Jim Deserves Better

[Eryc Tramonn]

At the end of the day... we have a hater society. People just love to hate. If Jim had introduced the RED One at 100k+ he would have the respect he deserves industry wide. All this came from the price point being too low and fucking up the entire game.

I think this mentality drives the lion share of the vitriol people spit at the RED. Since its initial release, the camera has been highly disruptive, leveled plainly at a good old boy network that would like many to believe they are the only ones capable of operating a light meter, understanding lens technology, or crafting poignant stories from moving imagery.

With the ease of digital distribution and accomplished indie productions happening with increased frequency, what will be the excuse to keep those projects out of theaters, as well?

 

[Adam Beck]

RED has changed my life! I'm sure you've read this a thousand times already, but that just shows the impact you've made on us all. You've built an amazing team that will continue to carry the torch.

May God continue to bless you Jim, as RED has been a blessing to me!

Adam

 

[Ian MacLean]

I, for one, am not fooled by the misdirection. I think he just wants a little peace and quite in which to build his Iron Man suit.

*Edit - Actually, upon thinking about it, if you switch the direction of particle flow, who better to build a repulsor ray?

 

[Paul Kalbach]

Forums like CML and Cinematography.Com are made up of individuals with individual opinions, there is no organizing principle to promote a single viewpoint, no board that sets policy on issues. You can't force individual members to say good or bad things if they don't want to, nor can you blame the whole forum for the comments of a few, anymore than you should blame RedUser for some of the whacky opinions posted here.

Second, we all need to cut each other some slack for things we might have said in 2006, opinions do evolve over time!

That said, I think Jim Jannard will be regarded in cinema camera history like Mitchell, Arnold & Richter, Gottschalk, Fred Waller, Michael Todd, Jean-Pierre Beulieu, etc. -- visionaries who moved cinematography forward in new directions.

Jim was right more often than he was wrong, he saw the direction of that digital cinematography should be taking -- something that was "in the wind" in the mid-2000's -- that we should be capturing digital cinema with 35mm single-sensor cameras shooting 4K raw, and it should be affordable and practical to use. The baby steps that the manufacturing industry was taking were infuriating, beholden to 1990's HD camcorder and tape technology, and Jim wanted the future that we all saw coming, but he wanted it now, not in ten years, and not costing $200,000 per camera just to buy into that future. And he had the money and the will to make his vision a reality and we are all better off for it. He's changed the lives of thousands of filmmakers and altered the industry as a whole, which is much more than most of us will ever accomplish.

When the Red One first arrived, what were the alternatives? Tape-based HD cameras that were five times the cost, some 35mm single-sensor but many 2/3" 3-sensor. We had cameras that pointed in a similar direction as Red -- Dalsa Origin and Arri D20 -- but they were really prototypes testing certain principles, they had a number of limitations because of the raw data bottleneck at the time, and they weren't made in volume and priced to sell. We also had prosumer HD cameras shifting away to file-based recording, led by Panasonic, but the P2 technology wasn't going to handle 4K data; otherwise, everyone was relying on HDCAM-SR tape decks to make recording practical, and that was limited to 1080P. Making 4K raw recording practical for the average filmmaker on a budget was the wall that Red burst through like a tank in battle and the industry should be grateful.

+1000. I can't say it any better David.
Jim; I wish I could shake your hand and have a beer with you. I guess I'll just have to settle with saying THANK YOU again, for making possible the technology that enables me to do what I do. I'll miss the 3:00am posts, but I have a suspicion that last doesn't mean forever...

 

[Jagger Christian]

Sanford Meisner one of the greatest acting teachers of all time said..."Never in the history of the world has there ever been a monument or statue erected of a critic. Screw Your critics!" I think that sums it up, nicely...

 

[Thomas Pierrepont]

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication Jim.

5 years ago I was out of money, had no direction, no job and no one would seem to hire me. I joined the military then broke my hip and ended up in the same place. I followed RED the entire time working part time jobs and working my way into being a cinematographer and an editor. I saved every dollar I could and got a Scarlet. You made that possible for people like me. Now I own an Epic.

You have given me and my family a way to make a living. I'm sure this has happened for others as well. I'm not saying it's just RED that made these things happen. But you provided a door. I emptied my pockets on my first RED and I wouldn't turn back now. I saw a chance to learn, and better myself. Thank you for jump starting something amazing. Opening so many eyes and giving us a tool that we can use to be creative, make a living, pursue our passions and learn until our brains explode.

Best of luck to you on your future endeavors!

I liked this post the most. :smile5:

Great story, thank's for sharing.

 

[dalemccready]

I used to support CML as a good resource but lately I just find it to be a product basher. Each camera company puts a lot of work in to make their products, Red is no different excepting the fact of the enormous progress they made (and made other make) over the last few years. I have a wee piece of titanium in the shape of an R from 2007 that I'm very proud of. I shot my first Anamorphic feature on an Epic this year and really enjoyed the experience after 3 years recently of solid 35mm shooting.

I tip my hat to Jim and wish Jarred all the best. Keep pushing and we'll all win. Ignore the haters, I hear their reels aren't that great anyway.

 

[Mike 'Fireman' Ross]

Those who can, do.

Mike

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

I, for one, am not fooled by the misdirection. I think he just wants a little peace and quite in which to build his Iron Man suit.

*Edit - Actually, upon thinking about it, if you switch the direction of particle flow, who better to build a repulsor ray?

+1 Agree completely. #jannardsuperhero

 

[Nick Morrison]

Ketch, CML is not that powerful, there are a thousand sycophantic messages here for every one that questions on CML.

This whole spat is just ridiculous

I think you underestimate the influence of CML. I've been hearing about CML's reactions to Dragon ALL WEEK from friends of mine. I wasn't even that surprised by Jim's statement this morning.

You could argue DVXUSER, REDUSER and CML are some of the most relied upon sources for cinematography available.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Will I own a Red One MX and I love it. I love where Red went - the Epic is a great camera. I like the images out of it very much. But this isn't about the amazing technology - this is about Jim Jinnard's attitude problem. Maybe people would give Red a better name if its CEO acted like a professional and didn't do name-calling and character assassination in his community public boards. Michael Jordan did something similar I heard from someone in his speech, he called out his high school basketball coach for not believing in him.

That helped tarnish Michael Jordan. But I guess here's where it stands - Jim doesn't care - calling out two people in his farewell weepy email was classic Jim. So maybe I need to grow a pair and move on.

Ed you are entitled to your opinion. You are after all exactly the kind of DP we want shooting on RED, and participating on these forums. Your Dove Sketches piece has already become iconic (shot on RED), and won the Golden Lion for BEST commercial at Cannes this year.

That being said, I think the fire in Jim's belly is a large part of what has made RED so successful. His fire and his passion have clearly elevated RED to heights few thought imaginable. In a short 7 years he and his company have literally changed the face of cinematography, and forced the industry to try and catch up. And all delivered at a price few can match.

Case in point...your Battle Tested Red One may be one of the greatest deals in cinematography in the past 10 years.

I respect Jim's fire, and understand that these boards are his. I am in house, and I behave accordingly. I want to know as much as I can about RED, so I hang out here.

I understand that Jim's tone is not everyone's cup of tea. I personally love his take no prisoner's attitude. I relate to it. But I also understand that it rubs some the wrong way, and has created some backlash.

As you say, people need to separate the man from the camera. His cameras are BRILLIANT. He is BRILLIANT. His personality is FIREY (which in turn has probably MADE THE CAMERA'S BRILLIANT).

People need to judge RED cameras on their merit, and nothing more. And they probably need to keep in mind that their excellence is due in large part to the uncompromising nature of Jim, their creator. The apple never falls far from the tree.

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

from the INC. Magazine May Issue
-open in new window for bigger view-

 

[Danny Dunlop]

Whenever someone achieves anything, no matter the scale, there will always be those with the ego sensitive enough to take shots. I've never won an award without hearing someone call me a hack or even an asshole. In all honesty I've come to love it. The sincerest form of flattery isn't someone clapping their hands or saying "Hey, that was pretty okay", it's someone getting in so much of a huff that they rant and rave and make fumbling personal attacks. That's when you know you've done something big.

 

[Keith_D]

Jim pay no heed to those that lack imagination, courage or integrity, they are not your peers. Their words are only the sounds of fingernails against a chalkboard… annoying but signifying nothing. And in the end they leave less than dust. We are all born into a world that was complete before we got here. A place where the most common word spoken is “NO.” But people like yourself, the outsider, the artist and the dreamer are not lulled by status quo. They champion vision over conformity, action over rhetoric. They disregard the small minded and the naysayers and bravely create the world anew. What you have done has fundamentally changed the paradigm. There is no going back. Those dragged kicking and screaming behind you, may be bitter but in the end they will be forced to follow in your footsteps (and eat your dust.) Thank you for all that you have done!

 

[Vadim Bobkovsky]

Weird, the article suggests as if Jim and Red team only care about resolution and nothing else, but in the real world guys from Red expressed their great concern about other important things, such as latitude, color rendition and tonality many many times on this forum and elsewhere. It's not just about more K's, though greater than 4K resolution helps if you want to deliver pristine 4K master. What is funny, that it's the same people, who were praising ultra high-res 70mm cinematography for years, now trying to make fun of 6K sensor from Red (seems like they had no problem with F65's oversampled 4K image and Sony's marketing claims of "true" 8K chip). If Hollywood's master magicians are so in love with that creamy "warm and fuzzy" image that the "A" camera produces right out of the box, I can only suggest to Red what they already know well - make default RedGamma's highlight curve a tad sweeter and offer diffused low contrast LP filter option just to get things perfect right away without post-tweaking. If even that is not enough, users can always apply well known filters like Hollywood Blackmagic, ProMist etc.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Weird, the article suggests as if Jim and Red team only care about resolution and nothing else, but in the real world guys from Red expressed their great concern about other important things, such as latitude, color rendition and tonality many many times on this forum and elsewhere. It's not just about more K's, though greater than 4K resolution helps if you want to deliver pristine 4K master. What is funny, that it's the same people, who were praising ultra high-res 70mm cinematography for years, now trying to make fun of 6K sensor from Red (seems like they had no problem with F65's oversampled 4K image and Sony's marketing claims of "true" 8K chip). If Hollywood's master magicians are so in love with that creamy "warm and fuzzy" image that the "A" camera produces right out of the box, I can only suggest to Red what they already know well - make default RedGamma's highlight curve a tad sweeter and offer diffused low contrast LP filter option just to get things perfect right away without post-tweaking. If even that is not enough, users can always apply well known filters like Hollywood Blackmagic, ProMist etc.

Don't forget, the F65 is "clean" too. After Earth was shot with 1/8 BPM. The "A" camera only lets you be "warm and fuzzy", nothing else.

 

[Bob Gilles]

I was horrified to see Jim name his 2 of his biggest critics and give them a platform as a reason for stepping aside. May I just now name two of Jim's biggest fans (Ridley Scott and Peter Jackson) as a reason to stay in the arena and look after the era of the MEIZLER™ Module. If you think the Red One changed the industry, just wait and see what happens when this this monster is unchained, every AC, OC, DP and Producer is going to be begging for it. I am sure Arri is scrambling like crazy to come up with something similar, Fox and ABC are freaking about the concept of shooting to DNXhd 444 in camera for episodics and saving about $1400 per cam/per day on AKS for FIZ and Wireless SDI rigs, ect, ect., this is the real game changer my friends.

 

[Max Nguyen]

I think Jim is leaving on a high note. They know what Dragon is going to deliver and evolve into with constant updates and such. Change the world? Done. Road map to the future? Set the foundations. It's up to Jarred and the rest of the team moving forward. Not a bad way to retire, IMHO.

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

I read CML for awhile before I became a little tired by the clutter in my email and unsubbed.

While I was periodically informed by what I read during that period, and the regulars are frequently very helpful in dispensing useful advice, I can't say that I was ever inspired. That's not really the spirit of the list.

Jim is one of those rare individuals who can inform AND inspire. Jim broadened my perception of what was possible on a regular basis, here on these forums. Both by his words and by his example.

I will miss that. I miss it already.

Following Jim's passion project has been a singular experience - something which people who yammer on about scam artist or hypester will simply never grasp. I don't think they have the receptors for it. Our species has an unfortunate tendency to kill what we don't understand.

 

[Noel R.]

Jim, thanks for changing the industry. By far of all things I've ever owned, my RED camera is my favorite.