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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 Weapon Forged CF #47 "Skully" - Los Angeles

Tom Gleeson said:
Phil,

I should have access to a Weapon in a week or so and as I am presently on the ACS Technical Committee we are planning at taking a look at the new Weapon. As a part of this we were considering doing Dynamic range tests and throwing the Weapon up against a Dragon and maybe an Alexa as its considered the industry gold standard.

Phil if you have already initiated a similiar test we may decide to go down another route rather than repeating the same?
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Go for it. I have now measured EV patches on every current digital cinema camera, that's been lovely in terms of getting a hard-ish captured dynamic range value for each system. It has also been incredibly time consuming. Something like the Xyla and a decent reference lens will tell and show the differences fairly easily and quickly. I recommend testing with the 0/1 stop both exposed and clipped so you can get all that information. I seem to be one of the few around testing Highlight Roll-Off to clip, which is a common occurrence. I like brushed steel for that if you can find a pot you don't like. In my most recent test here you'll notice I also had some black fabric and deeper shadows behind the chart. That's very useful if you go through the bother of testing the entire ISO range of each system.

I think what's been most interesting for me, and perhaps you guys as well, is the small differences in everybody's various ways of doing LOG. Seeing how every manufacturer deals with linear light thrown into the LOG curve and subtle differences at the very top and bottom ends is revealing.

Kodak is the industry's gold standard where I'm from btw :) 13-15 stops max depending on stock/speed.


Joel Voelker said:
Looks like the flat dsmc quick release plate works on the Weapon? Any word from them on a 15mm plate that will fit?
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Yep, the current plates work fine, even the 15mm assault plate.


Alvise Tedesco said:
Some 4k when you're on Standard olpf as a Raven iphotetical reference?
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I think what I'll do is once there's a 4.5K Raven ready to test I might just fire off some footage on that as that will be the most relevant possible thing and from the actual camera.
 
Kemalettin Sert said:
People said its not working..
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Ah. I stand corrected. It appears the 15mm front is just touching the front of the Weapon slightly enough to cause false register, the part that says DSMC is raised and touches the front plate of Weapon. I guess I can shave it down real quick.
 
PatrickFaith said:
Gratz on the ASC spread showing "Skully", I'm constantly using the information you post on reduser, much thanks.
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Cheers and thank you Patrick. It's a true honor to be in ICG and American Cinematographer this week working my Weapon and Xenon FF-Primes.

Here's a shot I just uploaded on instagram:




It's particularly special being inside the Star Wars Episode VII and Hateful Eight issues. Got to look at the cameras and lenses before filming on both of those productions thanks to Panavision some time ago.

Those 1.25X Panatar Anamorphic lenses are absolute beasts. Big, heavy, and beautiful. The lengths Tarantino and everybody involved went to just to shoot and display this film are truly admirable. It's okay to have a love affair with the craft and tools :)





I have a great deal to be thankful for this year. Seriously, you couldn't write some of this stuff. Looking forward to a bigger and better 2016.



 
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Wanted to update my Skully thread as it looks like I'm about 6 months in with my Weapon 6K Forged and NAB is about 2 weeks away. Shooting has been nice. There's more Weapons out there now for sure and it looks like the rest of the announced DSMC[SUP]2[/SUP] line-up is shipping out now. Weapon has been a lovely workhorse so far. Mostly commercial gigs during these past few months. For me perhaps the biggest thing has been the improved data transfer rates allowing for lower REDCODE RAW Compression Ratios to be utilized. I shoot a lot of plates and VFX related things. 6K FF @ 3:1 is indeed nice. As is anything higher speed.

I probed a bit online about what people are excited about this NAB. Sounds like HDR, VR, and 360 Video are topping many people's interests. Same for me for the most part. 8K is indeed on my mind as allocation gets closer and closer.

Here's one quick bake from the FORGED 8K shoot, which has been getting a bit of attention with 380K views as of this moment.




That's with a bit of sharpening, but I'm screwy excited by the potential of the format size and resolution for both 8K and 4K productions.

I think for "us" HDR is going to make a big, big splash this year as some of the amoebic chaos begins to firm up into a gelatinous mountain. We're already seeing some of the future HDR display tech, some will be good, some perhaps not. 4K has been steadily making more and more penetration in various arenas and virtually every manufacturer is making a 4K body of some sort. 8K is truly happening in realtime now as we near the summer Olympics and a few other entities begin dabbling in that space. VR is an interesting thing for live action productions, but the concept of non-3D 360 video seems to be grabbing hold more and more. Ongoing as the Oculus Rift and Vive are now landing on people's heads.

If you're going to NAB 2016 feel free to say hello. I'll be a bit of a busy bee for a couple of the days, but I'm looking forward to seeing folks I only get to see pretty much at NAB.

Until then, be on the lookout for a few things I've shot coming to all sorts of screens.

phfx_REDWeapon_AVO_BTS.jpg


Still working on my aerial reel, but it's nearly done. Can't seem to get it under 30 minutes :)
 
I really like the implementation of the Weapon in the Shot Over, absolutely amazing! But I might have a tough question to all of you, does anyone know of a Polar Case like the ones from Portabrace that are designed specifically for the Red Weapon? We would need something like that for a production in Siberia in 2 weeks and I'm not a huge fan of putting it in a case that's to big for the cam.

Thanks you all.
 
pretty amazing you only started in 2011! great accomplishments!
i was shooting with Dino's Redone since basically the day he got it, still some of my best RED work was with his camera.
i was just fishing around to see if you know if the adobe has caught up yet and we able to edit!
maybe it's a blessing that raven packages havent shipped yet for me because i couldnt bring a camera on set that had files with compatibility issues.
 
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jordan levy said:
pretty amazing you only started in 2011! great accompaniments!
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Heh. I actually started in 1999. Initially I was doing things like Scan/Record Coordinating that involved scanning and digitizing films we worked in at 4K, then quickly became the studio's Digital Colorist. Shortly I was shooting various types of content for features as well. Lots of hats. I had a few encounters with the RED One long ago, but oddly Peter Lyons Collister shot some downtown LA street stuff at night for a feature that nearly made me pick one up. At the time though studios funded any camera needs necessary. We almost used the RED One on a 3D feature that I was really interested in exploring the workflow, but for whatever reason it didn't work out. The first footage I shot for a feature film ended up on screen in 2003 (shot on *gasp* film) and that began more and more shooting. Mostly VFX related things and that put me in a strange place when it comes to job title. We eventually came up with Digital Imaging Specialist which allowed me to shoot VFX related motion and stills on set without destroying the world. When I left that studio at the end of 2010 I found myself in dire need of a 4K camera as I didn't have a $100mil studio behind me when working on various VFX shoots and other projects. Didn't have the film cameras, scanner, and laser recorder anymore. November 3rd, 2011 I was at both the Canon and RED Scarlet-X announcements. Plopped my cash down because RED had something I wanted/needed and that was indeed my first RED. Making the leap into full time Director/Director of Photography at the end of 2010 is still one of the craziest decisions I've ever made. Luckily I maintained good relationships with studios and VFX studios and that helped me along the way. These last couple years have been mostly commercial shoots.
 
Booze and now a car shoot that hopped on right after NAB.

BTS for now:

phfx_RWD_drone.jpg


phfx_RWD_camCar.jpg


Used Foolcontrol to tend to camera while rigged in the drone, which was nice whenever it landed. Zeiss Super Speed Mark IIIs for this one. Also, interestingly enough, I left the Sidekick on the camera just so I could walk up to it and check it out whenever the bird landed.

Very cool to have a few streets closed down in LA and get some stunning shots. Gotta do more of that for sure.

Next up tacos and then more BIG landscape things.
 
Hi Phil,

Do you remember how long are these 19mm Carbon Rods? I'm thinking about buying these but I'm not absolutely sure which length for CP.3 and VIV matte box.

Thank you
Karel

Phil Holland said:
Certainly, there will come a time when I need to do "the whole thing all over again". I tested the STH and LLO OLPFs rather thoroughly in the best, at least 3 times from my post here on REDuser.

I am a bit with Mark on this one as I do prefer shooting with the STH for a lot of reasons. Initial impressions are it's "still good" with some improvements due to Weapon tech. Improved optical path, perhaps some sensor related electronic things, and the lower REDCODE RAW Compression Ratios do wonders.




I will need to test those NISI NDs agains the Formatt/Hitech Firecrest NDs. Big time.




That's going to be a thing for everybody to decide for themselves. What I can say is I spent two weeks with early Weapon MG cameras and tested them out a bit. You do see the various gains by having a lower compression ratio as well as wherever that 1/2 a stop of shadow improvement occurs. In that sense it is indeed a worthy" upgrade to Epic and especially Scarlet Dragons.

phfx_REDWeaponMGTests.jpg
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Karel Šimůnek;1738913 said:
Hi Phil,

Do you remember how long are these 19mm Carbon Rods? I'm thinking about buying these but I'm not absolutely sure which length for CP.3 and VIV matte box.
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HI Karel,

I'm like 90% sure those are 12 inch carbon fiber rods, which should work fine with CP.3s.

Also, I should update this thread :)
 
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