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American Cinematographer

Mark Toia

Mark Toia

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Just wondering about something...

I have subscribed to every American Cinematographer magazine for the last 7+ years.

The last 2 years I seen hardly anything about RED in it. It's like RED's been BANNED from ever being in the MAG in any way small or large.
Such huge amounts of high end work being shot on it globally and still nothing?
You see little video cameras like P2's, sony HDCAM's Canon xl1, 2's all throgh it but still no RED.

A lot of people are saying that RED's HYPE is huge, But I see know RED Press ad's, no RED TV ad's, Nothing or hardly anything about it in American Cinematographer. What HYPE? I say.
They haven't needed to HYPE it up, the owners do it for them.

I'm starting to loose interest in this magazine because of this push away from RED. So much so, that next years subscription will probably get the flick like RED has.

I'll save another tree at least.:glare:
 
Big T said:
A lot of people are saying that RED's HYPE is huge, But I see know RED Press ad's, no RED TV ad's, Nothing or hardly anything about it in American Cinematographer. What HYPE? I say.
They haven't needed to HYPE it up, the owners do it for them.
Click to expand...

That's the sign of a truly great product!
 
They've got an article about Sanctuary, shot on Red, in the November issue.
 
American Cinematographer generally runs stories on productions when they are released. When some of the RED productions get close to the theaters then you will likely see some RED-related stories. CHE used preproduction cameras, so it probably wouldn't be covered. But certainly something like KNOWING would have a good chance.

How many movies are released in the US each year? 600? How many get covered in the magazine? 50?
 
This month, November issue, there is a feature on Sanctuary which is shot on Red. And last month there was an article in Production Slate about Need for Speed: Undercover, which was shot on Red.
 
Right, but Big T has a point... there is some banned thing blowing in the air.
I Agreed
 
Big T said:
Just wondering about something...


A lot of people are saying that RED's HYPE is huge, But I see know RED Press ad's, no RED TV ad's, Nothing or hardly anything about it in American Cinematographer. What HYPE? I say.
They haven't needed to HYPE it up, the owners do it for them.

I'll save another tree at least.:glare:
Click to expand...




The product itself is the marketing.
The Red Logo is present in every important peace.
This guys are teaching Mr. Kotler.
 
I see a lot of products for RED in AC. They do mention Red in their digital issues and digital comparisons...

The AC Magizine tends to do articles on the really big shows. They do some on the indies or docos but its mostly the mega boys.
 
You also have to remember that American Cinematographer is comprised of articles that are 99.9% about ASC members. Only the regular columns like "points east" feature non ASC members. There are a lot of RED things happening but when you look at the fact that there are roughly 500 living members of the ASC compared to the 15,000+ members of reduser.net - things start to make more sense. As was also mentioned they feature films as they release so theres a bit of catching up to do.
Theres no conspiracy - they cover RED just as much as Genesis or D21 and as more of those magic 500 start using the camera you'll see more about it.
 
Nathan Beaman said:
You also have to remember that American Cinematographer is comprised of articles that are 99.9% about ASC members...
Click to expand...

Great point, then I look forward to reading that awesome spread on "Manure" and David.
 
Keep in mind that Kodak is a HUGE source of ad revenue for AC.

I don't think Jim and them have ever advertised in the magazine. Maybe time to throw them a bone?
 
There's the October issue with the Need For Speed shoot.

It was shot on RED and they talk a lot about workflow, pros, cons, this stuff.

I'm a new subscriber, for like 2 months or so.

Reading digitally is actually kinda nice.

:)
 
Have any big movies actually been shot on a Red One yet?

I mean A unit, not just visual effects?


There is no conspiracy, it's just that the hype and fanboyism and reality don't match yet.

I'm sure it's coming eventually.
 
I too noticed an early lack of press coverage for Red (can't speak of American Cinematographer as I've never seen an edition, but a few other publications and online media resources spring to mind) but it's slowly improving - for some publications it can simply come down dollars.

I worked as a press photojournalist and public relations officer for more than 8 years and know full well that companies that spend their advertsing dollars with some publications can get preferential treatment over those who don't stump-up for paid ads. Most editors will swear black and blue this is not true and they are totally impartial, but after working in the system, I know most of these claims are just BS.

In its most blatant form the system involves "advertorials", where company X pays for an ad in the publication, and the editor reciprocates with a "news-like" article on the item or service. In a utopian world the ad and article are run together on the same or adjoining pages with the tagline "Advertorial" or "Paid Advertisement" at the top. I've done a few advertorials in my time and I and most journalists hate them, but accept them as a necessary evil to help fund our pay-cheques. The clearly labelled advertorial approach is fading as advertisers orchestrate less overt ways of delivering their corporate message. The "Advertorial" tag is getting dropped, articles are moved away from the ads or to later editions. Like product placement in movies, sometimes you are oblivious to all the wheeling and dealing that goes on in the background to flog a brand.

To its credit Red doesn't appear to shell out millions in advertising dollars - preferring to put the money into camera development and customer service. For this reason, I believe some publications chose to ignore Red as there was nothing in it form them - no advertsing dollars and the fact that coverage of Red may upset its long-tem, entrenched advertising clients (you all know who they are). Red was patient, worked on its product and let word-of-mouth and booths at NAB and IBC do the rest. Now with more than 4000 cameras out there and Red proving itself on Hollywood blockbusters the media has a hard time ingnoring the elephant in the room. They will eventually come around when enough readers ask "What about Red?".

I've found the Red marketing approach quite fascinating - itself a kind of "revolution" in as much as is claimed of the camera technology. Minimal advertising, open user forums and a "Let the footage speak for itself" approach. You almost feel pity for all the advertsing sales reps who must hound Red for paid advertisements and get nowhere. I personally would like to see more camera companies spend less on advertising and put their dollars elsewhere - like bringing down the cost of their solid-state recording media or employing an extra engineer or two rather than spin-doctors. The world is over-marketed as it is and if the product is good, word will spread on its own via the internet and our industry peers.

TIP: When ad reps hound our videography business, I reply with "We're already too busy and actually want less work". They never have a comeback for that one and it gets them off the phone real quick. We find most customers are too savy for old-fashioned advertising anyway, so it's money down the drain.

Well, that's my $2 Aussie dollars (0.02 US cents).
 
There is no conspiracy here, no issues of payback for ad space, etc. "American Cinematographer" needs at least three months of lead time for a featured article and the articles are timed to come out with the release of the movie if possible. If there is a significant feature shot on RED about to be released, then the odds are higher of an article covering that movie being published.

This discussion is moot anyway because this November's issue of AC already has a full-length article on a RED television production, "Sanctuary".

AC mag has also discussed with me the possibility of an article on my shoots using the RED for "Manure" and "Stay Cool".
 
David Mullen ASC said:
There is no conspiracy here, no issues of payback for ad space, etc. "American Cinematographer" needs at least three months of lead time for a featured article and the articles are timed to come out with the release of the movie if possible. If there is a significant feature shot on RED about to be released, then the odds are higher of an article covering that movie being published.

This discussion is moot anyway because this November's issue of AC already has a full-length article on a RED television production, "Sanctuary".

AC mag has also discussed with me the possibility of an article on my shoots using the RED for "Manure" and "Stay Cool".
Click to expand...

Nice one... I'm sure something will happen with 'Knowing' aswell
 
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