OT: Will RED change everything?

farss wrote on 9/28/2006, 4:37 PM
Just curious to see what others here think.
Here's my spin on this:
At the moment there's a kind of a split, those that shoot 4K (be it film or digital) and those that don't. Reason is the cost. If you've got funding for 35mm you're pretty much likely to stay at that level, not too much 35mm is shot for editing and release as DV25, the very high cost of running film through the camera makes that a dubious path economically. With 35mm every point along the path is expensive.
At the other end are most of us, shooting DV25 or maybe something a tad better but hardly cinema quality. Our upfront costs and costs throughout the process are all relatively small compared to 35mm / 4K.

So how does RED change all this.

Now it's still not cheap, don't get me wrong. Factor in glass and all the bits and pieces and to buy or rent we're sure not talking small change but still way more affordable than 35mm where the running costs are very high.
The lower running costs however mean that you can shoot 4K, easily downscale to 2K or 1080 or 720 or DV 25 to keep you post costs very low. You might think this madness but wait.
You do your usually thing in DV25 or whatever your favourite format is. You release the show. It's a flop, well it's not cost you much more than if you shot DV25 in the first place (assuming you rented the RED).
Or.
Your movie is a major hit. But damn it it's going to look pretty sad on the big screen. Someone is prepared to put up the big bucks to reshoot it but you know it'll never be quite the same.
Well with RED no sweat, now you've got the money for that very expensive 4K post work, you don't have to reshoot anything.

Of course I'm simplifying things, the costs of shooting an image worthy of the big screen are more than just the camera and stock. Still I can see the potential for a lot of change.

Bob.

Comments

Konrad wrote on 9/28/2006, 5:25 PM
I'm not a frothing at the mouth techie who thinks film is dead or will be soo, but it's diminishing fast and the price of film stock can only go up faster than can be imagined.

My local movieplex went from one DLP screen to almost all DLP screens. The trend is going industry wide as it's cheaper to deliver digital to the big screen than film and it's scratch free.

Film is going away fast for still picture taking.

Yes you are right indies will be able to do great things with Red. DVX100 films got the 35mm film treatment and with all due respect to the DVX100 the new cams blow it away.

The cost of shooting 35mm is going to get even higher imnho.
Serena wrote on 9/28/2006, 6:04 PM
Obviously this is in the context of indie film making. Film stock costs aren't a major concern once you're paying for name stars, although at the cost of stars there mightn't be much left in the budget for production.
One must recognise also that 35mm blow-up from DV25, of which I seen quite a few in film festivals, can be remarkably good; obviously a blow up, but OK. Good if the content is good.
Things on the D-Cinema front are far from fixed. The end-point for cinema owners is audience satisfaction and digital has made greatest penetration in small venues where 1.3K is affordable and gives acceptable quality. 2K is being touted for cinema roll-out on the grounds that it is commensurate with 35mm and not many venues want the expense of 4K just to save the distributors the cost of prints. We can also note that in most CGI special effects is done in 2K because you can get away with it in fast action. You need 4K for stuff with slow action. To quote Mike Selwyn, MD United International Pictures: "4K production is a whole different kettle of fish; it barely exists".

edit: we might observe that 1.3K is nicely served by HDV. And even HDV rendered to PAL DVD makes a very good impression on clients. In fact, similar impact on NTSC clients. So, I doubt that the increased expense of a RED would be worthwhile unless you were seriously aiming for broader cinema release (or had the money anyway).
GlennChan wrote on 9/28/2006, 6:28 PM
As discussed on other boards... the economics still favours "big" multi-million dollar pictures with recognized names, backed by multimillion dollar marketing campaigns. The cost savings from not shooting 35mm isn't much. You still need marketing effort.

What might change things more is digital projection or various kinds. It avoids the cost of making a film print and such. You can get yourself a very small release on a few screens if you're so inclined.

There's also Youtube.