RED HISTORY

[Jannard]

Milestones...

1999
Jim buys the domain red.com

2005
January-December- Jim, Ted & Frederic research the possibility of building a camera.
September- 1st communication between Jim and Jarred about the project.
October- Jim & Matt work on preliminary designs.
December- Decision was made to build a camera.
December- Graeme starts at RED.

2006
February- Jarred joins RED.
February- Matt joins RED.
February- Stuart joins RED.
April- Kelly joins RED
April- 1st NAB- . We showed "shiny aluminum prototypes" and took $1000 deposits for the RED ONE, a 4K digital Cinema Camera.
May- Rob joins RED.
June- RED ONE test bed was created... named "Frankie"
August- "RED Telecine" app was completed to process footage from "Frankie".
September- "R4K Telecine" software was completed to process REDCODE compressed files. "R4K Lab" was released the following month.
December- 1st RED ONE prototype was built... named "Spike"

2007
January- Deanan starts at RED.
March- Beta RED Alert! software is developed for internal use.
March- Prototypes "Boris" and "Natasha" are completed at the Lake Forest HQ and flown to New Zealand. Peter Jackson shoots "Crossing the Line" in 2 1/2 days with these cameras.
April- "Crossing the Line" is shown at NAB to record crowds. Attendees waited up to 2 hours to view.
June- Steven Soderbergh uses 2 prototype RED ONEs to shoot "Ché".
August- 1st production RED ONEs were shipped to customers.
August- RED Alert! is released.
August- REDCINE is released.
October- Taylor & Neveldine begin shooting "Gamer". DP is Ekkehart Pollack .

2008
February- REDline is released.
March- Alex Proyas begins shooting "Knowing" on RED ONE. DP is Simon Duggan.
April- Jim tries to quit smoking cigars and sleeps 3 hours a day under his desk. He doesn't succeed.
June- Build 16 was released for the RED ONE. It was monumental and free.
June- 16GB CF cards are released.
June- Neill Blomkamp begins shooting "District 9". DP is Trent Opaloch.
July- REDrushes is released.
August- R3D SDK is released.
September- RED announces the concept of DSMC (digital stills and motion camera).

2009
January- The Hughes brothers begin shooting "Book of Eli" on RED ONE. DP is Don Burgess.
June- 1st set of RED Pro Primes (RPPs) ships.
July- 1st RED Rocket ships.
July- ROCKETCINE is released.
September- REDCINE-X is released.
October- David Fincher begins shooting "The Social Network" on prototype RED ONE M-X cameras.

2010
January- Upgrades for RED ONE cameras to Mysterium X sensors begin.
January- RED acquires Ren-Mar Studios and renames it RED Studios Hollywood.
June- Pirates of the Caribbean 4 begins shooting in Hawaii with RED ONE M-X cameras. The DP is Dariusz Wolski.
September- HDRx announced.
September- Steven Soderbergh begins shooting "Contagion".
September- David Fincher begins shooting "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" on RED ONE M-X. DP is Jeff Cronenweth.
December- Prototype EPIC-Ms are used to shoot Spiderman 4. The DP is John Schwartzman.

2011
January- EPIC-M Serial #007 ships to Offhollywood.
March- Peter Jackson begins shooting "The Hobbit" with EPIC-Ms.
March- Ridley Scott begins shooting "Prometheus". Dariusz Wolski is DP.
April- Mike and Kent join RED.
April- Jim Cameron buys 50 EPIC-Ms.
August- 1st EPIC-Xs are shipped to customers.
August- REDCINE-X Professional is released. Free as usual.
September- Baz Luhrmann begins shooting "The Great Gatsby" starring Leo DiCaprio on EPIC. DP is Simon Duggan.
Additional features that began shooting on EPIC in 2011 include "Jack the Giant Killer", "Total Recall", "Underworld 4", "Oz: The Great and Powerful"...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Breadboard... (April 2006)

This had a small test slice of a Mysterium sensor...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Early "Frankie"(June 2006)... late "Frankie"(September 2006).

"Frankie" at the races...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

"Spike"... (December 2006)

Technically, the 1st working RED ONE prototype. "Spike" taught us we needed to change a few things... which were done to "Boris" and "Natasha". "Spike" has a prominent place in the RED museum. (Shown before and after powder coat.)

Jim

 

[Jannard]

"Boris"... (April 2007)

Peter Jackson cradles "Boris" on the "Crossing the Line" shoot in New Zealand a week before NAB 2007. "Boris" on a crane... same project.

"Natasha"... (April 2007)

Neill Blomkamp (District 9) takes control of "Natasha" at the "Crossing" shoot in New Zealand.

More from the "Crossing" shoot...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

2006...

 

[Jannard]

NAB 2006... the 1st NAB for RED.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Early concepts and art...

These are from 2005 and 2006.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Milk girls... from a "Frankie" shoot in 2006.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

"Tex"... Matt's creation with apparently no adult supervision. (end of 2006)

We actually built one of these, but it jumped off the shelves and attacked Jarred. So we had to use the Blue Juice on Tex. Sad day...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

One of the best trips in my life... (April 2007)

The "Crossing" shoot was so much fun. When Jarred, Deanan, Rob and I flew over to New Zealand to shoot with Peter, we had NO IDEA what he had planned. We showed up and went right into a production meeting with 15 people. I thought we were just going to do do some testing and get some footage for NAB. The surprise (on us) was that Peter called in his army to shoot a short feature. There were over 200 people... with uniforms, guns and airplanes! It seems that Peter had generated a script while we were in the air from Orange County to Wellington and it called for helicopter footage from one of the cameras. Now "Boris" and "Natasha" were both less than a few days old and we had no idea how they would hold up to rigorous treatment. I politely asked Peter, in front of 14 other people, if "we might do the helicopter stuff last"? There was a bit of trepidation in my voice as I could just see these cameras biting the dust in minutes. Peter told me to relax and that everything would be fine. Two and a half days later, he was right. After a true beating, including heat, dust & dirt, cranes, helicopters and 14 hours a day non-stop... we didn't lose a take. I met this guy, Neill Blomkamp, who Peter said would be a future star. Apparently Peter was right. Neill ran the 2nd unit and I could immediately see why Peter thought so much of this "kid". It was no surprise to me to see what Neill did with "District 9". He is a super talent. Every one of Peter's crew was a delight to work with. The shoot was so fun and I will remember it forever. The payoff of this shoot was to see people waiting up to 2 hours to see it at NAB 2007... and glad they did. BTW, that was less than one week after we shot. Peter's team posted the footage and delivered it the night before NAB opened. Whew!

Jim

 

[Jannard]

"Ché"...(June 2007)

So Steven Soderbergh went with Ted to see a screening of "Crossing the Line" in LA. Apparently Steven was impressed enough to ask Ted to call me on my cell from the theater. "Hello. This is Steven Sodebergh. I'm all in." I was a bit intoxicated and lost. "All in for what?" "I want to shoot Ché on your camera. And I start in a month." I had no idea whatsoever how this could possibly happen so I said the obvious thing... "OK."

We had to scramble to get more prototypes together for this movie. I warned Steven that he was shooting on prototypes and there might be issues. His response was "You'll figure it out." OK... we were now completely panicked and excited at the same time. We cut it so close that Deanan and Rob loaded code to fix a dropped frame issue when recording to CF cards 15 minutes before the 1st take in Spain. There were over 200 extras in a ravine with Benicio Del Toro. The cameras fired up and the rest is history. Soderbergh has the biggest balls of anyone I have ever met.

On a side note, we heard that the cameras were over-heating in the 100+ degree heat of Spain on the 1st day. I actually posted as much as soon as I heard about it. They used ice packs to keep the cameras cool. I think everyone in the industry heard this story. What they didn't hear, even though I posted this info as well, is that the cameras didn't actually over-heat. We had set the warning 10C too low, so the alarm went off... but prematurely. Anyone who has shot a RED ONE knows that it is the least sensitive digital camera to heat ever made.

http://vimeo.com/9031359

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Fincher...

Steven Soderbergh (last 6 features on RED) is good friends with David Fincher. Fincher looked at RED during the "Frankie" days just before shoot "Benjamin Buttons" which was just too early. Soderbergh encourages Fincher to take another look, which David does. This was right before "The Social Network" begins shooting.

David stops by and pushes us for a lot of stuff, including a carbon fiber bodied RED ONE to be used on a crew boat for a race. We have no idea whatsoever how to do it... so of course we say "no problem". We get the carbon fiber cameras finished on time and it turns out they were used on one of the most incredible scenes in the entire movie.

David then decides to shoot "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" on RED and is pushing us for EPIC. We can't answer the bell in time so he begins on RED ONE M-X and then switches over to EPIC mid-stream when we can accommodate.

David is wicked smart and uber-talented.. and he pushes the envelop. Just the way we like it...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

REDCINE-X concept...

Everything starts out as a concept. This was the 1st RCX concept comp. (2006)

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Early War Room years... (early 2007)

Jim

 

[Jannard]

2006 Break in...

In 2006 we had a break in to our Lake Forest offices. What was stolen included Matt's computer with all the design files and a bunch of other stuff. Conspiracy theories ran rampant.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Christmas 2006...

I guess this says it all... we are just not normal.

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Very 1st sound clip from a RED ONE...

Jim

 

[Jannard]

Unusual graphic ideas... (2006)

Jim

 

[Jannard]

1st EVF prototypes...

Jim