MEETING WITH THE DRAGON

[Robert Hart]

Hopefully nobody gets their knickers in a twist by thinking I am being in any way disrespectful. I am a SI2K owner-operator so mischief on a RED forum may well be part of the DNA.

A few days back whilst assisting with a big Elemac and tracks at a film shoot, I saw the camera was not just any common-garden RED, but a DRAGON. So between takes, with great awe and trepidation I walked across, introduced myself, then reached out very gently and slowly and with my fingertip and yes, I actually touched it.

The memory is etched indelibly in my breing, a delicate fingertip brush on the top of the letter "G". Sensing the warmth of life emanating from the casework, I was overcome with great transports of joy and bliss. It did not bite me so I have been accepted by it as a rider.

Now I won't wash my hand for a week. That is an indulgence I normally reserve for myself after meeting and greeting royalty.

The location was to die for, mahogany-panelled walls and architecture which would do Hogwarts proud. Lit the way it was, it looked splendid on the big monitor they had set up for the director.

Things have certainly come a long way since the 35mm groundglass adaptors and Sony Z1s.

 

[Jake Wilganowski]

Wow, it's just a camera, a cool camera, but just a tool

 

[Zack Birlew]

Looking back on it it is hard to understand how we got by with 35mm adapters at all. It's just night and day how different the adapter footage looks compared to the natural S35 and FF35 sensor video of today. There was a recent article on NoFilmSchool where someone put a Redrockmicro M3 35mm adapter onto a Canon XC10 to see how it performed and it just doesn't look good at all. I remember when I saw the first RED footage short, it was just incredible! But as far as my first time seeing a RED One on a shoot, I did kind of marvel at it for a while. Not perhaps to the OP's degree but it was neat to see it on set being used by, at that time, fellow film school students.

 

[Robert Hart]

35mm groundglass adaptors? When needs then musted until something better came along. However there was some good work done on them. The indie features, "Merantau", "Dear Wendy" and "Monsters" were shot on them so it wasn't all bad. A 35mm groundglass adaptor film always had a "signature" and the occasional take where the motor was not running turns up at least once in most.

Just to inflict a little pain of remembrance of the humbug and hassle of having to manage two lens and exposure systems and cope with the f5.6 glass wall, here is a lttile clip :-

 

[Robert Hart]

QUOTE:


"Redrockmicro M3 35mm adapter onto a Canon XC10".

From memory, each "alternative groundglass adapter" as I defined them, and the "genuine" Mini35-400/Pro35 had an individual signature depending on the cut of the groundglass texture. In the final evolutions, swappable groundglasses were available for some adaptors.

I went a slightly different route for groundglass dressing, a five micron cut and a very brief backpolish. This conferred the deep groundglass texture but allowed just a hint of aerial image pass-through which assisted contrast and definition at the cost of the dreaded "ghosting" artifact in some conditions.

With some modifications and care, I was able to achieve 2K resolution on test charts with one of Hien and Quyen Le's Letus Extremes. Dennis Wood's final evolution of his Brevis adaptor and varifocal relay for the SI2K were also able to get there. The real world outdoors was another place. I did not get to try anything with Wayne Kinney's SG series of adaptors or with Redrock's final evolutions. They could well have also been capable.

There, I also discovered that IR contamination was an issue which affected both colour rendition and "apparent" resolution but the adaptors were superseded by the time I had started playing with IR filters on them. Still R and D-ing to get the last few horsepower out of them was a good gig whilst it lasted.

It would be interesting to see somebody revisit the plate-camera sized groundglass rig which was used in an indie film plus an early SI2K prototype and replace the SI2K with a RED cam and an appropriate relay optic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellflower_(film)

 

[Patrick O'Sullivan]

Hey Robert,

Thanks for bringing out the ole elemac. Worked just like the old days.

Here is a frame grab from what we got with the cool location:

 

[Antony Newman]

Wow. Love those grabs.

AJ

 

[Robert Hart]

Thanks for the preview grabs. - It was Ricey's Elemac. I was the old guy who was playing guard ant at the van until stuff was brought in. You got that lighting pretty right. It was searingly bright outdoors.

It was something of a coup for whomever managed to arrange that location. It wouldn't just happen for anyone I suspect.

Did you get to see the wonderful old pendulum clock in the next room off the western side? The finely engraved clock face and the weights are begging for second unit even if you don't use the shots.

Looks like all those lights did their thing and the searing daylight outside the windows? Just imagine that on the old PD150.