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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 Station in DIT Setup

Michael Brennan said:
Are red deigning a compact, battery operated cloning system? Until such time in camera recording media drops to "consumable" level price, it is a significant disadvantage to those who travel on a budget if Epic HDR needs either a mac pro or $50k of camera media.

Mike Brennan
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Mike, this raises any interesting situation that I see developing. In my opinion, Epic, especially the full version, is a highly professional tool. It will be capable of incredible imagery at 5K resolution, with the option of minimal compression. If a project is on a tight budget, don't the producers have to ask themselves whether 5K of resolution is an absolute necessity? At what point do we acknowledge that not everything fits into consumer level pricing? To work with this particular format will require equally professional tools to do data management and playback. They won't be cheap. However, I do believe that with the right kind of research and some determination, solutions will be there at reasonable costs. I think we have to be realistic and realize that not every project is going to have the privilege of shooting 5K on the Epic. This gets back to my comments in another thread about assessing the situation and making decisions based on smart workflows, doing the kind of thing that Lightiron does, and guys like Brooke and Steve do when they are involved in big projects. What makes the most sense and is cost effective to implement.

Doing an Epic 5K 3D project on a laptop will not cut it. That's just reality. Now finding a solution that does cut it and having the gear to support it or having production rent the necessary gear is what will allow DITs to do their job correctly on these types of productions.

If there are cheaper ways to do it eventually, I won't complain. For now, it is what it is.
 
There are battery operated solutions already in place. For example, the stuff 1 Beyond has been doing for the past couple of years with The Wrangler and other portable solutions. There have been some home grown solutions as well. I know they have more stuff on the way to help with the ever increasing needs of file based productions. Yes, when fully configured these systems cost some money. But they can solve problems, such as being in remote locations and needing something more powerful then a laptop, yet self-contained. The solutions will not always be Mac based. Could be Windows, could be Linux. Whatever works for the task at hand. Sometimes a couple of NEXTO 2500s are the answer. Think about it, productions all around the world are getting done every day, in every kind of location. We work in an industry that requires a lot of problem solving. It requires thinking things through so that production can run as smoothly as possible. Finding solutions for backing up media in remote locations is one of those challenges and there are companies taking it on. To a large extent, RED has jumped in as well, offering the RED Station to solve some problems.

Budgets have shrunk. No doubt about it. We will all be faced with challenging situations at times, where we will be asked to work miracles. Having a good gameplan helps make those miracles possible.
 
being a DIT on over 25+ RED shoots, I can also add up on the list of saying Laptop Days are long gone for DIT work.

Everyone wants to see quick previews.

Def run a Mac Pro. Run 2 if you can afford it.
Setup a cart, where you can have 2 monitors instead of one. A display output for Directors, DP's and producers.
a Screen just for them to view previous takes, without being over your shoulder, or IN YOUR SEAT, WITH HOT COFFEE IN THEIR HAND WHILE THEY ARE EATING A SNACK.

I know we all love our systems, and we want everyone else to be as far away from them as possible. Look into a laser beams along with a firewire CF reader if your budget allows it.

get a RED ROCKET card. Your system can transcode files, and it can make quicktimes by itself. But production does not understand that. They want to see what they shot, RIGHT AWAY.

In the end, if you are a FAST DIT, you will be called back for more gigs.
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Mac Pro. 2 if possible.
2 Monitors. (one for you to work with, one facing outward or to the side, for everyone else)
SSD (fast boot, and application launch. your system will crash.)
RedRocket. (its a must.)
RAID storage (there are plenty, depending on your budget)

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someone here mentioned USB hub for all the iPads. Look into it. Everyone will want to charge their iPads and iPhones. Everyone. Ive had grips and gaffers ask me constantly if they can plug in "just for 5 minutes"
 
In a pinch I've used a Xantrex 1500 to power my 17" laptop and two external eSata drives for the better part of a day along with the internal MBP battery. The xantrex can be charged from a cigarette lighter as well, they suggest when turned off.

I use an APC UPS for my Mac Pro, the 1500 2U one is nice though heavy as all get out (60 lbs or so). I try to plug into house power when I've got it, genie second and to wrap out the day or moving locations it's nice when there's a Honda 3000 or similar. If you've got this on a truck of your own even better, but as Steve and others have mentioned, balancing the budget for the right application is the trick of the trade.
 
Joe Kleber said:
What happens when you have to get on a plane and travel to some remote location (i.e. an island or out in the remote wilderness) on a super low budget where they're still willing to pay you an acceptable rate?

Are you planning on lugging your full Macpro or Hackintosh kit alllll the way out there?
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if they are that cheap where they dont want to spend the money on the footage.. then i will turn down the job.. probably not the type of job id want
 
Joe Kleber said:
What happens when you have to get on a plane and travel to some remote location (i.e. an island or out in the remote wilderness) on a super low budget where they're still willing to pay you an acceptable rate?

Are you planning on lugging your full Macpro or Hackintosh kit alllll the way out there?
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As long as you have access to electrical power, you can still bomb-proof your data with a laptop (preferably two laptops running simultaneously...) with FW800. You will need tons of portable hard drives though to transport your footage home. I shot about 2-3 tb/week on the last remote doc shoot. It took a long time to copy over the data every night and to check it before recycling drives, but it can be done. A bit of a killer and makes for some long days, but don't listen to people who say it can't be done.

I was paid quite well for that job, but space and mobility considerations didn't really invite a tower. We had rooms with electricity, but they were often small and we had to move from place to place frequently. We were expected to be shooting, not setting up and tearing down our data management systems. I was often out the door shooting sunrise footage. No time to tear down towers, if we were on the move.

EPIC will put even more strains on data management systems. Firewire will be taxed even more heavily, but I would not write it off entirely for all documentary applications. For feature work and longform documentary where portability is not a constraint, yes, FW800 is EOL. But in situations where portability is paramount -- and there are lots of these in doc work, it will probably still matter - we'll see how it plays once more of these cameras are in the field, in the hands of people who shoot light, fast, and lots of footage each day, on a regular basis. Canon auto-focus will make it all happen even faster in doc world....which means even more footage - bigger file sizes - the works.

I do find that, even with eSata available on a laptop, small portable FW800 hard drives are usually a little sturdier, more portable, and easier to travel with, than a RAID enclosure which makes the drive system a little more vulnerable and delicate.

I think you have to be doing a very specific style of shooting, though, to make the FW800 compromise worthwhile. It sounds like your remote island scenario qualifies...

I don't really understand why people are cheering for an end to the portability of laptop data management. It has been one of the most amazing things about RED, that you could still take it places without being hampered by a cumbersome cart. Having systems flexibility has been an advantage, not a disadvantage. Making the cart an absolute necessity because you need better throughput is like a regression to tethering, in my contrarian opinion.
 
Meryem Ersoz said:
...I don't really understand why people are cheering for an end to the portability of laptop data management. It has been one of the most amazing things about RED, that you could still take it places without being hampered by a cumbersome cart. Having systems flexibility has been an advantage, not a disadvantage. Making the cart an absolute necessity because you need better throughput is like a regression to tethering, in my contrarian opinion.
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I totally agree! Not everyone works on feature films and commercials!
 
IF you add two 32Ah+12v Batteries in series to a UPS you can run all day with Laptop and two drives, but Charging the Batteries is rather slow.
 
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