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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 :)

Dragon Upgrades ...

Phil Holland said:
What Bob said. Also, it provides a smoother handheld feel without inducing some of the micro vibrations of going purely handheld. Sort of like a shock absorbent effect, even with a baseball. Old school technique that works pretty well if you need a free and active camera move.
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There are no involuntary "micro vibrations" in any handheld camera performed by a reasonably fit, and not otherwise physically challenged operator with a balanced camera. There may be jerks and ups and downs, but not micro vibrations..Just saying.

That said, I have used any kind of ball, with a bit of spring to it, to support the camera, at various points in my career.
 
Jens Jakob Thorsen said:
There are no involuntary "micro vibrations" in any handheld camera performed by a reasonably fit, and not otherwise physically challenged operator with a balanced camera. There may be jerks and ups and downs, but not micro vibrations..Just saying.

That said, I have used any kind of ball, with a bit of spring to it, to support the camera, at various points in my career.
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I am referring to that thing that happens when somebody holds something a bit too heavy out in front of their body when they get all shaky and lose their own strength and stability.

I'm a fit and strong-ish fellow and don't mind shouldering 25-55lbs rigs. But, when handheld in front of me for any real length of time, that effect can be seen in my footage. Perhaps it's all the caffeine.

The ball also just provides a loose pivot, which is useful for things like emulating being at sea and what not.
 
A low cost indie version :D
 

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Guys, so is this like a hands-on-camera-at-all-times type of a situation? Or is there some rigging that's happening where the camera sits on the ball and stays in place if one lets go of it for a second? If the latter, would really like to know what rigging people are using. Thanks!
 
RED Dragon Seminar in Hong Kong today, the last stop of the RED Dragon Asian tour 2014
Free to join, a knowledge base meet with with T4 DIT, and meet Ryan of RED
Date: 1 July 2014
Time: 1:30PM (Registration at 1:15PM)
Location: Golden Harvest The Sky Cinema (Olympic MTR Station: Exit D )
**the enterance is at UG/F and opposite at Fortress(豐澤)
 
I found out today that there is no chance our Dragon upgrade will be taking place anytime soon. I'm completely crushed that our first feature (shooting in August) will not be filmed on Dragon....
 
In October 2013 I let Red know that I wanted to upgrade our Scarlet to a Dragon, but when Jarred posted the upgrade priority list in November, I immediately requested to upgrade my Scarlet to an Epic in hopes of getting a Dragon sooner. As soon as my Epic was issued I added my name to the upgrade list in early December 2013. I never imagined that I'd still be waiting for the upgrade in July 2014. I recently contacted my bomb rep to find out if there was any hope if I'd get my upgrade before we start filming our feature in August. She made it clear that the upgrade would not happen before that and doesn't have any idea when it will.
 
Michael Gyori said:
In October 2013 I let Red know that I wanted to upgrade our Scarlet to a Dragon, but when Jarred posted the upgrade priority list in November, I immediately requested to upgrade my Scarlet to an Epic in hopes of getting a Dragon sooner. As soon as my Epic was issued I added my name to the upgrade list in early December 2013. I never imagined that I'd still be waiting for the upgrade in July 2014. I recently contacted my bomb rep to find out if there was any hope if I'd get my upgrade before we start filming our feature in August. She made it clear that the upgrade would not happen before that and doesn't have any idea when it will.
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Well the MX sensor is still a great sensor hands down. Is there any reason your feature would need to be dragon over MX?
 
Jon Carr said:
Well the MX sensor is still a great sensor hands down. Is there any reason your feature would need to be dragon over MX?
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Excuse me, are you aware of the improvements in the Dragon sensor over MX? Your answer lies there.
 
I was told by my rep (he was new at the time) that i was automatically put in line for the Dragon when I bought my epic in October. Whoops. Didn't find out I wasn't till April so it's gonna be a while.
 
Bohdan Klos said:
Excuse me, are you aware of the improvements in the Dragon sensor over MX? Your answer lies there.
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I shoot on the dragon a lot. Almost more then my own EPIC (at least for this month) And I literally just shot the whole Dave Chappelle comeback tour at radio city on dragon for 10 days straight. So if you not impressed by the images your getting from the MX, then your expecting too much from dragon. Dragon is great, amazing in the highlights and skin tones, but the MX still produces great images also and can do a feature just fine.
 
Bohdan Klos said:
And these are some of the reasons why someone would want to shoot their film with Dragon over MX. Or did I misunderstand your question below?
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You can still get great skin tones and great highlight roll off from the MX sensor also. It all matters with your lighting.
 
Michael Gyori said:
In October 2013 I let Red know that I wanted to upgrade our Scarlet to a Dragon, but when Jarred posted the upgrade priority list in November, I immediately requested to upgrade my Scarlet to an Epic in hopes of getting a Dragon sooner. As soon as my Epic was issued I added my name to the upgrade list in early December 2013. I never imagined that I'd still be waiting for the upgrade in July 2014. I recently contacted my bomb rep to find out if there was any hope if I'd get my upgrade before we start filming our feature in August. She made it clear that the upgrade would not happen before that and doesn't have any idea when it will.
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If you are in Vancouver, you are probably in an area where there are many cameras available. Why don't you see if you can make a trade with someone, or a deal. Maybe shoot their Dragon and then offer to let them borrow yours day for day? There must be someone in a larger production market who would like a 2nd Dragon on their set, down the road, even if it's just for a backup body - especially for a back-up body...features need them.
 
Jon, the main reason I wanted to shoot with the Dragon was for it's supposed greater sensistivity (although there may be a problem with that with the latest OLPF and firmware). I was told at Reducation in LA in December 2013 that I could expose Dragon for 1280 to 2000 ISO. Our film is a low budget horror with little time for timely lighting setups, shot mostly at night. The idea of getting clean video at 2000 ISO was very attractive. Personally, I don't care as much about highlight roll-off and more about clean low-light video, which is usually the realm of low-budget filmmaking. Good lighting usually takes time, time is money, and money we have little of. In our $200k feature we'll have to shoot 6+ pages a day. Dragon would save us time and money if we could expose for 2000 ISO.

Getting a Dragon right AFTER filming our first feature will be like winning the lottery 1 minute after dying.

But yes, I'm sure we will make a great feature with our Epic. It's a great camera. I just wanted to avoid many hours of trying to denoise under exposed footage... and of course get better highlights and skin tones.
 
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