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Advantages of having a RED Camera

A

Angel Alcantara

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Hey everyone,

I'm fairly new to this site, and I'm planning on purchasing a RED Scarlet or Epic, depending on what I manage to afford. I'm a 21 years old Film graduate and I have a friend who owns a RED Scarlet. He purchased the camera using a personal bank loan, and according to him he was able to make quite a bit of money by renting the camera out. He's also been hired by multiple local companies in North Carolina and they've had good use of his camera that they pay him rental and camera operator rates. My question is, could owning a RED Camera open up different opportunities and possibilities for work and money?

-Angel
 
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Why not rent from him first and see what you can you do with it.
 
Do you have a business currently that uses a different camera? A sound business will succeed regardless of your gear. If you're going to loose money by renting gear for a job, how are you going to make money if you had owned the camera?
 
Im in the same boat right now, about to purchase my scarlet next week. In my local business they are asking for RED for music videos and commercial shoots. Usually shoot on Canon DSLR, but rent RED when client asks. Having my own, would allow me to have an in house red and rent it with my services for a shoot. But I agree you need to have some time with a scralet to know of you like the workflow, or if it will make a difference in your moving pictures. Its my turn to upgrade because I have the clients to help payback my investment.
 
Owning a RED Camera in small market will not get you more jobs. I live in Florida and I have owned my Scarlet for about 6months and every job I have sold was because of my prior work with the company and or reputation. Buying a Scarlet expecting to make more money is a bad business plan. Possibly owning an EPIC can help with rentals and such but Scarlet rental is hard because everyone is buying one or companies want to rent an EPIC.

Alot of times I gear up like crazy for shoots and I usually end up only using half the gear. I've learned what exactly I need now to make things work/happen.

I think the best plan is to look at the work you are doing. Is a Scarlet really going to improve your cash flow? To really be up and running with a decent scarlet package you are looking at 20k+.
 
Patrick Wieland said:
Owning a RED Camera in small market will not get you more jobs.
Click to expand...

In my case it did. Apparently I'm the only one owning a Scarlet within maybe 50 km². I rent the Scarlet out only together with me as AC and get booked quite a lot by several production companies in the whole area. And by now the DPs like me as their AC and I sometimes get additional jobs without Scarlet. Rental houses only offer Epic here, which is 3 times more for the minimum setup than my rate for a fully rigged Scarlet, plus they know that I take care of it and that it works on set. It gives me financial security to be more relaxed on my own projects.

So I guess it comes down to where you live and what's going on in and around your area, I might just be lucky.
 
Owning a RED helped me at the beginning of things, yes. It differentiated me, and I hadn't done enough high-end work to stand out. But after about a year, it really didn't matter anymore. Last year it became clear that in my market (LA), owning a RED was a bit of a liability- I can rent anything (RED, Alexa, whatever) for cheap for clients who need those, and the technology is changing so quickly that constantly investing in higher-end cams is stupid. Again, in my market.
 
Michel Rabe said:
In my case it did. Apparently I'm the only one owning a Scarlet within maybe 50 km². I rent the Scarlet out only together with me as AC and get booked quite a lot by several production companies in the whole area. And by now the DPs like me as their AC and I sometimes get additional jobs without Scarlet. Rental houses only offer Epic here, which is 3 times more for the minimum setup than my rate for a fully rigged Scarlet, plus they know that I take care of it and that it works on set. It gives me financial security to be more relaxed on my own projects.

So I guess it comes down to where you live and what's going on in and around your area, I might just be lucky.
Click to expand...

Michel,
may I be very rude and ask what you charge for the Scarlet and you as a DoP? I plan to do something similar over here in the UK..

regards

Simon K
 
I understand that it's a matter of the area you live in and its market. I've done quite a bit of research online about rental businesses and services around the NYC Area, and I actually worked out how a rental service, if I ever buy a RED Scarlet, would work out. The prices for most local companies around here surpass $600/daily rate, even $2,200/daily, for their most basic package, while as a starter, I'd rent it for about $300/daily. I was planning on getting a variety of gear along with the camera itself as well, like shoulder mount, matte box, follow focus, extra batteries, media cards, lenses, etc. I'm not expecting to make bank (lots of money) from owning the camera, but I know it'll enable me to find work in the industry and maybe, if someone shows up who'd like to rent it, make money off of it.
 
Patrick Wieland said:
Owning a RED Camera in small market will not get you more jobs. I live in Florida and I have owned my Scarlet for about 6months and every job I have sold was because of my prior work with the company and or reputation. Buying a Scarlet expecting to make more money is a bad business plan. Possibly owning an EPIC can help with rentals and such but Scarlet rental is hard because everyone is buying one or companies want to rent an EPIC.

Alot of times I gear up like crazy for shoots and I usually end up only using half the gear. I've learned what exactly I need now to make things work/happen.

I think the best plan is to look at the work you are doing. Is a Scarlet really going to improve your cash flow? To really be up and running with a decent scarlet package you are looking at 20k+.
Click to expand...

This is some good advise here....be hesitant buying alot of gear...unless you have list of people requesting it from you.
Cause if you buy it...people may not come just because you have it.
 
Simon Knight said:
Michel,
may I be very rude and ask what you charge for the Scarlet and you as a DoP? I plan to do something similar over here in the UK..

regards

Simon K
Click to expand...

No problem, I charge between 500 and 600€, the latter being the usual rate for 'one time' jobs but I do go down if the job is several days or a project with less budget but cool people or if I just feel I have to for some reasons.

That's a fully rigged Scarlet to shoot a whole day, a laptop and HDDs to backup data and me as AC/DIT. I'm NOT the DP for those jobs!

I live in an area with healthy businesses and several film/video production companies that make OK profit, and like I said I'm the only one in my region with a Scarlet so it's kind of perfect conditions.
 
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