- Banned
- #1
Rick Darge
Banned
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2006
- Messages
- 3,775
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Age
- 44
Hey guys and gals,
First off it was great seeing so many of you at NAB this year! My ZEN DOG crew and I had a blast being there. So I just want to make this thread short and sweet and give you some of my impressions about NAB this year. These are my honest true feelings about what I saw and DIDN'T see. I spent 3 days roaming the Central and South Halls. I didn't spend anytime in the Broadcast, Audio or Post booths but I'm sure everyone had some innovative things going on. My agenda this year was to acquire sponsorship deals between my film ZEN DOG and product makers both big and small. On that front, it was more than a success with over a dozen companies ranging from EASY RIG all the way up to ARRI in giving us whatever support they could for our 4 week film adventure starting up this Summer. It is true what they say in life, if you don't ask, the answer is always a NO.
Onto my impressions...
MOST IMPRESSIVE PRODUCT: The new Angenieux ANAMORPHIC Zoom!
I love the look of Angenieux glass so much that I invested in the DP ROUGE line of lenses last year. Couldn't be happier. This year they debuted their brand new Anamorphic zoom which is a 56-152mm T4 2x. Quite simply, this lens takes the beautiful look of Anamorphic and combines that with the Angenieux image quality which we all know and love. Going to sell for $71,000 and I have a strong feeling that it will be VERY VERY much in demand once it hits. ARRI showed off their new Anamorphic primes but I would rather own this zoom than their full prime set anyday of the week. It's THAT good.
THE MOST TALKED ABOUT PRODUCT: Blackmagic 4k Cinema Camera
Everyone was talking about the new 4k s35 camera coming out of the Blackmagic camp. Personally, I really like what this company is doing. Sure they're a little slow to ship and their current model has issues (I love my BMCC and use it all the time, so can't relate to people bitching about a $3k camera) but those little hiccups are a moot point when you consider how disruptive they are being. Releasing a 4k camera and bundling it with a full version of Resolve for $4,000 is something to take note of. Despite no OLPF and other niceties, I think it's an amazing compromise in price, performance and feature set. I dig this company because they seem very OPEN and catered to the indie market. Off the shelf SSD cards, small form factor, Pro Res and RAW, Resolve ?! -- If they can just get their shipping times sorted out, this camera will dominate the indie market no doubt. I heard a lot of random content creators talking about buying 2-3 of the units for features, TV shows, etc. -- Very cool company with an awesome staff of friendly people to answer questions and vent too ; ) I also just enjoyed how brightly lit their booth was. I could SEE everything without having to squint with my old tired eyes.
THE MOST OVERHYPED NEW PRODUCT: The New MOVI stabilizer thing
I get what they're doing over there. I understand why LaForet likes it so much but I'm just not sold. It's way too expensive for what it is. It puts too much stress on your forearms and shoulders. They told me that you could use an EasyRig or a Steadicam Arm and Vest to help take the weight off but then, what's the point of paying them $15,000 for a supposed complete unit? I don't buy the hype. I think this product stinks and it will be more of a pain in the ass than people think. It's basically just the bottom gyroscope to a helicopter rig with some cool accessories that are hardly GAME CHANGING. For all the hype on the internet, I just wasn't impressed. And can we just banish that term 'Game Changer' once and for? Until we can put a damn 10k sensor into an eyeball, I don't want to hear it.
THE SOON TO BE NEW RULERS OF THE UNIVERSE (in 20 years): GOPRO
GOPRO was showing off all their new footage on beautiful displays accompanied with annoying dubstep. Regardless, the picture quality of these little cameras are truly STUNNING and I just personally feel that in the far off distant Star Trek future, ALL CAMERAS will be the size of a GOPRO. Real cinematography will all happen in post with DoPs choosing their focal length and focus points AFTER the fact. This is just my prediction of where it is all heading and if GOPRO keeps on keeping on, they'll rule the universe in the year 3013.
NICEST COMPANY EVER: Dana Dolly
I love the Dana Dolly. it's simple, cheap and highly effective. Seriously, if you are looking for an awesome slider, checkout the DANA DOLLY. Worth every penny. We were able to talk to the inventor/CEO and his wife whose name is DANA and they were just the kindest, most down to Earth people ever. That's all I have to say about them really. They're making great products and staying so humble about everything. Really liked them.
BEST BANG FOR YOUR DOLLAR: The Paralinx Wireless Transmitter
Contributing Reduser DAN KANES and his team created an awesome little product that simply transmits your wireless HDMI video feed across the set and into your monitoring device. The units are highly effective, built well and are damn inexpensive for what other competing products offer. Every shooter should own a Paralinx. And infact they are because I've seen more and more of these popping up on sets small and large, so it's awesome seeing his product get out there. Check them out for sure! Great seeing you there Dan and thank you for all the Zen Dog loving!
MOST DISAPPOINTING: No Dragon Footage
I know this is Red's house but I'm staying honest here in saying that I was very disappointed that Red wasn't showing anything off their Dragon sensor. The "clean room" didn't impress me at all. I was expecting footage and there was no footage. I know it's straight off the hot plate and Red is working extra hard to get everything together and tuned up, but as a filmmaker on the other side, we were promised Dragon chips last year so I was just expecting (assuming) that the least they could do was show a few motion clips. Makes me worried but I know Red will pull it all together at the end of the day.
MOST IMPRESSIVE BOOTH: Sony
I thought Sony had the most thought out booth. It was massive and covered every aspect of how they fit within the niche of TV/Film. They had areas to screen footage, watch 3D, listen to workflow demos, play with cameras, talk to engineers, buy gear. They had EVERYTHING you would want out of a booth like that and it was nice to bounce around and absorb it all.
Side Note... I always find it funny that some of these booths have that style of carpeting that literally drags your feet down so when you walk across it, you naturally want to slow down. Very effective LOL! If I ever had a booth at NAB, I would opt for Quick Sand instead. Have customers walk up to you, sink through the ground where they would drop into a separate room after party with Russian models and Bud Light.
So that's it guys and gal! Hope everyone had a great time at NAB this year and I'd love to hear all of your impressions as well!
KEEP SHOOTING!
First off it was great seeing so many of you at NAB this year! My ZEN DOG crew and I had a blast being there. So I just want to make this thread short and sweet and give you some of my impressions about NAB this year. These are my honest true feelings about what I saw and DIDN'T see. I spent 3 days roaming the Central and South Halls. I didn't spend anytime in the Broadcast, Audio or Post booths but I'm sure everyone had some innovative things going on. My agenda this year was to acquire sponsorship deals between my film ZEN DOG and product makers both big and small. On that front, it was more than a success with over a dozen companies ranging from EASY RIG all the way up to ARRI in giving us whatever support they could for our 4 week film adventure starting up this Summer. It is true what they say in life, if you don't ask, the answer is always a NO.
Onto my impressions...
MOST IMPRESSIVE PRODUCT: The new Angenieux ANAMORPHIC Zoom!
I love the look of Angenieux glass so much that I invested in the DP ROUGE line of lenses last year. Couldn't be happier. This year they debuted their brand new Anamorphic zoom which is a 56-152mm T4 2x. Quite simply, this lens takes the beautiful look of Anamorphic and combines that with the Angenieux image quality which we all know and love. Going to sell for $71,000 and I have a strong feeling that it will be VERY VERY much in demand once it hits. ARRI showed off their new Anamorphic primes but I would rather own this zoom than their full prime set anyday of the week. It's THAT good.
THE MOST TALKED ABOUT PRODUCT: Blackmagic 4k Cinema Camera
Everyone was talking about the new 4k s35 camera coming out of the Blackmagic camp. Personally, I really like what this company is doing. Sure they're a little slow to ship and their current model has issues (I love my BMCC and use it all the time, so can't relate to people bitching about a $3k camera) but those little hiccups are a moot point when you consider how disruptive they are being. Releasing a 4k camera and bundling it with a full version of Resolve for $4,000 is something to take note of. Despite no OLPF and other niceties, I think it's an amazing compromise in price, performance and feature set. I dig this company because they seem very OPEN and catered to the indie market. Off the shelf SSD cards, small form factor, Pro Res and RAW, Resolve ?! -- If they can just get their shipping times sorted out, this camera will dominate the indie market no doubt. I heard a lot of random content creators talking about buying 2-3 of the units for features, TV shows, etc. -- Very cool company with an awesome staff of friendly people to answer questions and vent too ; ) I also just enjoyed how brightly lit their booth was. I could SEE everything without having to squint with my old tired eyes.
THE MOST OVERHYPED NEW PRODUCT: The New MOVI stabilizer thing
I get what they're doing over there. I understand why LaForet likes it so much but I'm just not sold. It's way too expensive for what it is. It puts too much stress on your forearms and shoulders. They told me that you could use an EasyRig or a Steadicam Arm and Vest to help take the weight off but then, what's the point of paying them $15,000 for a supposed complete unit? I don't buy the hype. I think this product stinks and it will be more of a pain in the ass than people think. It's basically just the bottom gyroscope to a helicopter rig with some cool accessories that are hardly GAME CHANGING. For all the hype on the internet, I just wasn't impressed. And can we just banish that term 'Game Changer' once and for? Until we can put a damn 10k sensor into an eyeball, I don't want to hear it.
THE SOON TO BE NEW RULERS OF THE UNIVERSE (in 20 years): GOPRO
GOPRO was showing off all their new footage on beautiful displays accompanied with annoying dubstep. Regardless, the picture quality of these little cameras are truly STUNNING and I just personally feel that in the far off distant Star Trek future, ALL CAMERAS will be the size of a GOPRO. Real cinematography will all happen in post with DoPs choosing their focal length and focus points AFTER the fact. This is just my prediction of where it is all heading and if GOPRO keeps on keeping on, they'll rule the universe in the year 3013.
NICEST COMPANY EVER: Dana Dolly
I love the Dana Dolly. it's simple, cheap and highly effective. Seriously, if you are looking for an awesome slider, checkout the DANA DOLLY. Worth every penny. We were able to talk to the inventor/CEO and his wife whose name is DANA and they were just the kindest, most down to Earth people ever. That's all I have to say about them really. They're making great products and staying so humble about everything. Really liked them.
BEST BANG FOR YOUR DOLLAR: The Paralinx Wireless Transmitter
Contributing Reduser DAN KANES and his team created an awesome little product that simply transmits your wireless HDMI video feed across the set and into your monitoring device. The units are highly effective, built well and are damn inexpensive for what other competing products offer. Every shooter should own a Paralinx. And infact they are because I've seen more and more of these popping up on sets small and large, so it's awesome seeing his product get out there. Check them out for sure! Great seeing you there Dan and thank you for all the Zen Dog loving!
MOST DISAPPOINTING: No Dragon Footage
I know this is Red's house but I'm staying honest here in saying that I was very disappointed that Red wasn't showing anything off their Dragon sensor. The "clean room" didn't impress me at all. I was expecting footage and there was no footage. I know it's straight off the hot plate and Red is working extra hard to get everything together and tuned up, but as a filmmaker on the other side, we were promised Dragon chips last year so I was just expecting (assuming) that the least they could do was show a few motion clips. Makes me worried but I know Red will pull it all together at the end of the day.
MOST IMPRESSIVE BOOTH: Sony
I thought Sony had the most thought out booth. It was massive and covered every aspect of how they fit within the niche of TV/Film. They had areas to screen footage, watch 3D, listen to workflow demos, play with cameras, talk to engineers, buy gear. They had EVERYTHING you would want out of a booth like that and it was nice to bounce around and absorb it all.
Side Note... I always find it funny that some of these booths have that style of carpeting that literally drags your feet down so when you walk across it, you naturally want to slow down. Very effective LOL! If I ever had a booth at NAB, I would opt for Quick Sand instead. Have customers walk up to you, sink through the ground where they would drop into a separate room after party with Russian models and Bud Light.
So that's it guys and gal! Hope everyone had a great time at NAB this year and I'd love to hear all of your impressions as well!
KEEP SHOOTING!
