Apple Post production environment for Red

[M Most]

Boy, that's the truth. I don't get it, either -- story is always highly emphasized in film school, but you must not be able to teach it because the words fall on deaf ears. When I was watching the screenings of thesis films, most of them were just boring.

Having seen a lot of high quality student films in the last year and a half, I've noticed that the overriding theme in most of them is usually very depressing. I have to go back a ways to remember the way I was when I was that age, but as I recall, your early 20s are usually not the happiest times of your life, especially in today's world. However, if I were teaching a screenwriting class today, I would probably try to emphasize that a positive message is not always something to be avoided. Write what you know is always good advice, but one must also keep in mind that the viewer of your finished piece is not always going to be as depressed as you are. And the visuals often suit the mood - dark, dingy, dirty, depressing.

 

[Zack Birlew]

The depressing trend is something I never understood. I joke that it's all the writers in Hollywood going through their mid-life crisis time. I mean, come on, how many super depressing movies have we seen over the past few years? It's become more than the majority and it's still going on!

As far as film school students go, being one myself, I can see how students can get wrapped up in trying to make a depressing film that they may think is clever and thought provoking but really comes off as more of a rip-off of something else half the time and/or that the message is too commonplace or overused. But me? I'll stick to my comedy and action/adventure films any day.

Getting back on topic, I've recently started using Apple Color, just playing around with it really. I had planned on using Color with my RED 4K-to-2K downrezzed footage and from what I can tell at the moment is that Color basically needs two monitors to really get the most out of it. Even on an Apple 30" Cinema display, the video preview window is super tiny, whether SD or HD, and I can hardly see what I'm actually doing half the time. So, I face the dilemma of either buying a second Apple 30" Cinema display now, which would technically give me 2K monitoring without the color accuracy of a production monitor until Matrox or somebody releases a new MXO device, or shelling out for a Kona 3 card with the 24" JVC 1080P production monitor that looked really nice at NAB, or waiting to see if Apple releases new displays in November, or waiting all the way until NAB 2008 to see whether manufacturers or RED themselves will come up with 2K or 4K production monitors with Kona or someone making 4K capture cards. The last one is hoping for a lot but you never know about these things.

I had planned on getting a production monitor sometime down the road but I didn't think that I would have to start looking into it so soon. Ideally, from what I've learned about my Radeon X1900XT, I would have two 30" displays and a production monitor for maximum efficiency but with the RED coming out within the next few months, I'm not sure I can afford both at the moment. So, from all of this I have to recommend to anyone wanting to use Color or even Final Cut Studio 2 with the RED to get another monitor, even if it's not a big ol' 30" display, a smaller display can work too, whether it's a production monitor or another computer display.

 

[Lucas Wilson]

... but as I recall, your early 20s are usually not the happiest times of your life, especially in today's world.

From the bits and pieces of my early 20s that I remember - I had a great time. But I went to music school... scholarly pursuits took a backseat to more... ummm... unusual mental pursuits.

I did have to take a Western Civ. class, though, I think...

Lucas
-----
Berklee Grad. Go BoSox.
ASSIMILATE, Inc.
LA, CA, USA

 

[Miodrag Popovic]

Impressive!
have you tested how it works when the disk aren't empty
how it preforms for example when the array is 60% full?

Here I attach tests for 10% through 90% disks full. All users of these disks in Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Macedonia are in 2K workflow and they are satisfy. 4K is stil on hold in Serbia but technology revolution allow us to be competitive. This is RAID 0 but we are on a good course to make redundant one with better caracteristics from 2,5" HDDs.

Cheers

Pop

 

[Michele Gavazzeni]

I think this test are great!
you have burst everyone bible.

Actually the naionality of the products is playing against you.
If Macola was made in USA your product would have made a lot of noise in the industry.
One last thing your website... it looks like the serbian apple website but clearly it's not.
You should make international buyers trust your company so maybe a dedicated website should be better.

Anyway
Incredible products at a super nice price!

 

[Miodrag Popovic]

Thank you Michele for your advices

War was the main industry in my country until several years ago so we have a hard mission in Serbia.
We are the oldest Apple reseller in Serbia (I start in 1989.), unfortunately Apple was forbidden for Serbia from 1991. through 2001. One of my company jobs is reselling Apple as Authorized Apple Reseller but we are going through "Independent" "Marketing" "Center" from Zagreb , Croatia (country that we were in war) and Apple business becomes disaster in Serbia.
Lackily we were always at Pro Market and have software developer tradittion. Our ex country Yugoslavia had great university which was destroied during the war but our graduants are all around the planet (especially in USA) and help the companies from homeland. During the last two years we were building up developer team for RAID solutions at Apple platform, and also for Linux and Windows.
I didn't know at the begining that one future RED ONE owner from Belgrade mention our RAID solution at RED forum with sentence "The Fastest RAID on planet" and push us in fire. MACOLA was product for Serbian market at the begining. Idea was to make something inexpensive that work (we do not have so much money here, money in the war zones is in the wrong hands by default). I know that Ciprico 4440 is faster solution than our but we are finishing our new software driver for 32 X 2,5" HDD RAID MACOLA which will be far above 30K US$ with the same throughput .
We at least "burst the bubble" of HUGE 4210 which is for 4K environment for much more money than MACOLA
http://kb.ciprico.com/lore/article.php?id=186
All DPX workflows in our area are on MACOLAs now (Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia , Slovakia) with 5 years of warranty and one spare disk included with every delivery I think that this is a fer approach.
We can establish American company and go through that company to make things easier and make people trust us more, but we are Serbian company, it is the truth and it is the chalenge. We want to make people trust us as Serbian company. If we can be the world champions in basketball in all selections why not in other areas especially in today’s open source world : -)

Cheers

Pop

 

[Jack Wester]

We want to make people trust us as Serbian company.

I do a fair amount of business in the US and in Europe. In my experience, I would think the biggest problem that you would face with Macola would be the trust issue you've just mentioned.

Fortunatelly, this could be solved. I really do think you should setup your _own_ distribution company in neighbouring company in Europe or in the US ( although that is a more expensive path). Be sure to employ a person oriented towards market communication, sales and distribution that has English as his/her native tounge. He/she should have a proven track record on finding distributors and, as the case may be, set up online busines.

I know, it's not fair, but unfortunatelly, it's a reality. People want one of two things:

1. Buy locally from someone who is a "peer", i.e. has a culture that matches and has the same primary language. They want to use a process that is familiar and has worked previously.

2. Buy online with all the fears of a "rip of" or of "future trouble" wiped out. Flawless language, evident size and volume, magazine reviews, evidence of many other people have taken the same route.

My 2 cents
Jack

 

[Miodrag Popovic]

We will do our best :bye2: