Red Scarlet X #316 "Skully"

[Paul Ellington]

SKULLY WINS BEST CINE @ THE BEVERLY HILLS FILM FEST

SKULLY WINS BEST CINE @ THE BEVERLY HILLS FILM FEST

I am so happy for my dear friend Phil -- you kicked ass tonight, and you deserved it... Much more to come in the future buddy...

Luv Ya'

- E

 

[Joesef o.]

One of the "pros" on these lenses is their close focus capabilities. However, you can actually focus significantly closer than published. I'll have to take measurements. On the 18mm I think I'm about a finger's width from the lens, which is closer than the 11" published.

I would believe that their measurements are from the "gate" not the front of the lens element, so 11" should be spot on if measuring from focal plane mark on the site of your RED.

 

[Phil Holland]

I would believe that their measurements are from the "gate" not the front of the lens element, so 11" should be spot on if measuring from focal plane mark on the site of your RED.

Correct, as are all cinema lenses. They are pretty spot on, however, the focus rotation on these goes a bit past the marked the scales.

 

[Phil Holland]

I am so happy for my dear friend Phil -- you kicked ass tonight, and you deserved it... Much more to come in the future buddy...

Much love and congrats again on that Monochrome. Also thanks for those kind words during the ceremony.

 

[Paul Ellington]

Much love and congrats again on that Monochrome. Also thanks for those kind words during the ceremony.

I meant every word ... and I made you look good, otherwise I wouldn't have gone up...

Keep kicking the three letter word...

-E

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

Hey Phil you happy with your GlobalMedia battery purchase?

 

[Phil Holland]

Hey Phil you happy with your GlobalMedia battery purchase?

Yeah. They've been working just fine. I will say that these are the same batteries that MANY other folks supply. So if you have a dealer closer to you or even one that provides an easier way of purchasing them for instance you may want to go that route.

In terms of V-Mounts I use the GMP, IDX, and Red Bricks fairly regularly. No problems for a long time.

Sometime soon I'll have to find a 90-ish Wh solution, just a battery or two. Might go with the REDVOLT XLs now that there's a simple quickplate option on the horizon. Gotta be in London in a couple weeks and I need power

 

[Phil Holland]

Just thought I'd pop in real quick tonight. I've got a moment to breath. Just opened another door on the Dragon Advent Calender and devoured some chocolate. Crazy jealous and happy for the folks who upgraded to Epic Mysterium-X.

Here's a few grabs from literally my first tests with my set of Schneider Cine-Xenar III Primes. These are graded with a look I'm testing out for a gig.

I've been getting a lot of questions as to why I've chosen these lenses and why I purchased them now as opposed to later. Now that I've had some time to get familiar with them, more than even my initial tests, I can safely sum up my thoughts.

- Sharp (yet smooth)
- Full range of focal lengths
- No breathing
- No image shift
- Close focus ability
- Color matched
- Perhaps my favorite out of focus bokeh of any cinema primes
- Controlled flare

I'll be honest though. I was twitching nervously when I pulled the trigger. I've used a great deal of quality cinema glass, but I have never spent coin like this on lenses before. My still glass I accumulated over most of a decade. This purchase was more like chugging a gallon of milk mixed with vodka compared to that. Prior to my tests I came pretty close to grabbing a set of Ultra Primes, but side by side these Cine-Xenars found a way to win me over. Now that I've been more "intimate" with them and a couple other lens nuts have shot with them I'm feeling very grounded with the purchase. I'm betting once more folks get a chance to shoot with these we'll see them gain a bit of popularity on shoots dominated by Zeiss and Cooke. That's just my 2 cents.

I do get a bit of smirk though when I compare my two 18mm primes now:

Gotta say pulling focus with the Red 9.0" LCD Touch with these is pretty much a joy. Still don't know how I lived without that in my life. It is a bit of a "mirror" sometimes, but what you gain in terms of functionality is tremendous.

Other than that I'm still gearing up. I'm working on a little "skunk works" project that I'll be able to talk about in a month. Something that most folks are going to love (I hope). I'll be speaking in London at the end of the month and will likely be shooting about with these lenses.

Other than that recently I've reached out to a couple ASC members and have sought their advice on general career advancement. Certainly looking for their knowledge on where to go from here. I'm sitting on a lot of that right now and digesting their words of wisdom. A couple Directors I've worked for have also filled me in on some dangerous thoughts. My brain is a bee hive at the moment, but it's a good thing. I know I need to make honey.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Looking good!

 

[Tommaso Alvisi]

Phil, I sold the Oly 18mm 5 years ago and I still regret it!

I'm also undecided if stepping up to he CineXenars III or going the zoom route...

Thanks for your update on the lenses 'n all!!!

 

[Patrick Grossien]

I do get a bit of smirk though when I compare my two 18mm primes now:

Damn, where's that LIKE button, when you need it?



And I gotta say: Love that look you showed in the first few pictures.

Now I have to be crazy jealous and happy for the folks who upgraded to Epic-X already
and for those who purchased a set of Schneider Cine-Xenars most recently.

 

[Patrick Grossien]

Other than that recently I've reached out to a couple ASC members and have sought their advice on general career advancement. Certainly looking for their knowledge on where to go from here. I'm sitting on a lot of that right now and digesting their words of wisdom. A couple Directors I've worked for have also filled me in on some dangerous thoughts. My brain is a bee hive at the moment, but it's a good thing. I know I need to make honey.

Go, Pooh Bear, go!

It's a dangerous world out there, but somebody's got to tame it!

 

[Phil Holland]

Almost completely caught up with freelance work after getting back from London a couple weeks ago. Two more dominoes to topple this week though. A few tidbits to update.


London

In London I was speaking at a design symposium (conceptArt.org Workshop) out in London to a crowd of about 300 people. We discussed careers in the modern digital entertainment age, color theory, composition, the future and now of 4K in motion pictures and games, and some other topics over 4 days. A hell of a marathon. I was on stage 3 of the days, did portfolio review throughout, and on the last day sat down for a few hours to draw and hand out those sketches to folks. We had some amazing talent there from studios like MPC, Double Negative, Framestore, Id Software, Sony, etc.... Good bunch of people. Some of whom are friends I rarely get to see in person. I do work in features, commercials, and games for a while now it was nice to share a lot of experience with other individuals.

Couple shots from the event:

Speaking on stage:

Stayed late to review some portfolios and reels on the first day (iPads are the new cool to show off work btw):

Discussing a bit of design theory, applying logic, finding chaos, and gathering control while sketching for folks:

Even in London I had Dragon on my mind. I ended up doing about 50 sketches while I was there for people:

CLUTCH'n

Something I wanted to update folks on was using the Red Clutch out in the wild. I haven't been exactly secretive about my love for the Clutch. I think it's the bees knees, but I wanted to actually show and discuss one of the reasons why.

To me, perhaps the greatest benefit of the Clutch over other things out there is that you can take the components and rig them any way you want to use them.

I've now rigged the Clutch maybe a dozen ways. Each has spawned out of the necessity to adapt to shooting situations. In fact I've sort of brought an Iron Man naming convention to each configuration I've gone with.

Below is the "Mark VII". I like this rig as it places the camera weight mostly on your shoulder, can slide off quickly in one piece, and can also be "flattened" for easy packing. For those of you who followed my DIY shoulder solution this also provides that "tripod" effect of being about to place the camera down on the ground or camera cart without fearing a tumble.

Gnomon

We are one week out from finishing another semester at Gnomon. I certainly go through ebbs and flows during the semester as it's tricky balancing instructing on the weekends, production, and pre-production work. However, I really enjoy the process and seeing my students abilities grow. Gives me one of those warm feelings that makes me feel human. We had our motion picture camera segment to the class last week and I brought in some talent and we shot a short scene. Some grabs from that:

Everything was shot tungsten (2K, 2x 1K babies) with a 1/2 CTB in front of the Schneider Cine-Xenar III Primes.


Killa Donut!

I've been waiting for this donut to arrive for a couple months now (not something you hear everyday). I needed something like this for my OConnor O-Box WM and after I saw it at NAB I was relieved. It actually just arrived freshly at my door step, but it does solve something I've wanted to deal with when using my O-Box with cinema primes. I've been using a variety of nonsensical things. As you can see here there though, the OConnor Universal Donut does exactly what you would want it to do:

REDRAY, ODEMAX, 4K Monitor

Whelp. Now that Redray is officially landing it's certainly put a bit of a fire under my feet to go out and grab a 4K monitor. I was holding out for a new contender (really wanted to test the Samsung 55") to enter the ring before pulling the trigger on a unit, but I may want to jump sooner now that Redray is here now and ODEMAX is here very, very soon. So stay tuned on that front. Might be a Seiki, might be a Sony, might be a Samsung, might be ????? Likely purchasing something next week.


Skully

My beloved Skully. The first Red I've owned. My love. (a bit dramatic there) I know her days are numbered at this point. With shoots on the horizon and Dragon on the way. I don't know if she will transform into an Epic with the Mysterium-X or into an Epic Dragon (ordered), but I fear that her time on this earth is drawing to an end as I know it's time for her to graduate up. She's served me well. Been through heat, snow, and a few continents with her. Gonna miss that magical grey box. I can remember back to November 2011 and hiking over from the Canon event at Paramount over to Red Studios Hollywood. Red made that decision pretty easy for me that day and honestly it's been a joy shooting with her. About a 50/50 split shooting on Scarlet-X and Epic over that time frame. To date I don't think there's another camera out there for me. Especially now that 6K and gloriously fat dynamic range is on it's way soon.

Before she vanishes though I wanted to get one last beauty shot done, but first one of the first beauty shots to show how far she's come!

December 2011:

June 2013:

I've invested in a good chunk of gear. I'm working on a few things that will be shooting soon and I have booked a few jobs for July. Can't wait to put the new tools to real work. Still waiting on a couple packages to arrive at my door, but I'm nearly ready for some ninja magic.

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

Skully

My beloved Skully. The first Red I've owned. My love. (a bit dramatic there) I know her days are numbered at this point. With shoots on the horizon and Dragon on the way. I don't know if she will transform into an Epic with the Mysterium-X or into an Epic Dragon (ordered), but I fear that her time on this earth is drawing to an end as I know it's time for her to graduate up. She's served me well. Been through heat, snow, and a few continents with her. Gonna miss that magical grey box. I can remember back to November 2011 and hiking over from the Canon event at Paramount over to Red Studios Hollywood. Red made that decision pretty easy for me that day and honestly it's been a joy shooting with her. About a 50/50 split shooting on Scarlet-X and Epic over that time frame. To date I don't think there's another camera out there for me. Especially now that 6K and gloriously fat dynamic range is on it's way soon.

Before she vanishes though I wanted to get one last beauty shot done, but first one of the first beauty shots to show how far she's come!

December 2011:

June 2013:

I've invested in a good chunk of gear. I'm working on a few things that will be shooting soon and I have booked a few jobs for July. Can't wait to put the new tools to real work. Still waiting on a couple packages to arrive at my door, but I'm nearly ready for some ninja magic.

Inspirational.

I've had my Scarlet for about 15 months now, and haven't gotten nearly as much use out of it as I'd have liked. I've got a kit somewhere comparable to that first picture. I quit my job back in January (partly to re-focus on working on set, and on location), and am making some serious headway as a DIT, and a little bit of grading. Dying to kit mine up like that second shot of yours.

It'll happen. I'm not concerned. Impatient, a little bit. But not worried.

 

[Adam Beck]

Love the update Phil. Excited to see where life takes you next.

 

[Sascha Rossier]

Hej Maestro
Mind if I add another odd question ;-)

I've just checked all your posts again and didnt see any EVF on your rigs? Do you never work with EVFs? What about shootin handheld in daylight ... without EVF?
On all of your pics you got your RED LCD mounted. I looks as if you'd even use the RED LCD for Run'n'Gun? How do you manage this? because no matter how i mount
the LCD on my Cam, the Monitor ist just a bit too close for my eyes. That way my eyes get tired very quickly ... how did you solve this problem?
Greetings from a Padawan in Zürich, Switzerland ;-)

BTW ... these 50 VFX-Pictures of yours rock big time! I wonder what Renderer U used. V-Ray? Octane? That stuff looks so natural (well as natural as Sci-fi can be ;-) awesome!

 

[Phil Holland]

Hej Maestro
Mind if I add another odd question ;-)

I've just checked all your posts again and didnt see any EVF on your rigs? Do you never work with EVFs? What about shootin handheld in daylight ... without EVF?
On all of your pics you got your RED LCD mounted. I looks as if you'd even use the RED LCD for Run'n'Gun? How do you manage this? because no matter how i mount
the LCD on my Cam, the Monitor ist just a bit too close for my eyes. That way my eyes get tired very quickly ... how did you solve this problem?
Greetings from a Padawan in Zürich, Switzerland ;-)

BTW ... these 50 VFX-Pictures of yours rock big time! I wonder what Renderer U used. V-Ray? Octane? That stuff looks so natural (well as natural as Sci-fi can be ;-) awesome!

Good morning from Los Angeles!

I'm one of those weirdos who just prefers the LCD Touch. I don't keep the display terribly close to my face, but close enough that I can see and lock focus. While I don't shoot a ton of handheld, one thing I like about using the LCD Touch in those situations is that I can freely move the camera around without my head needing to be attached to an eyepiece. So if I had to tilt up or tilt down or navigate some crazy terrain I can still see what I'm doing while being super aware of my surroundings. I use Hoodman sun shades when working outdoors to keep the sun off the screen. I do tend to use the 9.0" LCD Touch, even in handheld setups, more often because I really like that massive view.

My eyes don't tend to get tired very quickly doing that. But I'm pretty good about not being "locked into" the screen 100% of the time. Only pretty much when i'm rolling or setting up a shot.

Heh. It's not so much how it was rendered, but more about how HDRI image based lighting was used (with a few beauty passes here and there). The real trick was making HDRIs of things like space, which obviously had to be painted in 32 bit. That took a while.