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EPIC shoots BAJA 500 2011

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BigLu

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Went out and shot some BAJA offroad footage this past weekend.

Due to the small compact size and weight,
I first hand realized this camera allows me to do things I simply cannot do with any other high end digital or film camera.
I was hand held all day 100% of the time walking for miles.

Just the EPIC body
5 inch LCD touchscreen
SSD card weigh next to nothing 128GB size
17-50 RED Pro Zoom Lens
Battery clip and a RED Brick in my pocket
Gave me the most powerful camera I can shoot with. literally in the palm of my hand.

It allows me to move without a 2nd person holding tapes, drives and or batteries following me around.
The 5K gives me ultimate power to be able to zoom in giving me room to keep a wider shots and re-frame in post with ease.
The latitude is outstanding I ranged from 160 iso - 1280 iso dependent on variables.
I do not recommend you go live down in the 160 range, I was just in some situations where it gave me wonderful results and in the end thats what was used looking great.

Filters and a matte-box would have been nice but I did not have those options this time around. I strongly intend to go with a matt box and filters next time but I know i can get away without them for this style of outdoor shooting if im stuck.

Run n gun, out in hot weather, moving left and right up and down fast everywhere, various hard lighting conditions and in un-controllable environments I did things with this camera I would never want to attempt with anything else due to its light weight.
My back and body would have been KILLED if i were to have taken a full size any camera and I could not produce the amount of footage I did this time.
We even shot inside the truck while offloading thats just nuts.
DSLR cameras are the only camera that come to mind where i can do this, but I don't have the post power and I cant focus for crap with them.

Something else extremely important, the Powerful benefit of RED CINE X in-coupled with the various gamma and color spaces, the ISO control, Flut control, various shadow controls Curve control Lift Gamma Gain controls is what brings this power all together and dominates setting the EPIC aside from all other cameras at this time.
To be out in the field with my little 17inch laptop and able to see and show results of what images are looking like and what we are getting provided a comfort that ive never had on a fast flying 100MPH changing location set.

NFL FILMS should be shooting EPIC all NFL sports and out doors sporting events can only dramatically benefit from this its that sick.

I need to thank Tony Augustinack for providing his EPIC to me for this shoot so last minute.
thank you Tony.

Luis Flores Jr
Enjoy
http://redicecream.com/biglu/REDUSER/BAJA 1st cut h264 ver2.mov


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Nice, I like how you used the excuse shooting cars to really shoot the babes.....
The guy at the end is trying sooooo hard not to turn his head to the right.....
 
Driving up from La Paz this week and as i got south of Ensenada....i was stopped several times as the cars were shooting by and onto the highway.....I had my RED MX with SSD with me and thought about doing some shooting as the action was right there.....funny thing....glad you captured it all on epic. Another nice thing about the small form factor is being able to get by or across the border w/out having to do the weeks long paperwork for temporary importation of professional camera gear; work permits and on and on and on.....
 
Big Lu is the best model to promote the small form factor of the Epic, the camera looks positively tiny against his massive frame, he is truly BIG Lu :-)
 
I'm stoked I was able to help you out Lu! :) Awesome work!!
 
Looks like fun, pictures are great you make that camera look tiny and footage of the girls nice job.
 
Great stuff Lu!

Still boggles me why people are running to Alexa in droves when I see people like you doing things like this. Single handed strolling around this event shooting 5k RAW at speeds up to 120fps - instead of 2k PRORES video.

Just blows me away...

Great stuff again Lu. Keep it coming man.
 
Oh man, looking at this, makes me wanna get out to mountain and start shooting downhill mountainbiking. Thanks for sharing Lu.
 
And us short Japanese would be least effective in that matter! Just kidding.
 
wow

I could not think of a better event to be captured with the EPIC. I'm gonna go ahead and say we need to see the rest of the footage, mkay? haha it looks absolutely sick dude!

-Paul
 
Thanks Bryant,

I agree this event was perfect for the EPIC. I can only think of the NFL and or Soccer which would be a better event for the EPIC.

There is now no doubt that the power this camera contains is so far beyond any of our understanding.

Im gonna do what I can to make another cut of the BAJA footage I took but it wont be out for a while. I tried very hard to shoot more footage tomorrow at this huge event HuckFest, but failed in finding an EPIC to shoot with on my own dime.

My Epic is in for repairs so thats a no go right now.
Thanks for letting my post be the introduction of your very first post.

Welcome to REDUSER.

Luis Flores Jr.
 
Mark Toia said:
Great stuff Lu!

Still boggles me why people are running to Alexa in droves when I see people like you doing things like this. Single handed strolling around this event shooting 5k RAW at speeds up to 120fps - instead of 2k PRORES video.

Just blows me away...
Click to expand...

Some people just have a fetish for giant cameras that need to be mounted on a shoulder rig or a $20k dollar tripod. Going hand-held doesn't seem "professional" enough for them. It's an elitist thing.
 
Bryce O said:
Some people just have a fetish for giant cameras that need to be mounted on a shoulder rig or a $20k dollar tripod. Going hand-held doesn't seem "professional" enough for them. It's an elitist thing.
Click to expand...
These people are crazy. The versatility and power are unrivaled. People will kick themselves. I remember when final cut was coming out and shaking things up. There were all these media 100 people and discrete people. Do those platforms even exist anymore? It is pretty obvious who to align with at this point. Those people chosing the wrong cameras will have expensive paper weights if they are not careful. Red teaches to think outside the box.
There is not much progression in the Alexa.
 
Oh man, Baja races are ridiculous, I shoot the step below it in off-roading, the 120 mile races, not the 500mile ones..

I can't wait to shoot them next year on Scarlet/Epic combos...
 
Hey Lu,

We just came back from Baja ourselves…did the math and realized it's been almost ten years of filming off-road, and SCORE races.
This years 500 was certainly as challenging for the racers as years past, and good for Ensenada and the people of Baja - which is good for off-road…

I read your article and the threads above, and had a couple comments to share since we've shot some with the EPIC lately as well.
A few weeks ago at the first TORC race in Michigan...

There is no one right way. With both gear / and crew.
There's nothing elitist about a full blown 5-man camera and audio crew loaded to the hilt with gear.
Makes shooting live race events challenging, but it can very often net amazing shots…especially with a seasoned group.
There's also nothing wrong with running around solo / handheld as you showcase in your clip.
That "style" if you will - isn't any different than the average Joe doing the same thing with a handicam or cell phone though.
You just happen to be acquiring at 5K/60fps.

Ask yourself this though...
What is the story?
What are the shots that tell that story?
What is the best tool for that shot?
What is the best technique for that shot?

The stories for the 500 were Colton Udall riding solo after the passing of his close friend OX.
Bryce Menzies winning his first Baja 500 in Trophy Trucks.
Luke McMillin working his way up the racing ladder again with his calss 1600 win.
And so on…

To capture this we ran 14 GoPros on 10 vehicles. Shot heli with Varicam. Shot the start/jump on 5D with the Canon 70-200mm F2.8.
A few more spots with HVX and HPX cams. A few more with 7D. And a few with RED.
RED / EPIC would have been terrible choices for some of these shots.
Some worked better handheld, some definitely needed to be shot on sticks.
Budget didn't allow for cineflex - so we went with P2. Some were shot on dolly.

My point is this:
EPIC is sick. For sure. And thank-god RED is here to push the envelope, and drive prices down while giving us better tools.
But it's the story man. The story. Not trying to pick on you but you posted shots of pretty beat up Mexican promo girls shot at like F22 or something. There's no DOF in any of those shots at all. It looks like a cleaner version of HVX footage.

EPIC is NOT PERFECT for this event though. Not by a long shot.
Lu slap that baby on a tripod, throw a zoom lens on it, and try tracking one of those trucks barreling at you at 140MPH across the open desert. Would take a 1st AC with gold hands to do so.

@Mark Toia - People aren't running to Alexa in droves - but EPIC still has a lot of bugs. I've talked to two very prominent directors lately that are very very weary of using them for commercial production. "Why risk them taking a shit?" Alexa is rock solid. But again IT DEPENDS ON THE SHOT and the STORY!

@Tetongravity - C'mon! Apples and oranges. We use Sach 20's for our HVX's! I'll take a stable action shot any day over another shaky handheld shot …unless it's wide and inside! How about both?! It's well worth it to hike heavy gear to dope spots.

We'll be shooting a new spot soon with General Tires/BJ Baldwin. Likely RED and EPIC.
5D and 7D for POV and various off-truck rigs.
We'll chase him with heli and a gyro stabilized buggy. Dolly set-ups…
Shit we'd put a techno crane out there if we could. The more tools the better. Progression.

It's good to see more and more RED and EPIC gear at off-road events...
But what the sport needs most right now - to keep it from disappearing...is good story tellers!

Come ride with us!
 
Whhhaaat? One of the Martelli bros is on Reduser?


But i do agree Joshua, story is king with anything, I shoot loads of stuff for Heavy Metal Concepts shooting offroad all over the US, and he too is more interested in story. I am his go to tech consultant, and thats how I got him a red to shoot with for the first time, he'd been shooting on Canons and handycams, and we shot one of the qualifying races for King of the Hammers with Red. Soon I'll have a Scarlet, and will gather epics for shoot KOH next year, even with the high res, my buddy only cares about story, he will rack his brain for a month trying to figure out what to tell, what to expose. And its stunning how different he thinks than me. I'm technical, he's story based.


And I'd love to work with you guys someday, I saw your mint400 dvd and was blown away.
 
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