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  • 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 :)

RED ONE History...

Yes.

The technical achievement Oscar should go in the vault with camera's 1-5.

David
 
The first thing I saw that made me realize how amazing RED was going to be and that I would have to own one some day was the old image of the woman smoking...
 
motorcycle grips to state of the art digital cameras. everything in live does change..
 
Austin Neill said:
motorcycle grips to state of the art digital cameras. everything in live does change..
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It took 32 years... I consider myself a slow learner.

Jim
 
you are compressing time
 
I feel like now that you have posted the history to thoughts and tips you are about to do something big, like announce the Tattoo's are ready for shipping, once again adding a page to the RED and world of cinematography, history books... come on Jim we are ready for it...
 
Perry Wilson said:
I feel like now that you have posted the history to thoughts and tips you are about to do something big, like announce the Tattoo's are ready for shipping, once again adding a page to the RED and world of cinematography, history books... come on Jim we are ready for it...
Click to expand...

I'm going to be pessimistic and say no announcement...
That being said, I've been checking RECON every half hour for the past 6.
 
Austin Neill said:
motorcycle grips to state of the art digital cameras. everything in live does change..
Click to expand...

'cept with the RED, both of those merge into one system. Have you seen the RED handles?

handle.jpg
handle_right.jpg
 
Perry Wilson said:
I feel like now that you have posted the history to thoughts and tips you are about to do something big, like announce the Tattoo's are ready for shipping, once again adding a page to the RED and world of cinematography, history books... come on Jim we are ready for it...
Click to expand...

Oh I can't wait :drool:
 
I used those grips back in the 80's. On my BMX. Loved them...
 
So..... Whats the first working Epic's name (or going to be name)?
 
Here's my pathetic attempt to discourage Jim 6 years ago. I still have the emails:

Nov 8, 2004:

Jim "I'm a hardware guy. I'd love to help someone fund, skin and market something better than the BIG guys."

Me "That's a tough one. It's so expensive to compete with the BIG guys and the production development cycle is such a big commitment, by the time you go to market, you're already a couple generations behind."

The rest is history...
 
lumiere said:
The rest is history...
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Hope you don't mind if I quote one of your posts:

lumiere said:
It all started in October - 2004.

My software Lumiere HD was one of the only solutions to edit HDV on Final Cut Pro. I developed it with a Serbian friend of mine because I needed it (Necessity is the mother of all inventions - this quote will become even more relevant when it comes to Jim).

Anyway, since the company Lumiere HD wasn't big at all I often did my own tech support. One of my customers was having issues with using the license on another computer. He only signed Jim. His emails was jim --at-red.com which I found interesting.

The issue was that the license was only good on one computer at a time and I told him that. So he responded and said, I need 4 more licenses for my 4 residences... signed - Jim Jannard, Founder of Oakley.

Of course I looked him up and found out who he was so I gave him a 15% discount. I think he was a bit annoyed... (He told me later he was).

We communicated over email for a solid week. Dozens of emails per day. The emails flew back and forth. Ideas were flying. He told me (as I recall) "If one wanted to build a kick ass camera, how would he go about it". My first answer was "He wouldn't. It would be way too expensive." "Plus one would be crazy to compete against Sony- they are an empire".

He didn't give up. He gave me the "All my life I've been told I couldn't compete against the big guys story"... so the conversations continued and my mind went to work (even though I thought it was purely for fun). In that one week Jim and I essentially conceived the essence of RED. There was no name - there were no specs - there was only a philosophy. It was simple:

- Make it RAW
- Make it upgradeable
- Make it modular
- Make it CHEAP
- Make it small & light

Take the best of film cameras (Powerful, durable, upgradeable 'latest film stock')

Don't use the downside of film cameras (Expensive, cumbersome, clunky)

Take the best of consumer digital cameras (User friendly, incredibly affordable, portable)

And drop the downside of consumer cameras (Obsolete, limited capabilities, fragile)

Essentially, we wanted to do exactly the opposite of pro digital cameras which took the worse of the above.

Finally, the crazy talk was over and Jim said "Let's talk on the phone." It was like online dating. Enough emails, let's hear that voice.

We spoke and the morning after I was on a plane to the West Coast making a presentation of our vision.

A few days later I was traveling the world doing a feasibility study. I met Ted in Japan at Interbee and we had sushi "He was sold by the time the miso soup arrived"... I went to Texas and met with Stuart. Knew none of this would be possible without Graeme so brought Graeme to the OC. During prototyping I hired Mike Curtis to develop a RAID fast enough to handle crazy ass throughput - he was the best. And so on and so on...

Eventually the feasibility study was done and the initial team was together and I realized making a camera wasn't my dream so I told Jim I had to bow out and make a feature, so I did. Interestingly enough, the star of my film (Scout Taylor-Compton) was the lead in the biggest film of the weekend (Halloween) on the same day Jim shipped his first cameras... Plus it became very clear to me that Jim was indeed a very exceptional individual and that this crazy project did not need two chiefs... He was more than capable of pulling this off without me (plus he was surrounded by a great team).

We cussed each other out a lot and became great friends as a result!

The story is a lot more complex and interesting than this and Jim and I talked about making a documentary some day but what I would like to conclude with is the following:

When Jim agreed for me to do a feasibility study I said that I didn't need a job and that if he wanted me to do this I would run the show. I didn't need nor want a boss. He agreed. Thank God, I didn't! Because RED wouldn't even be close to what it is today. First off it wouldn't be 4K. My research showed it was impossible. My plan was to make the best possible RAW 1080p camera out there. But see, that's the man's magic. He doesn't reach for the stars - he reaches for the fucking stratosphere! This is why he is so brilliant. His mind is capable of operating at a level than none of us ever could. You have to understand that back in 2004 making a 4K camera was madness.

Only a few individuals are capable of thinking like this - Jim is one, Steve is another.

Anyway, maybe one day we'll make a documentary or write a book. So many wonderful mind boggling stories...

Frederic
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RED HISTORY:

Jannard said:
From a quick Google search... RED is the color of life. The color of fire and blood, aggressiveness and intensity, love and anger, passion, valor and hardiness, bravery and courage, charity, prosperity, leadership, energy, strength and war. It is the color that stimulates quick thinking and action. That all sounds right to me...

Jim Jannard
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"He doesn't reach for the stars - he reaches for the fucking stratosphere!" The stratosphere isn't as high as the stars. Someone tell that Frenchman to open a science book!
 
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