A R!-MX single handed rig for a documentary….!?

[Tim Karesly]

Hello everyone,
I have heard a lot about how important it is to use a small light weighted, easy operational camera and rig, cameras that don't need much of assistance operating like a Canon 5d, 7d or whatever DSLR, when it comes to DOCUMENTARY cinema, however i didn't really pay attention to all that and i decided to shoot my first documentary with A RED…..

What is your professional say on using the RED with no assistance, single handed rig for a documentary…?

 

[stu aull]

I say "why not?". I am a one-man-band shooting Scarlet here in Alaska, this after 25 yrs doing the same on Betacam. That isn't to say its easy. My sweet old BVW-400 was all that, and getting my head around doing the same on a RED has been an on-going learning curve (I am in year 3). As others will now doubt advise, the secret is keeping your package as lean as possible. We all see the loaded-up (!!) cine-rigs, so its easy to get over-gadgetted with accessories. Two things that need some thought, I suggest:
1) if, as most, you will be hand-holding for a lot of your doco-work, then the shoulder rig/harness will be critical. If you look at a lot of the rigs that redusers seem to set up, many end-up being pretty front-heavy. This is hand-hold "death" to all but the most buff operators. These things just get too heavy to support on your arms for very long. So obviously you will want to research the best _shoulder_ rig you can afford. Remember, balance will be _everything_. For me, not having a budget for some of the amazing-but-too-expensive (for me) shoulder rigs, I have been using the Atlas camera support rig (www.atlascamerasupport.com). If you check the link, you see its not even really a shoulder rig at all. And for my back, that has been a good thing! Incredible price for a rig that I have literally done _hours_ of continuous handheld work with.
2) lens(es). One of the things I miss most of my beloved old Betacam was that great 14x zoom lens. 8.5mm to 120mm (then 2x doubler) at my finger tips. heaven for run-and-gun shooting!
But as you may have found, the large-sensor versions of this EFP lens-style will prob set you back something north of ...$30K! So presuming your on a "documentary" budget, you will likely look at still glass as your choice. By comparison, these will seem almost free. But to even begin to approach the optical options of a big 14x zoom, you will need (or want) at least 3+ lenses. And that is OK - but - it also means (a) having to carry them around (=bulk) and worse (b) having to change them (=time). Grunting and fumbling lenses on and off in the heat of shooting, well, blows. Only advice I can offer is the importance of having one of those lenses be a great "generalist" piece of glass. For me that has been my faithful Tamron 24-105 f2.8. This lens will get me thru most shooting situations. I have a slap-on Century Optics .7 Wide Angle attachment that gets me wide _quickly_, and in a pinch for more tele, I have programmed one of the REDs buttons (one the 2 on my BOMB in my case) to switch btw 4K and 2KHD to effectively double my focal length (I shoot mostly HD).

So, RED for docs? bring it.

Stu Aull
SX199
Alaska

 

[Shane Kelly]

I've done it on "Tim's Vermeer", not easy and you need to be in decent shape but it's do-able.

 

[Paul Russell]

It's not easy. A good shoulder rig is important, and the ability to ride the focus is paramount. Find a zoom lens that can act as a go-to main unit. Get a good Shotgun mic.

 

[Tim Karesly]

Thank you so very much

 

[T_Freundlich]

Yes, it's certainly possible - just spent about 30 shoot days this spring and summer on a documentary production with the R1MX on my shoulder; it's good exercise though.

I think the main thing is just to live with the fact that the camera is far from optimal for this purpose - however you can make some beautiful images with it. To all the valid advice above I'd add a few thoughts -

As Stu points out, the #1 hurdle will be lenses, or lack of them. Basically there are almost no options for a general-purpose constant aperture zoom in a "reasonable" price range, unless you're looking at Super 16 PL mount lenses (but shooting 2K kind of defeats the purpose of doing it on the R1MX). So if you need a zoom, you'll likely be going for stills lenses but on the R1MX your choices will be limited by the lack of electronic aperture control, so most standard DSLR lenses (Canon L series etc) will be useless. Haven't used the Tamron 24-105 that Stu mentions but it looks like a very viable option, especially if it can be declicked.

For PL mount, and if you have the $, the smaller Red zooms are very viable for doc work (e.g. 17-50, 50-150 - definitely not the 18-85 though :001_smile.

For doc work I've gotten a ton of mileage out of a pair of old Olympus OM manual stills zooms decklicked and fitted with Leitax EOS adapters, the 35-70 f/4 and its longer counterpart, the 75-150 f/4. They have a nice retro look, cost almost nothing and are (more or less) constant aperture (though especially the 75-150 loses quite a bit of T-stop at the long end). The ergonomics are awful compared to a cine lens but then again they are extremely lightweight.

Having said all that, there's also nothing wrong with using primes in a documentary setting, as long as the DP and director just embrace the aesthetic and the slight "limitations" that this brings. But in any event, you (or someone in your crew) will be lugging a lens bag on the shoot.

The other big challenge - also having to do with the available lenses - is focus. Shooting on a S35 sized sensor also means S35 depth of field which can look beautiful in a doc but unless you have the luxury of an AC with a wireless video link and FF, keeping run-and-gun material in focus will be challenging. A follow focus can help with the ergonomics but it also adds weight and slows down lens changes which can be a no-no for a doc setting.

As for rigs, yes, balance is key but you're also trying to optimize for light weight. Often I've found is that if its possible accessory-wise, the R1MX is by far the most comfortable to shoulder mount with no rig at all, just removing the baseplate/dovetail bits completely and riding the bare camera on your shoulder. This is of course assuming that you have top rods for whatever gear you need to attach.

If you're recording dual system sound, a lockit box helps keep stuff in sync, as the R1MX's internal clock is prone to drifting. A shotgun mic taped to the top rods and recording one channel of reference audio will be very useful for the editor.

Finally, a huge potential speed bump to be aware of is data wrangling. Shooting on the R1MX is drastically different from DSLR's, AVCHD camcorders and other such cameras typically found on run-and-gun shoots. Redcode raw is a miracle of data compression, but 4K 2:1 at Redcode 36 will still eat up close to 100 GB of disk space per hour. And don't forget to double or triple that based on your backup plan.

I don't know what your subject and planned shooting ratio is, but on a documentary it's certainly easy to roll a couple of hours of footage per day. Not only do you need to make sure you have sufficient media to keep shooting throughout your production schedule, but also you really need to have a system in place to handle the volume of data coming in day after day.

Shooting Red on a doc it's very very easy to overwhelm the typical guy-with-a-macbook-and-external-hard-drive setup. So you can easily end up with a major production bottleneck if you find that you can't offload and process your footage fast enough to clear the cards in time for the next day's shoot. And this time requirement is easily doubled if you're doing proper checksum verifications when offloading the footage (and you absolutely should - if not you will bitterly regret it one fine day). And not only do all those R3D's need to be offloaded and verified, but also backed up (and the backup verified as well)... anyway, you get the point. All this is easily a full-time job in itself if you're coming home with a 4 or 5 128GB SSD's every day.

So be prepared, have an infrastructure in place and you'll be fine...

Good luck, have fun, and shoot some great stuff!