with knowledge of the startup time knows how to handle it.

Change the battery and after like 20 seconds the clients monitor shows the image again (even though the camera is still starting up). Never got a complaint.

If you choose your moment right nobody notices the bootup time.
If you wait untill the camera goes dead (mid-shot), well that's something else.

to bad Herzog probably didn't have an AC that anticipated the 'problem'.
Click to expand...

Again BeBob Rouge is a way to go with RED1 if you need not so often booting waste of time...
 
kobevs said:
If you choose your moment right nobody notices the bootup time.
.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Unfortunately RED cameras have been known to reboot themselves especially with recent firmware installed, not forgetting of course the no of bad battery plates that left the factory.

Stephen
 
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