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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Red is a consumer camera!

K

Kevin Lang

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Just wrapped this gig with a out of town DP and I bit my tongue off because he was driving me nuts and I just needed to get this out! So please just let me let off a little steam!

He shows up and right away I knew it was going to be a great shoot as he proceeded to MF the Red right away about what a piece of S@#$ red is. Then the second day the camera hic-uped and I had to reboot, he then turns to all the clients and says this is why you dont use a consumer camera on a pro shoot! After we had been shooting for 2 days with 2 Red MXs and they worked flawlessly! And went on about how much better Arri is! Its not that im thin skined I just thought it was horribly unprofessional!

Anyway Jim no pressure but get these Epics out there in numbers and kick some ASS!!

Coming down from the soapbox. Thnks
 
makes you wonder if he's used any "high end" digital cinema system. can people honestly claim that a d21, genesis, f35, si 2k, viper, hasn't hiccuped a single time? every camera has had hiccups, that's the inherent thing about ELECTRONICS.

u could also claim that ur average prosumer camera never "hiccups" but it's literally doing 2% of what these other cameras can do. Not even his claim on the better camera is bullet proof. that camera was glitchy as all hell when and it first released, and even they had to get it out in the field to work out the kinks.
 
Tom.Wong said:
that's the inherent thing about ELECTRONICS.
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Really, I'd say that's an inherent aspect of Life, at least here on our Earth. It's an imperfect world, and even the most perfectly constructed human efforts fail at some point.

It's unfortunate that you had such an experience. Maybe next time the DP can bring his own Arri.
 
As Michael said, it's not inherent only to electronics, it's part of life.

Makes me wonder what the DP's response would be to having film jam in a 35mm or a S16mm camera, or something getting in the gate and ruining a take.
 
In the behind the scenes for The White Ribbon (tone of great reverence meant) they are shooting a scene with about 500 extras, lights, cranes, fairly big setup for the film...one of the most complex shots in an otherwise intimate film.

And the (35mm film) camera breaks. Problem with the gate. The stars retire inside for a rest while they fix it.

Then AD calls ready, everyone (everyone being 500 people) heads back to their places, and it happens again. Christian Berger looks calm but not thrilled. AC's are crowded around the camera. Director seems non plussed but not too uptight about it.

Machines break. Even old, bomber 35mm machines run by old, grizzled very very experienced camera crews.
 
I would have privately called him out on his unprofessionalism, and requested an apology to the clients. He doesn't need to be setting that type of vibe and opinionated idea into the minds of people who likely don't know any better.

The next job that those clients try to arrange, they might think, "well, that guy from our last shoot said RED was bad, so we shouldn't hire a RED owner/operator."
 
I think I would have asked him to step into the next room, where I would calmly ask him to discuss any difference over the equipment with me and the producer, and also ask him to stop bashing my business/products/services in public.

If that didn´t help I would have packed up the all my gear and left. (then he could finish it on his iphone or something)

(Easy for me to say of course, not having been there.)
 
You should have bitch slapped that fool! How dare he belittle THE tool that changed the film production world forever. I feel your anger but you let him get away with it. Now I'm not calling you a coward but you've let the side down :)
 
I feel you Kevin. This stuff happens to me all the time. Hard to have an intelligent discussion with someone who starts out with, "What a piece of s**t!". They don't understand how it works, so they compensate for their ignorance with aggressiveness. In the end they look foolish, or as you said, "horribly unprofessional".
 
Very unprofessional DP.
 
Eirik Tyrihjel said:
I think I would have asked him to step into the next room, where I would calmly ask him to discuss any difference over the equipment with me and the producer, and also ask him to stop bashing my business/products/services in public.

If that didn´t help I would have packed up the all my gear and left. (then he could finish it on his iphone or something)

(Easy for me to say of course, not having been there.)
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Seconded.

Of course for me that would have been his first strike.

If he did it again, I'd make a public request that he share his camera concerns with me so we can resolve them. Second strike.

On his third strike- I'd have shared my concerns again, this time in front of everyone.

If there was a fourth time... the word ballistic might be involved.

Saying this is unprofessional is a galactic understatement.
 
Well, he can complain to the client all he wants. If I were the client, my thinking would be along these lines: "We're hiring you to give us great images. If you can't deliver, why are we hiring you? We were told this camera is great. If you don't know how to work it, just say so. Stop taking our money if you can't deliver what we ask of you."
 
Well, when you vocally dismiss all of the equipment as being subpar, then you never have to be accountable for your work then, do you? "My footage looks like crap? Well, obviously! I told you that was a consumer camera!"
 
Quite often, in an effort to elevate one's self people seek an opportunity to be negative about something. It generally occurs more among people who are insecure. You should be glad it was only a short period of time you had to work with this DP. Life is short.
 
Kevin Lang said:
Just wrapped this gig with a out of town DP and I bit my tongue off because he was driving me nuts and I just needed to get this out! So please just let me let off a little steam!

....went on about how much better Arri is! Its not that im thin skined I just thought it was horribly unprofessional!
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What was your capacity relative to his? His comments notwithstanding, if part of the crew beneath him I don't know how you could ever feel 'safe' saying something contradictory, private or public.

We all know how fickle people in this business can be, and that's putting it nicely. If this is his M.O. and he keeps on working obviously something else is working for him to make up for it. Maybe he's had nothing but bad experiences with REDs, and they've tainted his opinion, to the point that he's just ITCHING for ANYTHING to go wrong. And call me crazy, I don't think a RED BBS is going to be a place where he'll get a lot of consideration for his POV.

I'm not condoning what he did, just saying that people have done that, and far worse, forever. Best to just put it behind you I think. There's always that whole "compensating for other shortcomings" factor that may be at work here.

Jeff Coatney said:
Well, he can complain to the client all he wants. If I were the client, my thinking would be along these lines: "We're hiring you to give us great images. If you can't deliver, why are we hiring you? We were told this camera is great. If you don't know how to work it, just say so. Stop taking our money if you can't deliver what we ask of you."
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I agree with this somewhat, but as the DP, shouldn't he have been behind the choice of camera system he was using?
 
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