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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 :)

CAMP RED - AUGUST

And even those lines are getting ever so blurred, these days... :)

indeed, but my son don't get a RED Scarlet Fixed for his birthday next year...
Perhaps I will ... RED Team, is the first of july still possible ;-)
 
I see what you are saying - that giving this age group a lot of high-end professional gear is putting the cart before the horse, to use an American expression - (or maybe it is British, who knows?)

Yes, exactly : it's not at all the fact that Red offers to kids an opportunity to learn something, it's more the fact of giving access to the top gear so quickly. Let's say your daughter wants to learn/play piano. Would you buy her right away a Steinway ? I hope not ;-)

The fact of starting low, with cheap gear, working, learning, making mistakes, progressing in a word, is part, in my opinion, of the learning process. There are thousands of musicians who started playing the guitar on a cheap model, borrowing here and there some stuff, dreaming all night long about the day they would be able to buy this shinny Stratocaster. And years later, they will still remember the little out-of-tune guitar which started it all.

My boyfriend started shooting movies when he was 17. Shortfilms with buddies in the woods. It's only 20 years later that he could get his hands on a Red, thanks to you by the way, Meryem. And even with this great opportunity he didn't succeed in completing the movie he prepared during 3 long years. He didn't surrender : after another 4 years, he finally succeeded in completing his first feature film, Parmi l'azur, on Red, which was for him a privilege.

Time and desire are part of the education.
 
Kid are smarter enough to understand what they can ask to their parents.
I don't think the teenager who drive dady's 4 weels drive on a dirt road the week-end,
will ask for a car his next birthday.
When I was teenager, we used to make shorts with the gear of our college.
It was a video camera attach to a VHS tape recorder.
The most exciting part for us was the whole process of making a short from scratch,
the camera and gear weren't that important to our eyes.
If a young kid can learn piano why she (or he) shoudn't learn cinematography for a week?
Making a short movie it's learning another way of express yourself, a very powerfull language indeed.
I think it is as good as going to the museum or read a book.
I don't see limiting age for that practice, every experience is good to take.
Just my two cents

As a side note,
I like the hidden message in Red camp: Using Red can be as simple as a kid game
 
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Yes, exactly : it's not at all the fact that Red offers to kids an opportunity to learn something, it's more the fact of giving access to the top gear so quickly. Let's say your daughter wants to learn/play piano. Would you buy her right away a Steinway ? I hope not ;-)

The fact of starting low, with cheap gear, working, learning, making mistakes, progressing in a word, is part, in my opinion, of the learning process. There are thousands of musicians who started playing the guitar on a cheap model, borrowing here and there some stuff, dreaming all night long about the day they would be able to buy this shinny Stratocaster. And years later, they will still remember the little out-of-tune guitar which started it all.

My boyfriend started shooting movies when he was 17. Shortfilms with buddies in the woods. It's only 20 years later that he could get his hands on a Red, thanks to you by the way, Meryem. And even with this great opportunity he didn't succeed in completing the movie he prepared during 3 long years. He didn't surrender : after another 4 years, he finally succeeded in completing his first feature film, Parmi l'azur, on Red, which was for him a privilege.

Time and desire are part of the education.

Kristin, I think most would agree with what you are saying (I get your point), but how does it apply to RedCamp? The Steinway analogy couldn't be more off the mark. Sure, I wouldn't BUY my daughter a Steinway, but I would send her to a piano camp for a week if she wanted to go. If they had a Steinway there for her to play and see what it is like (something to shoot for later in life) than I think that is okay. If she gained inspiration from professional piano players while at the camp I would also be happy. Does it mean she gets a Steinway when she gets home because the piano camp had a Steinway... obviously not. Why are you assuming these kids are all getting Red Cameras? I just don't see your point in relation to RedCamp. You are making a lot of assumptions and it is coming off as sort of negative just to be negative, and I know that probably isn't your intention. These kids will most likely not give a damn about the camera. It will be making movies that excites them and I can't find anything wrong with that.

Redcamp can't be that terrible for kids development can it? Let's have a positive attitude and be happy that some kids are going to have the time of their life at RedCamp. Sure, there will be some spoiled rotten kids there, but we can't change that. Their parents spoiled them long before RedCamp. Let's focus on the positives of which there are many :)
 
Kristin, I think most would agree with what you are saying (I get your point), but how does it apply to RedCamp?

Well, you probably don't get my point in that case ;-) It must be my bad English, I can try in French if you wish ;-) Uh these damn French who never think positive ;-) It's probably the same difference between Spielberg and Kaurismaki ;-)
 
Yes, exactly : it's not at all the fact that Red offers to kids an opportunity to learn something, it's more the fact of giving access to the top gear so quickly. Let's say your daughter wants to learn/play piano. Would you buy her right away a Steinway ? I hope not ;-)

The fact of starting low, with cheap gear, working, learning, making mistakes, progressing in a word, is part, in my opinion, of the learning process. There are thousands of musicians who started playing the guitar on a cheap model, borrowing here and there some stuff, dreaming all night long about the day they would be able to buy this shinny Stratocaster. And years later, they will still remember the little out-of-tune guitar which started it all.

I understand, but this is a *fantasy* camp for kids. A learning opportunity and way to expose them to the industry in a set of controlled conditions, all while collaborating with other kids their own age. I don't see where this is any different than a youth sports camp hosted by professional athletes or space camp offered by NASA.

As for learning with cheap gear. Sure, there is a process to that, but it is not the only process. I know people who purchased their RED One as their first real movie camera. Their first tool to step away from shooting home movies on a $500 DV camcorder. The price of the equipment is often irrelevant and only relatable to individual budgets.

I also offer up this thought. What cameras could possibly be better for this scenario? RED cameras are dead simple to learn and use. They don't have all the convoluted and abstracted garbage functions, bells and whistles that we see in consumer devices.

I would think, especially the first few years, most kids who attend this camp will have parents that own and/or work with RED equipment all the time anyway. I'm betting that half or more of the kids that show up will already have a good feel for what a RED One is and possibly even a basic understanding of how to use it.
 
Most of my work is related to stories of an Aboriginal/Native American Indian nature as this is the community I belong to (Ojibway)...I would love to be able to explore something similar -perhaps some kind of sanction from the powers that be at Red?

The American Indian Film Institute has a Tribal Touring Program that goes to reservations across the US and appears to be somewhat similar -wouldn't it be great to be able to bring something like this to our youth?
 
FWIW at the age of 14 I had the chance to do something similar. The local cable company had to set up a studio for "public access" to get the contract to wire our town. On successive weeks I was the cameraman, director, audio engineer, technical director, host, stage manager, etc for the talk show "Kids Alive" in Bloomington, IN (1/2" reel to reel BTW, deck and camera tethered). 35 years later and I still use principles I learned in 1974... Just sayin'

Props to Ted.

Cheers - #19
 
My kids are going-they'll be back from their Polish /Euro travels in August supercool idea and perfect timing- thanks!!!!!
 
I encourage everyone to not get too deep on this and steal the thunder from Ted and the folks over at RED. I don't think there's really any devious motives here, nor do I think we have to analyze it to death. At the very least, it will be a fun week for the kids. Best case scenario, they learn a lot and come away with better appreciation for professional filmmaking.

For those who think this will make kids ask their parents for cameras, if my nephew ends up going and comes home asking for a $25,000 camera, I know the answer his dad will give him. Save your money and someday you can have one. In the meantime, come up with a good story and ask your Uncle Steve to help you shoot it on his RED. Part of being a parent is telling your kids no. At the same time, years down the line they will appreciate that you sent them to the camp and they got exposed to something they may otherwise never had the opportunity to. I would have loved to have had this opportunity as a kid.

Positive vibes everyone. Makes the world a better place.
 
Ok ... How did this kid get his hands on a $58,000 camera and the t-shirt that everyone wants? :smiley:

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I'm smiling so much reading this thread (what I can digest of the many comments while I'm running around doing my various work related stuff at RED (we will use the term "work" loosely, as it's way more fun than it is work :-)

Love the all the enthusiastic comments, and even the odd conspiracy theory part of the thread makes me chuckle at the sheer bizarre logic behind it, and how completely wrong some folks can be when they attempt to read things into stuff that's just not there. Classic!

We will be releasing pricing for the camp and other logic points pretty soon, you will clearly see this is not about making a bunch of cash - we've literally been overrun by emails and other forms of incoming communication on how to get their kids into the program. I had a feeling it would be of interest to a lot of people, but it's already way beyond my expectations on the level of interest - pretty cool!

And for those that want to know the real reason behind all this - I've been trying to figure out a way to get back to summer camp for 30 years now - since some of my best kid memories are from my summer camp days (and I know I'm not alone in this) So guess what - I'm going back to summer camp with a bunch of kids that want to make movies, and we happen to have the right gear to let them use, and a movie studio and 4k movie theater as a resource... I Can't wait for the fun to begin :-)

and yeah - that kid with the EPIC - he's got the hookup for sure... but he's not the only kid thats shot with an EPIC already - trust me.

and not sure if you noticed a few pages back on this thread that my good friend and top dog ASC DP Peter Collister has volunteered to be a teacher at Camp RED. totally unsolicited by me, by the way, I just noticed his post when reading through. He's a big time DP, shot lots of movies and is working as 2nd unit DP on a very big RED EPIC superhero movie right now - how great would that be if he's available for a week or so to teach our kids how to shoot!

+ Ted
 
I never went to camp as a kid but I know that the camp my friends went to offered water-skiing and wakeboarding classes. Those Ski Nautiques and Air Nautiques start around $40k-$50k.

They didn't pull them around the lake on row boats.

How many horses does your average camp have? 10? 15? How much do you think a horse costs per year?

Camp is expensive. Why not let them use good equipment? Let them practice with proper technique. Teach kids lousy technique and they'll learn lousy technique. Teach them good technique and they'll learn good technique. It's not like they're too young to learn better equipment as well as any of us. People too often don't give kids enough credit and the kids aren't pushed as far as they could be. I got to spend 2 weeks at an intensive 3D animation course (for adults) as a 13 year old. I learned a ton in that class. If someone had just shown me how to push a few buttons and create crap I would have only learned how to create crap.
 
Hey Ted, Jarred;

How about offering a Camp RED / Reducation bundle for us out-of-towners?

That would keep me occupied and make the trip even more beneficial!
 
some more fun on the REDucation front... we just posted this video today that Michael Cioni and I shot at his post house, LightIron last week, on 2 EPICs, busting some Myths about RED post production and showing were we are today with post from offline to 4k finishing on RED footage...

http://vimeo.com/23805390

(also posted on the Learn area of red.com

http://www.red.com/learn/reducation)

For those that want a trip down memory lane, I did a quick google search and found the original RED mythbusters from years ago, the post house that Michael worked for at the time no longer exists but the video is still fun and relevant to watch - interesting how viable post was even way back then, and now years later how much more advanced it is in so many ways. back then we looked at lower rez pixels for the offline and big screen viewing from the 4k, these days with the power of the RED Rocket card we can watch RED and EPIC footage in full rez without any rendering, and prep advanced editing files for FCP and Avid in realtime using the Rocket card - pretty great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrpGX9DP5E

I have a few other things in the works as well that we've shot over the past few months, including an in depth interview I did in Indonesia with a director of a great family movie called Red Dog, that I'll be putting up when they are ready.

I'll post this note on the main REDucation forum page as well, since I know a lot of people check that out from time to time.

Thanks

+ Ted
 
some more fun on the REDucation front... we just posted this video today that Michael Cioni and I shot at his post house, LightIron last week, on 2 EPICs, busting some Myths about RED post production and showing were we are today with post from offline to 4k finishing on RED footage...

http://vimeo.com/23805390

(also posted on the Learn area of red.com

http://www.red.com/learn/reducation)

For those that want a trip down memory lane, I did a quick google search and found the original RED mythbusters from years ago, the post house that Michael worked for at the time no longer exists but the video is still fun and relevant to watch - interesting how viable post was even way back then, and now years later how much more advanced it is in so many ways. back then we looked at lower rez pixels for the offline and big screen viewing from the 4k, these days with the power of the RED Rocket card we can watch RED and EPIC footage in full rez without any rendering, and prep advanced editing files for FCP and Avid in realtime using the Rocket card - pretty great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrpGX9DP5E

I have a few other things in the works as well that we've shot over the past few months, including an in depth interview I did in Indonesia with a director of a great family movie called Red Dog, that I'll be putting up when they are ready.

I'll post this note on the main REDucation forum page as well, since I know a lot of people check that out from time to time.

Thanks

+ Ted

To think, the difference that three, er, four years makes...
 
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Many people who teach kids filmmaking uses a too simplified approach, that actually drain the creative challenge and innocent enthusiasm of children. Predefined plot, point-and-shoot camcorders on "Auto" etc. Because they believe, that is what the kids can comprehend. And then they use weeks to make a 5-10 minutes short, that actualy disapoint the kids own ambitions and expectations.

A much more satisfactory approach is in my view to precondition a much shorter production length, like commercial or max. 2-3 min. And then use the same given camp time to go much deeper in to the basic but professional principles and techniques of filmstorytelling. Including the cinematography-part.

Yes, kids can actually go into manual exposure, controlling DOF etc. Like they can with the most important principles of storyline-structure, character development etc. Therefore it gives great mening to give kids access to professional gear, and properly RED-cameras in particular.

And if you can disseminate your professional insight with infectious enthusiasm, and give room for the kids to tell their stories, then you can do wonders with teaching filmmaking to kids - promise!

Hail to Camp Red! I can't wait to hear of your experiences late summer.
 
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some more fun on the REDucation front... we just posted this video today that Michael Cioni and I shot at his post house, LightIron last week, on 2 EPICs, busting some Myths about RED post production and showing were we are today with post from offline to 4k finishing on RED footage...

http://vimeo.com/23805390

(also posted on the Learn area of red.com

http://www.red.com/learn/reducation)

For those that want a trip down memory lane, I did a quick google search and found the original RED mythbusters from years ago, the post house that Michael worked for at the time no longer exists but the video is still fun and relevant to watch - interesting how viable post was even way back then, and now years later how much more advanced it is in so many ways. back then we looked at lower rez pixels for the offline and big screen viewing from the 4k, these days with the power of the RED Rocket card we can watch RED and EPIC footage in full rez without any rendering, and prep advanced editing files for FCP and Avid in realtime using the Rocket card - pretty great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHrpGX9DP5E

I have a few other things in the works as well that we've shot over the past few months, including an in depth interview I did in Indonesia with a director of a great family movie called Red Dog, that I'll be putting up when they are ready.

I'll post this note on the main REDucation forum page as well, since I know a lot of people check that out from time to time.

Thanks

+ Ted

This was awesome Ted, thanks!
 
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