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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 :)

Sometimes I just want to kick people in the teeth.

Andrew Walker

Andrew Walker

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I was out on a short film for for the past 5 days as a DIT and renting my Red camera package to the production. The camera ran great and over the five day shoot there were a total of 6 codec errors, which were fixed right away and we were still able to get the shots that the show needed. There was more down time between when I would change a CF card or a drive or a battery than there was time down because of some codec error or any other thing with the camera. But yet some grip saw the codec error on the LCD and started bitching about the camera, like "boy what a great camera" in the most smart ass voice he could muster. I swear some people just like to hate for no reason what so ever. Just because something is outside of there little comfort box they freak out. Most of the people that were on the show loved the camera and where very impressed by it.

BTW, the way I got the codec errors to go away was to change the exposure just a little to get rid of any blown out areas.
 
I suppose this is kinda related to the crew comments thread... But I was on a shoot about 3 weeks ago. I had just arrived and was starting to prep the camera. This lady, walks up behind me and blurts out. "Who's idea was it to shoot on RED?" I take the bait and ask what she means, she proceeds with "I've been on two RED shoots and the cameras were nothing but problems". So I ask her if it was really the cameras or if it was the operators, she stomps off. Actually she ran off to the producer and I saw she was bitching at him, probably over the RED. Anyway, she stays out of my hair all day, everything goes fine. Did a battery swap when we changed setups and again at the lunch break, no one noticed. Had to do one more battery swap mid-afternoon, the talent was taking a quick break anyway and it looked like the perfecto opportunity. The lady appeared out of nowhere and was bitching about the camera holding things up and the unacceptable boot time. Everyone just stared at her and the camera was up and ready before anyone else was. Not sure what happened to her after that or even what her purpose or function was. Weird.
 
People are often stressed the &*(# out on movie sets. And yes, there are plenty of a-holes in the business, no doubt. Best bet is to let it roll off you ... like water off a duck's back.

I mean how many times has a shot been delayed for reloading a mag or a hair in the gate or whatever??

You just have to be zen about it.
 
I've had a few experiences like that as well. Thing is, none of those people are usually experienced or even able to give you first hand scenarios. Its all about what they heard from this person or that person. There are a lot of brats out there and as much as you would like to tell them where to stick it, Tom is right, just excuse their ignorance and don't let it distract you from your task.
 
Results are all that matter... if I got a beautiful lighting effect by shining a light through toilet paper, I wouldn't care if I got a funny look from the crew. And ultimately most good crew members understand this.

Truth is that most people on a film crew are on the young side and are excited to see new tools on a movie set, like the RED. The only disconcerting thing is when some extra or PA mentions to you that he's already shot a feature on the RED... makes you think about how much the RED camera is leveling the playing field.
 
It's interesting how attitudes to the RED ONE have been slowly changing over the past 6 months or so.

I have my little operation in Elstree which for those of you unfamiliar with British film industry is one of a number of film making centres in England like Pinewood and Leavesden, so I get to converse with a lot of different people in the industry: DP's, retailers, rental houses, Producers etc. The one common factor between them seems to be that their knowledge of all things RED seems to be about 4-5 months behind what's discussed here at Reduser. Attitudes are beginning to improve now with people only talking about it being rather noisy in the blue channel whereas 2 months ago they were adamant that it didn't record sound and couldn't shoot in the cold! :S

This is just a generalisation of course, and Im not suggesting that everyone should be up to date with RED developments otherwise be tried for treason...just noticing that the general opinion of the camera seems to lag by a few months worth of Jim & Co's hard work and improvements.
 
Build 16 problems. Anybody else out there getting POST errors and having the camera stop rolling during a take? Driving us crazy shooting in Baton Rouge,LA. Lost performances due to camera malfunctioning is going to get it kicked off any future productions.
 
MSE, Please send me the log asap so we help quickly.
(d e a n a n - a t - r e d )
 
Tom, I do let those little comments people make roll off my back. I just think they are complete idiots for say stuff like that. 95% of the people on the shoot were blown away with the camera and the images that were captured. It wasn't just that one grip that was giving me shit about my camera. The 1st AC for the first couple days of the shoot was talking out his ass about the camera. Apparently he had been on a Red shoot before and had some problems on it. I think a lot of these problems come from people renting the camera without someone well versed in the Red camera.

The other thing I just loved to hear is that we should have shot on film and how the Sony cameras are so much better. I just turn to those people and laugh in their faces.

Another note, only the first day did we shoot with the Red 18-50mm lens. For the other days we shot with the Nikons that I have in my kit. The new 80-200mm Nikon got a lot of use.
 
David Mullen ASC said:
Results are all that matter... if I got a beautiful lighting effect by shining a light through toilet paper, I wouldn't care if I got a funny look from the crew. And ultimately most good crew members understand this..
Click to expand...

Hahahahha Sven Nykvist was once looking for a a nice effect for fill on an actors face, when suddenly he saw the bounce on the hand from the AC's flash light.

He had the whole camera crew + grip department stand there and bounce their flashlights on their palms onto the face of the actor.

No one saw that as strange hahahahaha


Fredrik
 
Drew599 said:
The 1st AC for the first couple days of the shoot was talking out his ass about the camera. Apparently he had been on a Red shoot before and had some problems on it. I think a lot of these problems come from people renting the camera without someone well versed in the Red camera.
Click to expand...

I was at a party the other night and a DP (who I usually respect) was spouting off the usual about how bad the RED was, how it ruined a project, all of it's flaws etc.. I asked him when he had actually used one, and he hadn't, it was all shit talk.
So, I offered to let him test out one of my RED's against any of his cameras, see if it really was a bad camera, at which point he blustered some excuse about having no time, and sticking with what he knows, and left.

I have no idea why people talk so much crap, I assume it's because they have nothing better to say.... :sick:
 
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