Will S-W get jobs?

[Derek Carlson]

The whole point in getting these cameras (beyond the awesomeness of owning a Red), is ultimately to get work and get paid to do what we love. With that said, will the Scarlet-W get work the same way an Epic would? (I understand ultimately it's the DP, not the equipment, who makes the image) Does 6k over 5k make a significant difference for producers, or is the upgrade of DSMC2 over DSMC make an equal difference? I upgraded from Raven to S-W, but just want to know if I've over-estimated what kind of work I can potentially get? Thanks.

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

Cameras don't get jobs. Never have, never will....

 

[Domenic Barbero]

the upgrade is good if you want more flexibility as a shooter. Ive owned a RED heavy rental house for a while now and I havent had a single request even to this day for a DSMC2 body or a Weapon. Usually people just want to shoot on RED and they dont really care which body it is. But youll be happy with your options now having the SW over the Raven.

 

[Gene Sung]

Just last week I DP’d some cool promos for Disney which I might not have got with my FS7 because they wanted to shoot 4K frame rates over 60fps which the FS7 does not do. So my Scarlet-W stepped up for me, which was cool.

As for 5K vs 6K, my paid work is mainly in network TV spots, web stuff so it’s always an HD finish. My clients usually want the source footage higher than HD so they can crop in, but for HD finish a 4K negative is plenty. I’m sure anyone would take a Weapon over an S-W, but for my jobs the S-W works most of the time.

Obviously your reel and and resume is the most important, but I think on the smaller to mid-sized jobs that I do, being an owner / operator with a good camera helps a bit. Red is a bigger brand name to producers than Sony, so it probably does help a bit and owning saves the producers time from dealing with renting which can take a lot of time. That’s a pretty big factor on small to medium budgets.

Case in point, I work with three different gaffers. They’re all good. Lately, we’ve been mainly using the gaffer with the best gear - he has a good mix of HMIs and Tungsten. It’s just so easy to call him, have him pull up in his truck and be ready to go. Way less hassle than dealing with renting and the producers love it.

Same applies to cameras in my world of non-high end jobs where producers want it easy and fast.

 

[Meryem Ersoz]

There was a window where the technology you owned mattered. That window is closed, in my opinion. The cost of wnership and the cost of rentals are both so inexpensive that they really hire you for you.

 

[Jon Betz]

Is it possible to be hired with the Scarlet-W as an owner operator? Yes, of course.

 

[Brandon Shafto]

+50 Gene. Great comment as usual.

 

[Neil Dearman]

I have had a lot of requests for my Weapon but now due the Adobe taking their sweet time on the new build I have had more requests for the Dragon. Once the new build is done then you will see more on sets

 

[John Fitzpatrick]

Cameras don't get jobs. Never have, never will....

Unfortunatly they do, i don't agree with this method but they absolutely do.

 

[Daniel Stilling]

Your reel will get you jobs. A better camera (assuming that you know what you're doing and you have talent), will get you a better reel. Then I guess, indirectly your camera will get you jobs.

 

[Matthew Quinn]

they really DO need to fix the adobe thing.

 

[Brendan H. Banks]

Gene really has a great point here. I beat out competitors bringing Alexas and Amiras to the table and I'm just on a GH4 with external recorder. I know how to eek every little ounce of quality out of my kit while I wait for the S-W, charge a similar rate to the Alexa/Amira competitors (though I value my labor higher and gear lower), and come fully equipped from the camera side -- I subrent myself and take the full rental rate so the producers don't have to deal with PU/DO at cam-rental houses.

For me, my rate won't go up with the S-W...I'll keep the same rate for consistent clients and remind them that that rate is going into constantly upping the quality and researching the best ways to capture their desired content. That rate more than paid off my current kit, and helps upgrade along the way. Consistency, reliability, and quality are things I try and always keep going!

 

[Michael Hastings]

We all know the market is pretty saturated with cinema grade cameras so just having a camera isn't going to have people lining up at your door, but the question wasn't really whether cameras get jobs it was "will the Scarlet-W get work the same way an Epic would?"

And the answer is why not?

With the exception of an extra 20 percent of pixels that hardly anyone "needs" (and Scarlet-W 5K is already 84% more pixels than the Alexa - arguably the most popular high end cinema camera) everything about the Scarlet-W is better than all of the Epics/DSMC1 cameras. It has the Dragon sensor - with actual image improvements over even the 6K Epic Dragon, - plus ProRes/DNXHD, WIFI, and all the other features of the Weapon system.

 

[Brendan H. Banks]

One thing I forgot to add that definitely adds value -- the ability to say "yeah, we can do that" more often. I'm upgrading so that I can say "we can do that" more often and with more confidence. So will the S-W specifically get you more work? Probably not. But, will a tool that better suits your shooting style while upping the quality get you more work? Most definitely.

 

[Kris Tait]

I think Daniel cut through the middle with his comment and pretty much summed it up. That said,I've never been hired for which camera I had. Never actually heard of that.

 

[James Bendkowski]

As a student awaiting a S-W I think I can confidently say that with the work I get amongst student filmmakers, unfortunately the camera does get you jobs. That's not to say that talent isn't highly valued (one would hope; more valued than the camera) but there is definitely still the classic "ooo, a Red! I can't wait to post that on Instagram" amongst my colleagues

 

[Adam Montville]

I think Daniel cut through the middle with his comment and pretty much summed it up. That said,I've never been hired for which camera I had. Never actually heard of that.

I have been. Got hired to do a rap music video for someone I never even met, cause someone I work with told him that I had "dat boi".

 

[Gene Sung]

I think Daniel cut through the middle with his comment and pretty much summed it up. That said,I've never been hired for which camera I had. Never actually heard of that.

Where I live, it happens all the time but mainly on doc type projects. I shoot with a sports doc crew that uses FS7s and because I owned that camera they bring me on all the time. I have another crew that shoots mainly C300s. I don't own that camera so they only bring me on when a Canon DSLR (which I own) can cut it or when they have a spare camera. If I did have a C300, I'd probably be working with them much more.

On all my the lower budget projects they just want you ready to go. Sure they probably like the way I shoot, but if there's another guy who's just as good and he has the camera they need, they'll mostly like go with him since renting is very time consuming - someone needs to pick up the day before, prep the equipment, then someone returns the following day. If I were a producer and I could bypass all those steps, save money and time, I'd do it in a heartbeat. And they do.