Recent pics...

[Ace]

Just goes to show.. No such thing as having too much of a good thing.

I think what Peter is doing is great. The great thing about shooting with that kind of scope, is that you can point the camera at almost anything, and it automatically looks epic.

Anamorphic lenses are great. But you do end up losing resolution on s35mm (unless your say shooting 70mm cinerama). This kind of setup is the answer. And Peter coming from a vfx background would i guess be sensitive about the visual qualities of the medium.

It would be interesting to see the sensors you guys come up with which will make this kind of setup obsolete!

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

Haha... easy, I was just trying to be funny.

Why wouldn't we defend the guy that started the actual revolution? IMO if it wasn't for Jannard we'd still be shooting 3-CCD 1080 for $100k.

I think Jim is just trying to throw us a little bone to nibble on till he can unleash on us with the new gear. Nothing wrong with that... (or beards).

And remember what you see is several weeks old.... PJ is probably already shooting with three Epic 28k's on the tip of the new space shuttle.

 

[D'Arcy Foley-Dawson]

D'Arcy... I'm personally pretty proud of the fact that Peter Jackson was the very 1st person to shoot RED (Boris and Natasha). Even more proud that he is still shooting RED today for a variety of projects and in a multitude of ways. Are you trying to take my fun away? What exactly do you have against PJ, RED or me? Just curious...

Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your questions.

First, I have nothing against you (why on earth would I?). I truly believe the RED is an amazing camera and you should be very proud of it.

Second, I have nothing against RED, I have shot a number of projects on it and it remains my medium of choice!

Third, I come on to this forum every now and then to build my RED knowledge, mostly for working in post, and because I find a lot of the more general discussions about filmmaking quite interesting and engaging.

But I get mildly irritated by the "name dropping" that frequently goes on in the Recon section.

It seems to me that the fact that Peter Jackson or Steven Soderbergh or whomever have shot/are shooting/will shoot on RED to be quite irrelevant.

Despite their accomplishments, they are not a barometer of quality. Jim, I believe you should be quite simply proud of having developed such a fantastic product, regardless of who uses it.

But if you are proud that Peter Jackson - sorry, PJ - was the very 1st person to shoot RED, I hope you are equally proud of the probably thousands of other filmmakers out there, none of whom have grossed hundreds of millions or
received an invitation to the oscars; who have benefited from the unique opportunities RED presents.

Personally I have a problem with what I perceive to be the culture of celebrity and treating some people as if they were small deities come down to earth. As far as I'm concerned Peter Jackson is just another guy - another guy who in my opinion makes very bland, bloated and overrated films; but who cares? I also think Soderbergh is a terrific filmmaker.

The point is I couldn't care less whether or not they shoot RED. It's not going to influence my decision to use it. I try to judge things on their inherent merits, not the reflected glory of someone else. Personally I struggle to comprehend why other people clearly do care, but I didn't always think this way myself and definitely, as a fallible human being, am guilty of name dropping in the past.

That, quite simply, is the humble point I want to make.







[Now that I've answered Jim's question I hope we can just leave it there and not have pages of response and analysis. For those of you who want to pick apart my post point-by-point, I suggest you open a separate thread to do so, lest I be vilified for hijacking.]

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

D'arcy

PJ is the shit man. What are you talking about?

LOTR? best films EVER made... and when computers were pathetically slow.

we are talking render farms of dozens of slow ass sub GHZ mac g4's dude.
maybe 256mb memory

Weta Digital is da bomb brother. with all due respect

you need to get a clue.

and reduser is not a place to find the celebrity you seem to crave. your
notoriety is becoming tiresome.

make inteligent unbiased arguments or counter points... or ... again
with all due respect.

shut up man

 

[Craig Stevens]

But I get mildly irritated by the "name dropping" that frequently goes on in the Recon section.

D'Arcy, the problem (and this is why I think that you're just trolling) is that this thread is all about Jim posting picture of PJ with the cameras. It has been since Jim's opening post, and yet you keep coming back to it. If the name dropping really bothers you, then why keep reading?

 

[zak forrest]

and Peter is still rock'n those DIN-to-BNC cables ...

so sick

 

[David Rasberry]

What's not to be proud of? PJ and Soderbergh took the first leaps into the RED pond. They shot amazing footage on the first RED prototypes that were far more limited in their capabilities than current versions.

 

[Eddie Semaan]

..... I have a problem with what I perceive to be the culture of celebrity and treating some people as if they were small deities come down to earth. As far as I'm concerned Peter Jackson is just another guy - another guy who in my opinion makes very bland, bloated and overrated films....

Tall Poppy Syndrome ?

 

[Douglas Underdahl]

Well, if there was picture of an ultra famous director using gear that I designed, I'd post it even if he was wearing a beard . .

 

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

LOTR? best films EVER made... and when computers were pathetically slow.

we are talking render farms of dozens of slow ass sub GHZ mac g4's dude.
maybe 256mb memory

You know those computers were pretty fast for the time, its not like it was the early days of pixar where they where pumping out luxo Jr. on technology that was only just being pioneered.

I'll bet 4 years from now these 16 core monsters we look at in awe too will look pretty slow too.

 

[Jannard]

D'Arcy... fully understand your point of view. I would just add that part of what makes PJ so interesting in RED context is the fact that he is pushing along a vast amount of experimentation with different rig combinations... something not many others have the time or resources to do.

When we showed up in NZ for "test footage" in March 2007, Peter had mobilized his troops for our arrival. Over 100 people, props, aircraft, etc. to do "real" testing... that led to "Crossing the Line". We didn't ask him to do that, he volunteered. Remember, this was at a time when we were generally thought of as a scam. He invested his time and money when he could have just laid back and waited to see what others would do before he got interested. He didn't wait. He led the charge. Literally.

Name dropping for the sake of association is not very elegant. But this is a key part of RED history. The fact that Peter is as engaged today as he was with "Boris" and "Natasha" is noteworthy IMHO. It seems a lot more relevant than whether he has a beard or not.

Best.

Jim

 

[NormLi]

Name dropping for the sake of association is not very elegant. But this is a key part of RED history. The fact that Peter is as engaged today as he was with "Boris" and "Natasha" is noteworthy IMHO. It seems a lot more relevant than whether he has a beard or not.

Best.

Jim

I agree, name dropping (not in this case) in general drives me insane but that's really cool how PJ did that with CTL. Awesome.

 

[Casey Green]

Name dropping for the sake of association is not very elegant.

Jim, when you see PJ, can you tell him he owes me 20 bucks?

thanks.

:biggrin5:

 

[Jannard]

Jim, when you see PJ, can you tell him he owes me 20 bucks?

thanks.

:biggrin5:

I probably owe PJ a lot more than that... so maybe I should just pay you for him?

Jim

 

[Casey Green]

I probably owe PJ a lot more than that... so maybe I should just pay you for him?

Jim

Hahaha.

Seriously though, if anything, we all owe the two of you!

Keep up the great work...

 

[HBrennan]

Personally I have a problem with what I perceive to be the culture of celebrity and treating some people as if they were small deities come down to earth. As far as I'm concerned Peter Jackson is just another guy - another guy who in my opinion makes very bland, bloated and overrated films

PJ is a God... don't fuck with him. Seriously... watch ALL his movies... Braindead? Meet the feebles?Bad taste?.... Bland????

How many directors do know have tricked an ENTIRE COUNTRY??
"Forgotten silver"... yes. Most of New Zealand thought that was for real. (me included).

PJ forever.

 

[Trevor Brown]

Cause: 12-18 hour work days passionately making great films...

Effect: The last thing you want to do or have time for is to shave when you are staring at another 12-18 hour work day.

Growing a beard gives you one last thing you have to worry about when filming. You can always tidy it up when you have to give a speech and accept an award ;-)

 

[Michael Schrengohst]

Cause: 12-18 hour work days passionately making great films...

Effect: The last thing you want to do or have time for is to shave when you are staring at another 12-18 hour work day.

Growing a beard gives you one last thing you have to worry about when filming. You can always tidy it up when you have to give a speech and accept an award ;-)

And shaving your head once a month does wonders for time management as well.

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

Einstein, had a closet filled with the same exact suit combination each neatly hung in one clothing hanger. He didn't want to waste time having to decide or make sure the colors matched.

Like, OMG! All I wear is white shirts AND I don't shave. I am a @!#$ genius! :yikes:

 

[Peter Majtan]

D'arcy

PJ is the shit man. What are you talking about?

LOTR? best films EVER made... and when computers were pathetically slow.

we are talking render farms of dozens of slow ass sub GHZ mac g4's dude.
maybe 256mb memory

With all due respect - the renderfarm consisted of 800 CPU Silicon Graphic servers. Together with other HW it came to 200 million USD...

Peter