Dubai EPIC shooting and other traveling fun

[TedRed]

I'm on one one of my flights across Asia Pacific right now, doing some quick grading of EPIC 5k footage shot from helicopter in Dubai and from a coffee shop in istanbul on my MacBook Air… checking some email on my iPhone, drafting this note up on my iPad (If I had any more Apple gear with me on this flight I could open up my own Apple store here)

Totally mobile and portable, running RedCineX on the Mac Air reviewing 5k footage like it was a web video at 1/8th rez from the full 5k… no problem, grabbing quick R3D frames to post online and kick out jpegs to email. So easy and streamlined, it's a bit mind boggling.

Some backstory… in Dubai I had the rare opportunity to fly on a very special helicopter with some very special VIPs (other than the EPIC body which seems to create it's own vortex of excitement everywhere I take it) no more details on the VIPs as they really value their privacy, so no speculation here on who I was with please...

We were up on the helipad of a very famous 7 star hotel in Dubai, (yeah 7 stars… the staircase railings are actually made of real gold) as one of the production companies there, Alchemy films, was shooting a commercial for the hotel, I brought the Epic along to show the production crew and shot some pretty fun behind the scenes video of that on a little 1080p HD handi-cam (I'll post a vimeo link for the bts footage when I cut it down some)

update: here's the vimeo link to the behind the scenes footage:

http://vimeo.com/21249188

Cheesy graphics and transitions courtesy of the iMovie team

Turns out to get the air shots with a RED ONE would require some extra special shooting permits, etc, as it's size it not something you can sneak onto the copter to get some quick shots.. but turns out my slightly larger than normal "still camera" is really no problem to take along with me on a quick ride around the City with a few others in the chopper… The copter pilot was really cool, we filled him in on the deal and he was all for it.

So just shooting in the minimum configuration, with my very light original 18-50 RED zoom, handheld out the side window of the chopper, we got some pretty nice looking footage, both motion and stills at the same time… every single frame of the 5k motion footage is a super high rez still in it's own right, as you can see. Shooting 5k slo-mo with a narrow shutter since I had no mattebox or NDs, and small size was key to the success of the mission. Having that super high resolution should make the handheld movement very easy to stabilize in post with no penalty… in fact there is a very small bit of vignetting on that older zoom at 18mm so it's kind of a double win to have the huge 5k frames to sneak in on a touch for stabilization.

I would like to downplay how much fun I had, as just another day in the world, running around showing off the gear, but this day was really special… a culmination of the ride from the earliest prototypes to the first RED ONEs to this day was really remarkable… The engineering team at RED and the driving forces behind the work we do deserve a tremendous amount of credit for creating this small wonder called EPIC… just to be along for the Ride is an honor and privilege, and it was quite a ride on that particular afternoon.

Then it was off to a Coffee shop in Istanbul to show of the EPIC and Scarlet, and I grabbed this quick shot of the group there having fun "5K style" I extracted a few fun stills from the 5k movie that show how nice it is to have the motion images to just pick the best moments from the shooting, same resolution for the movies or the stills - phenomenal.

No doubt there will be many more stories of EPIC in the wild soon as more and more cameras start shipping and shooting amazing footage… this was my lucky moment to be a part of that. There's another story about my travels to Sydney and Melbourne with some pretty amazing EPIC footage as well, but I'll leave that tale to my friends Mike and Jason from fxphd to fill you in when they are ready… all I'll say is everything I've been telling you about the power of HDRx™… I've been underestimating how phenomenal and powerful this piece of the technology puzzle is… wait till you see for yourself what we saw

Thanks to all for letting me play along!

+ Ted

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

Hi Ted, thanks for sharing these fantastic shots. Love the man made islands and the detail in the cityscape, no jaggies even with a jpeg is just... I CANT WAIT FOR MY 2 EPICS!!!

Safe travels

 

[Peter Matthes]

I remember when the World Islands were declared "An Epic" by their developers.

I like Jim's camera ... and his Fijian island ... much better.

 

[Casey Green]

Rock on, Ted!

 

[TedRed]

Here are the coffee shot shots... even my jittery hands from the expresso was no problem to shoot the EPIC and get rock solid stills.

off on another long flight 1/2 way around the globe... will check in again when I land, and when I'm back in LA I'll see about getting some R3D stills of the Dubai images for you to experiment with.

 

[Andrew clemson]

Really cant get over how great the footage looks. The aerials look awesome, but i guess thats down to the cameraman, eh Ted? Ill post a link to the spot here as soon as its finished.

Thanks again.

 

[Antonio Forjaz]

Thanks Ted, please keep on telling us these stories, and posting picts.

 

[Justin O'Neill]

Wow, even from these little jpgs you can get a sense that this footage is a step above. Love that shot of Dubai in the background...has a very sci-fi feel to it.

 

[jake blackstone]

I remember when the World Islands were declared "An Epic" by their developers.

I sure hope this Epic is different. My understanding, that islands are already eroding

 

[Mike Seymour]

Teaser

Teaser

We are at Sydney Airport about to fly out with an Epic as hand luggage.

Here is a pic to keep you going until I get better internet upload speeds !

Oh we will be blog the first week of EPIC use here
http://www.fxphd.com/blog/

Thanks Ted - hope the flight back was good.

Mike

 

[Kris Anderson]

"but turns out my slightly larger than normal "still camera" is really no problem to take along with me on a quick ride"

I've often thought how the smaller footprint of Epic and Scarlet and the fact they can pass as stills cameras are going to make it very hard for a lot of places/venues to ban them, or even recognise what they are. Imagine getting a bunch of mates together and rocking up to a show by your favourite band with 8 scarlets scattered around the place. Buy the 'official' bootleg soundtrack from the artist after the show and you're off. A whole new world of bootlegging awaits.

 

[TedRed]

Here's the Vimeo link to the behind the scenes footage we shot that day in Dubai

http://vimeo.com/21249188

Cheesy graphics and transitions courtesy of the iMovie team

+ Ted

 

[christopher witzke]

I'm always exited to see what your up to Ted.... Thanks!

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Nice Ted, love that footage!!

 

[Joseph Hutson]

Here's the Vimeo link to the behind the scenes footage we shot that day in Dubai

http://vimeo.com/21249188

Cheesy graphics and transitions courtesy of the iMovie team

+ Ted

Awesome! You know I'm a big fan of these kind of videos...

P.S. I think I found Justin O'Neill's twin in the video...

 

[Gregory Karydis]

Nice one Ted!
beautiful pictures

And RedCineX on a MBair???????

Have a nice journey back home!

 

[Andrew clemson]

Ha, Im pushing for those cheesey graphics to be in the final spot.

 

[AnthonyFlores]

Ted this was really cool to share. One of my dreams is to shoot a feature with the Epic in Dubai, so this was very inspiring. Rock on!

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Pretty good!!!

 

[Tom Gough]

Wow Ted what a blast... Thank you for sharing this.

It is truly amazing how powerful and portable you have made Digital Cinema!

Thank you TEAM RED :thumbsup:

All the best,