steve weiss
Well-known member
I'm sorry this is long but I want to state the reasons why we did what we did.
With all due respect and I mean that sincerely to both Jim and the RED community who I admire very much for both your enthusiasm and passion for the camera and craft, I did beg to get RED involved with the test long before the challenge started. I sent emails to both Jim and Ted explaining that they could pic their own DP or team to shoot and light the scene any way they wanted and that they would have complete control over their post production. I also explained that they could even take the footage and post process it where ever they wanted and then return it back to us and we would insert it into our show.
The idea of this Shootout is to show two things: Do some empirical tests which show everyone in a controlled setting what every camera can do. The interesting part of this years challenge is to allow the selected DP's do a creative version of the same scene (light it the way they want as well as set the camera to their liking) which is more like what they would do if really shooting that scene in real life. So many of these tests just compare cameras and we look at numbers and data. This is nice but the real world does not work in numbers and data, your audience looks at how a scene looks on the screen, TV or the web with no care as to how it got there. The speed to which it can be lit and the speed in color timing, all of this relates back to budget and that unfortunately is a fact of filmmaking. To make it fair thats why each DP was given 90 minutes in to light and shoot and 90 minutes to color time.
Getting back to my emails, with no response to the various emails I sent, we made posts on Reduser asking for suggestions of DP's to operate the EPIC, and several names were suggested and we followed up with all of them. Some were booked on jobs but Ryan Walters was mentioned several times and he was available so we invited him to participate and he agreed. I think he did an amazing job and he has written a document on how and what path he took to interpret the scene and also how he color timed it in the baselight. I believe he will be posting that soon.
The passion on this website is incredible and I admire everyone for it but I will take one exception with a conclusion that has been made that 4K is here in 2012. In fact, the numbers do not pan that out in worldwide theaters today, see our shootout page for statistics on that. Most theater owners have already bought 2K projectors making it the defacto standard in 2012 but if that changes in 2013 or 2014 then we will do our shootout in 4K, 5K or 10K, whatever the reality that theatergoers are really going to be seeing in that day. But at that point there will be a whole new crop of cameras to compare and we will do that then. We thought long and hard on this and eventually the decision came very easily. We are screening Bruce's test in theaters all over the world and to be honest, it was hard to find theaters that had 2K projectors, yet 4K ones and that being the case, the decision was made for us. That's not to say that 4K acquisition does not have a whole host of benefits that I not need mention.
To answer some: We stayed with the original R3D files until the last render which is what the DCP was made from. Bruce is going to post a more detailed description of the exact post process which he will post later today on your forum.
This year is really different then past years of the Zacuto shootouts. Yes the theatrical screenings will show you our process, empirical tests and creative challenge of each DP and their camera. Yes the comments will be included in the 3 part documentary that will be released on the web June 15th but this years Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012 web documentary will have a whole different feel then our previous shootouts with the test/challenge being more in the background. We all know that you can have the best camera in the world and if you don't know how to light for that camera, understand how to setup color profiles and color time for it, it's all moot. Worse, is the big unspoken hush hush word that none of us really talk much about on these forums, which is that it is really "talent" that will shine through on any camera. You will hear from leading industry DP's talking about who their mentors are, what cinematography means to them, where they learned to light and how they learned to light which is the key to this whole game. Who they admire, how they learned the craft by looking at paintings, photographs, watching films and for some film school. Their path to success and what they think today's path should be. I think you will be very surprised about what the most important things to these industry leaders are.
Remember, I nor Zacuto had anything to do with the actual testing process besides helping in the initial concept and the blocking of scene. Bruce Logan ASC lit this challenge and controlled all of the testing aspects with his own camera department, and let me tell you, it is a challenge! Bruce Logan is a DP, special effects DP & colorist. Zacuto's sole involvement is documenting the entire process, Bruce's journey, interviewing all of the folks who were on set, at screenings, BTS and directing my 3 part documentary which I think you should find entertaining as well as educational. Or at least I hope so. ;-)
My personal beliefs are that I could care less which cameras people choose as their favorites, that's not what my story is about. Just so people know, I've been a corporate/commercial/documentary director in production for 29 years (I've only been designing products for 6 years) and I don't believe cameras make filmmakers. Just to be clear in the past 29 years, I've used 35mm, 16mm film, betacam, digibeta, DVcam, Hi-8, HD cameras, point and shoots, whatever. I don't believe any camera is perfect for any one job and my DP of 25 years Jens Bogehegn picks the camera that works best for each projects situation and budget. In the making of this documentary we used Panasonic Varicam's for the interviews, we used EX3's, C300's in screenings, SI2K's & DSLR's for BTS.
With all due respect and I mean that sincerely to both Jim and the RED community who I admire very much for both your enthusiasm and passion for the camera and craft, I did beg to get RED involved with the test long before the challenge started. I sent emails to both Jim and Ted explaining that they could pic their own DP or team to shoot and light the scene any way they wanted and that they would have complete control over their post production. I also explained that they could even take the footage and post process it where ever they wanted and then return it back to us and we would insert it into our show.
The idea of this Shootout is to show two things: Do some empirical tests which show everyone in a controlled setting what every camera can do. The interesting part of this years challenge is to allow the selected DP's do a creative version of the same scene (light it the way they want as well as set the camera to their liking) which is more like what they would do if really shooting that scene in real life. So many of these tests just compare cameras and we look at numbers and data. This is nice but the real world does not work in numbers and data, your audience looks at how a scene looks on the screen, TV or the web with no care as to how it got there. The speed to which it can be lit and the speed in color timing, all of this relates back to budget and that unfortunately is a fact of filmmaking. To make it fair thats why each DP was given 90 minutes in to light and shoot and 90 minutes to color time.
Getting back to my emails, with no response to the various emails I sent, we made posts on Reduser asking for suggestions of DP's to operate the EPIC, and several names were suggested and we followed up with all of them. Some were booked on jobs but Ryan Walters was mentioned several times and he was available so we invited him to participate and he agreed. I think he did an amazing job and he has written a document on how and what path he took to interpret the scene and also how he color timed it in the baselight. I believe he will be posting that soon.
The passion on this website is incredible and I admire everyone for it but I will take one exception with a conclusion that has been made that 4K is here in 2012. In fact, the numbers do not pan that out in worldwide theaters today, see our shootout page for statistics on that. Most theater owners have already bought 2K projectors making it the defacto standard in 2012 but if that changes in 2013 or 2014 then we will do our shootout in 4K, 5K or 10K, whatever the reality that theatergoers are really going to be seeing in that day. But at that point there will be a whole new crop of cameras to compare and we will do that then. We thought long and hard on this and eventually the decision came very easily. We are screening Bruce's test in theaters all over the world and to be honest, it was hard to find theaters that had 2K projectors, yet 4K ones and that being the case, the decision was made for us. That's not to say that 4K acquisition does not have a whole host of benefits that I not need mention.
To answer some: We stayed with the original R3D files until the last render which is what the DCP was made from. Bruce is going to post a more detailed description of the exact post process which he will post later today on your forum.
This year is really different then past years of the Zacuto shootouts. Yes the theatrical screenings will show you our process, empirical tests and creative challenge of each DP and their camera. Yes the comments will be included in the 3 part documentary that will be released on the web June 15th but this years Revenge of the Great Camera Shootout 2012 web documentary will have a whole different feel then our previous shootouts with the test/challenge being more in the background. We all know that you can have the best camera in the world and if you don't know how to light for that camera, understand how to setup color profiles and color time for it, it's all moot. Worse, is the big unspoken hush hush word that none of us really talk much about on these forums, which is that it is really "talent" that will shine through on any camera. You will hear from leading industry DP's talking about who their mentors are, what cinematography means to them, where they learned to light and how they learned to light which is the key to this whole game. Who they admire, how they learned the craft by looking at paintings, photographs, watching films and for some film school. Their path to success and what they think today's path should be. I think you will be very surprised about what the most important things to these industry leaders are.
Remember, I nor Zacuto had anything to do with the actual testing process besides helping in the initial concept and the blocking of scene. Bruce Logan ASC lit this challenge and controlled all of the testing aspects with his own camera department, and let me tell you, it is a challenge! Bruce Logan is a DP, special effects DP & colorist. Zacuto's sole involvement is documenting the entire process, Bruce's journey, interviewing all of the folks who were on set, at screenings, BTS and directing my 3 part documentary which I think you should find entertaining as well as educational. Or at least I hope so. ;-)
My personal beliefs are that I could care less which cameras people choose as their favorites, that's not what my story is about. Just so people know, I've been a corporate/commercial/documentary director in production for 29 years (I've only been designing products for 6 years) and I don't believe cameras make filmmakers. Just to be clear in the past 29 years, I've used 35mm, 16mm film, betacam, digibeta, DVcam, Hi-8, HD cameras, point and shoots, whatever. I don't believe any camera is perfect for any one job and my DP of 25 years Jens Bogehegn picks the camera that works best for each projects situation and budget. In the making of this documentary we used Panasonic Varicam's for the interviews, we used EX3's, C300's in screenings, SI2K's & DSLR's for BTS.
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