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RED Scarlet X setup for documentary

J

Jordan McGehee

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I am going to film a documentary which I will have some indoor interview shots and some outdoor shots. I am pretty well sold on the scarlet x and love the entry price point for 4K. I was wondering if some of you experts out there could tell me what additional accessories that will accomodate my shooting conditions. In addition to the brain which can do nothing on its own, I also am looking for an "all in one lens" or something close to it. Is the RED Pro Zoom a good choice? If not what prime lenses would you recommend that would cover most shots. Will I need a RED workstation fitted with the RedRocket card or I have a 12 core mac pro, can I just fit it with the RedRocket? The reason for this is because I need to budget the total cost. I have absolutely nothing right now, no lenses, no covers, etc... Any help would be appreciated. I am an amateur right now who has only filmed with HDV so I am not real familiar with the kind of setup.
 
I've got the real basic nuts and bolts Scarlet setup with 4Redvolts and that gives me 2 hours filming. I got 2 chargers to help with the recharging.. Ac power is your friend whenever near a power socket!!
as for all-in-one lenses... Not really, although I went for the Canon 24-105 L 4.0 and it deals with most scenarios...
I have had to upgrade my computer as my 6 yr old iMac just couldn't hack it.. Gran decent i7 3.4ghz PC with 2x Nvidia GT640 cards and it runs R3Ds on 1/4 or 1/2 settings quite good enough to edit with..

Hope that helps..
Simon
 
Others may feel different but it seems to me that PL lenses may be impractical and unneeded for what you want to do. You might consider one or two Canon L lenses. I agree with the recommendation of the 24-105. I use this lens a lot. For primes, I have heard folks rave about the Canon 100 L. Also, at a budget price, I have the Rokinon 85 which I like a lot.

If cost is an issue, I don't think you need a Rocket. Personally, I would look into using Final Cut Pro X as it is great with RED raw footage.
 
Do you use any matte boxes, filters, etc.. If so what situations call for these things? Also do you see what your filming? Do you use the Red Touch LCD?
 
You might have seen this somewhere before.....


You might be best to go with a CANON or nikon mount.


As to lenses.


The stills lenses will be less expensive so maybe a short zoom and a longer zoom.


I'd say a Nikon 24-70 F2.8 is a good all round lens, if you only have one lens.


When it comes to outfitting the camera.


You can buy accessories from


RED
Wooden camera
Action products
Viewfactor
Cinecrew.net


Lots of options for putting a package together that way.


You probably need a mixer and shot gun microphone with all the cables.


Budget about three thousand for accessories.


a couple thousand for batteries


About a thousand for audio cables and accessories


Two to three thousand for media.


4500 for Redrocket
1500- 2500 for computer with REdrocket.
Fast storage and lots of it - two thousand.


It adds up fast.


David


______________________________
The shortest answer is doing.
Lord Herbert
http://www.davidbattistella.com
 
Jordan McGehee said:
Do you use any matte boxes, filters, etc.. If so what situations call for these things? Also do you see what your filming? Do you use the Red Touch LCD?
Click to expand...

Hey Jordan,
ive just bought the D-Matte mattebox for just under €300. It clips onto the front of the lens via a thread adaptor. I use it to shade from overhead sun but over here in the UK it's mainly used for the 2 filter slots to add ND filters. Bright sun drops my usable exposure down to f11 and no real depth of field... To utilise the other lens I use regularly, Canon's 50mm f1.4 ($300) and get an apature of 1.4 I often add between two and three stops of filtration...

hope this helps

Simon
 
I've been shooting several docs with my Scarlet and I absolutely recommend getting V-mount batteries for long-form as they simply last longer and aren't really any heavier/bulkier than Revolts. I opted for no side-handle and haven't missed it at all, the touch-screen works wonders, especially with the latest firmware.

I recommend several 128 gig cards as they get a solid hour of recording time (necessary for long interviews). I personally use canon and nikon lenses on my scarlet mostly because I owned a ton of glass from when I used DSLRs, if I could afford some nice CP2's I would probably pick them up, but would I miss the ability to re-frame/re-compose with a small, lightweight zoom? Probably. My workhorse lens is the Nikon 17 - 35 although i'm looking to trade it for a 17-55 for the added focal length and I've heard it doesn't vignette at 4K (moderately at 5K).

I bring a Macbook pro around with me as a mobile offload station, it's an older model that had a DVD drive in it which I replaced with a 1tb drive so it's great to dump footage to. Once the footage is on that drive I can safely format the card as that footage is then double backed up to a external raid. This lets me comfortably use 2x 128 cards without issue. I would like to grab a 3rd card eventually.

I only have 2x 160w/h v-mount batteries but they last 3 hrs each... again, i'm looking to get a 3rd or 4th battery but so far this has not been an issue.

I use a lightweight 4x4 mattebox with Tiffen IRND filters which in my mind are a necessity for any exteriors... gotta control those highlights!

Anyways, hopefully that gives you some idea of useful gear. Feel free to ask any questions.
 
What kind of cards?

What kind of cards?

Do you suggest REDMAG SSD cards or are their cheaper yet still reliable solutions?
 
Jordan McGehee said:
Do you suggest REDMAG SSD cards or are their cheaper yet still reliable solutions?
Click to expand...

Only option is REDMAG cards. They are specially sourced, rehoused cards designed for the high bitrate of Redcode raw.

Jordan McGehee said:
Also what audio mixer and audio accessories do you suggest?
Click to expand...

I use a Wooden Cam A-Box and record directly into the camera for pre-synced audio, usually a wired lav in one channel and an onboard shotgun for scratch track. I also occasionally use a Zoom H4N for more run and gun stuff. Personally I use wired lavs but I rent Wireless when the situation calls for it. Also if I was buying again i'd probably buy a TASCAM recorder instead of a Zoom, better controls, more functionality, similar pricing. I'm sure there are better pricier alternatives though.

Depends if you are doing sit-down interviews or on-location audio. If it's on-location, get a boom-op and rent their kit.
 
Brad gave excellent advice.
IMHO do not go with redvolts(25-30mins), 160Wh(3hrs) v-mount is best solution, so u least worry about charging batteries often.
Skip RedRocket, you can edit on lower resolution files at later point of time.
if you need one lens make it 24-105, else 24-70 and 70-200 are good.you must have to invest on good audio solutions, like lavelier and good shotgun mic (other can help much on this) and external audio recorder for safety & backup. Laveliers two channel feeding to camera and two channels of shotgun feeding to audio recorder.
if you are more like run & gun style, screw on filters to above lenses are good instead of Mattebox. the above lenses come with hoods.
 
I'm wondering & I'm sure this would help the user that started the thread, what are people's set ups in regard to not picking up the camera's fan noise. The lowest speed you can have the fan with no noise (in my experience is 40%) but the camera runs dangerously hot in not too much time. I was in a documentary set up & not realizing the cam would heat up so fast turned the fan down to %25 needless to say I couldn't record for more than 3-4 mins before the cameras fan came on while the camera was running in rec. I thought people can't use epic or scarlet for docs, if so you have to have the camera in another room (separate from the sound) & shoot long. I would be curious to what type of set ups folks have that are using red to shoot docs.
 
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