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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 :)

Travel Out/ Pick Up Your Camera?

It was definitely the 18/2" barrel on the 500 pump and they were running slugs through it. Obviously a rental.
 
Boothba said:
A while back the topic of instructional videos was discussed. This is a great way for RED to "walk through" the basics with a large number of people. This could be packaged as a DVD or better yet be posted online for instant accessibility. And the best part is that RED could sub-contract the making of "each chapter" to one of the fine local filmmakers in the community, requiring little of their important time. I disagreed with Stuart that this needed to be a fancy or high-tech production. I think it need only be simple, straightforward information: how to setup the camera, how to work the menu, Redcine overview, etc.

I think the goal should be to get any and all potential Red-users up to speed as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is especially important for renters, camera assistants, freelance camera ops, etc. Hell, I'd probably even buy a video Ipod to rent out with the camera just so video instructions were instantly available in an emergency.
Click to expand...
I used to work in the QC section for the buying department of a nationwide department store chain. Consumer electronics can be a nightmare of quite excellent equipment with idiotically designed controls, particualrly the remotes!

What I used to do was try to look at the equipment from the point of view of a non-technical consumer. If I couldn't get all the functions working in three minutes without looking at the manual, that was it, Strike 1, yer out! (Initial tuning in of radio and TV stations will take longer, but all I had to do was get it started)

If it passed that test we'd drag one of the female office staff in to see if they could get it working, this time in ten minutes using the manual if necessary. If they failed, and it we thought it was because the manual was badly written, we'd fail it until they did a re-write. If it was because the controls were not intuitive enough, we'd send the manufacturer a list of things we didn't like, and wait for another sample.

Only then would we start the actual electrical testing. That's because most of the equipment seems to be designed by engineering nerds who don't have a life. Electronically, it's excellent, but the weird remote controls etc make it appear none of them have much contact with someone who isn't a nerd.

In the case of RED, they really need to give one to somebody who isn't all that interested in the RED but who has used HD video cameras before, and see how long it takes them to get some pictures on the screen and in the recorder.

You would only have to do that a few times to spot likely trouble areas and then print up a troubleshooting guide that would cover most situations. It may sound sily, but the trouble with most instruction manuals is that they tend to be written by people who already know how to operate the equipment!

One approach would to have three or more people write their own version of an instruction manual and provide a copy of each version. As long as they didn't contradict each other, if one person's approach didn't work, someone else's might. The principle behind this is that every person has slightly different views on what is most important, with a range of viewpoints the chances of one of them approximately coinciding with the reader's is that much greater. This is why there's such a hugh market for third party operating manuals for commercial software packages.
 
I'm guessing everyone, get a RED One, Certification next year at Nab just like Avid and FCP. Until them, Im sure this forum and RED will answer every question that you could imagine like they have for the most part this last year. My head still spins on data rates, lenses, depth of field, etc.... Note - I'm going to NAB just to be able to see and get questions answered about RED and other gear in person.
 
I imagine we all agree that what red has done is pretty impressive so far.

At NAB red team will concentrate on securing further sales AND meet with many of its first believers. They will look after their reservation holders and ensure they get a special showing of the red footage (i think).

Red will be fully aware what there next step is with regard customer service.

It is clear to me that Jim can get quite sensitive when he feels people are being unreasonable or overly critical. That is understandable given the enormous pressure he must be under with this whole project.

Red has impressed us so far because they have built up a superbly talented team that are top notch at what each individual can bring to the team without the burden and expense of overstaffing. We have all benefitted from this by getting something worth a lot ofr a lot less.

Red is likely to build up its team again selecting unique talented people in whatever area they have good skills in, such as purely customer service related. But surely it is reasonable to give them a wee bit of slack during the first six months of production. It is no easy task to get the customer service area right than it is with building the camera. Some of us will be unlucky and our red one will develop faults or might not even work properly from the start! These things happen with electronics and red will not be immune from that.

Jim Jannard knew all along what was required and how things should be done "at this stage in the red devlopment" He will know what is required for the next stage. Bur right now with 1500 cameras reserved some have already pulled out for whatever reason. This will leave a reasonable number of cameras out there for use by red to do as they please with them. So i doubt anyone will be stuck without a camera for any length of time.

A DVD would solve a lot of problems especially for people in my situation. Nothing complicated just simple easy instructions taking nothing for granted. Some of you might consider that a pro camera should have pro style DVD. That would be a valid point with any normal camera. But red is no normal digital camera. Red is built to last and possibly grow with you throughjout the years. That will encourage people like myself to purchase a red knowing full well that it is overkill for our present purposes. So a surprisingly higher number of purchases than normal will be by guys coming from the prosumer world and into the professional world in one big jump. My guess (just a guess) is that Jarred will be assigned to produce several DVDs staring off with a simple how to use the camera and later on a more detailed pro style DVD for the experienced pro user.

Give red team time to get their breath back from this gigantic mammoth accomplishment. Just a beginners thoughts...thats all.

Mike the beginner
 
How about manuals and instructional video on a CF stick that you can plug in and watch it back in the field on the camera? Can't be too difficult to achieve.:biggrin:
 
Heck, following this logic, just pre-load the REDDRIVE you purchase with 3 hours of 4K 24p "how to" videos and demo footage...
 
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