Paint the Town (of Digital Cinema) RED

I'm fortunate to be a wannabe cinematographer at this day and age.  It used to be I would have had no choice but to go to film school, work on crews for several years and then eventually hope I've picked up enough know-how to eventually work as a DP.  Now, with cheap, digital equipment, the means to "process" it (compression) and learn helpful tools through the internet, being a filmmaker is relatively easy.  I can start on these DSLRs, analogous to 16mm, and eventually work my way up to the RED, analogous to say 35 or 70mm.

Meet the RED One.

The RED Digital Cinema Camera Company released their first digital cinema camera in 2007 with the RED One.  Since its release, the RED One has been used to shoot many features.  One of which might be my favorite movie of all-time, Che, and is certainly shot and directed by my favorite modern day American director, Steven Soderbergh.  Soderbergh has said of the camera, "this is the camera I've been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded on board a camera light enough to hold with one hand . . .  RED is going to change everything."  Pretty bold words.  Contrast that with the words of Werner Herzog, who shot My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done with the RED One, "an immature camera created by computer people who do not have a sensibility or understanding for the value of high-precision mechanics."  He spoke of the camera's reboot times.  Take away what you will from each director's experience.  I'm personally jazzed about using this technology... eventually.

Meet the RED Epic.

The latest camera added to the RED arsenal is the Epic.  The processing power and resolution has been ramped up for it.  Soderbergh has already shot Haywire and is shooting Contagion with this camera.  We'll have to wait until late 2011 for these films to blow us away though.  But, while I've never used these cameras before, I can look at tech specs and I can look at results.  Some of my favorite films of recent years have been shot with the RED technology.  Che, as already mentioned, Soderbergh's The Informant!, Lars Von Trier's affecting psychodrama Antichrist and The Social Network were all shot with the RED One.

What I'm most excited about with these cameras is the processing power.  Being able to render and process 4K (or in the case of the Epic, 5K) resolution in real-time all in a small and portable 5 lbs. box...  It's pretty remarkable.  The RED cameras shoot RAW, meaning most of the information captured by the censor is perserved.  With more information, the better the resolution and the more ability to play around with the footage in post.  

What makes it a step above from the DSLRs right now is basically processing power and compression.  The Canon 5D Mark II may have a sensor that dwarfs RED and even Super 35, but the processing chips inside of it must compress the files down to a smaller codec.  But, as you can see in this video, the two aren't that different from each other.

Each camera provides its own separate and unique look for this piece.  And that's sort of the idea I'm beginning to take away from all of this talk of comparing RED with these DSLRs.  Maybe digital cinematography, as it stands right now, is best when it utilizes all of these different technologies.  In the first minute or so of the piece, the RED shots are used as to enhance the mood of this character.  It's 4K resolution teamed up with slowed down 60fps frame rate portrays an uneasiness in the character.  The 5D footage is more objective.  Shot at normal 24p, it serves as giving a good idea of the actual speed this character is traveling at.  While the RED footage is more emotional, the Canon footage is more physical and sets the piece in reality.  The Panasonic GH1 is great at naturally high contrast, colorful and sharp images.  For the first minute, the GH1 serves kind of like our male character's perspective.  As he watches the woman, maybe it's sort of like a Martin Scorsese-Jake LaMotta-Raging Bull type thing.  He sees her in this different light than anyone else.  I don't know what you can necessarily take away from this piece.  There's not much of a concrete story.  The title contains the words, "Footage Comparison," and that's basically all it is.  But seeing these cameras' footage cut together like that is exciting.  Like I've mentioned before, with digital, know the equipment and know it well.  Know what it is good at, its strengths, and utilize them to your advantage.  I'm sure one day, after I Filmed Your Death, I'll have enough of a budget to shoot on the RED, but I don't think I will shoot solely on the RED.  These different cameras do different things well.  Utilizing those strengths in a visually stylistic way, that's the key!