James Blunt move over…

Last weekend we shot a music video on multiple locations in Hong Kong. The excellent, soulful and catchy song for the video is “Blind Generation” and the song writer and singer is up-and-coming star Greg Moore. The video was written, directed and produced by Digger T. Mesch. Director of Photography was Roman Baska of Salon Films. Salon also generously loaned top-notch lighting, equipment and crew to the production. Editorial and post-production by Peg Leg Productions. World Worm Studios recorded and produced the song. I served as a producer, camera tech/consultant and “data wrangler”. Dozens of other talented people helped both in front and behind the camera.

The video is in post-production now, to be entered in a couple weeks in a major competition in Europe. Will post the entire video up here real soon. Stay tuned for details. This thing rocks. In the meantime, check out these stills extracted from the actual 4K footage shot on the Red. Click on the small images to get the full 2K image. (Note: all these stills are extracts from real Red footage, quickly graded by myself in RedCine, output to 4K TIFs, then converted in Photoshop to 2K png files; these files do NOT have the final look intended by the DP and director and are not matched, etc.)

We shot with the new Build 16 Red firmware, Redcode 36 (high quality) mostly in 16:9 4K (4096×2304, for Shots 2, 3 and 4 above). A few scenes were shot at 40 frames per second, at 16:9 2K (2048×1152, for Shots 1 an 5). We shot to Red Raid using both Red 18-50mm zoom and Arri Primes (including 12mm and 24mm). We had the Red on tripod, on dollies (both high and low), and on a ceiling dolly rig, with the camera suspended from the dolly by straps and bungee cords. Here’s a few “making of” behind the scenes shots (click on thumbnail to see larger image):

These black & white stills are by Marco Ponti. This last one is of martial arts legend K.K. Kong–check out this post on Mr. Vix blog for more detail on Kong.

And here’s a few “behind the scenes” videos (shot on my tiny Panasonic LX-2 in standard def 16:9, but elongated to 4:3 because of limitations with WordPress video), to whet your appetite:

This will make the amazing Red camera even better. According to a recent post by Red founder Jim Jannard on reduser.net, here’s major features that come with Build 16:

• New .R3D file format – requires the use of new versions of QuickTime Component, RED ALERT and REDCINE (not currently available)
• Digital Signal Processing optimization.
• Image Compression Optimization.
• Support for 4K 16:9 recordings in REDALERT and QuickTime based applications.
• Fixed high detail scene codec errors in 4K 16:9 recordings.
• Fixed polarity of audio recording relative to MIC and / or LINE inputs.
• Improved audio sample to video frame synchronization (lip sync accuracy).
• Reduced RED-LCD display tearing on last few lines in 4K record / playback.
• Addition of REDspace and RAW viewing modes.
• Updated file name structure to eliminate duplicate file names.
• Addition of Pre-Record (10 sec or 30 sec loop) mode.
• In-camera 1080p playback of REDCODE RAW .R3D files.
• Improved display precision and color response of RED-EVF and RED-LCD.
• Seperation of Sensitivity (ASA) and Exposure (Compensation) parameters.
• Extended exposure times of up to 1/2 sec enabled in TIMELAPSE menu.
• Added RED-EVF control over Audio, Shutter, ISO and Varispeed parameters.
• User programmable Tonal Response Curves menu.
• Look Around available on HD PREVIEW outputs when LCD and EVF are active.
• Improved video Genlock (Tri-Level Sync) lock for 23.98, 24.00, 25.00, 29.97.
• Added 1.85 and 2.40 Safe Action and Safe Title Protection Guides.
• Improved indiction of image magnify mode with new “X” cursor
• User programmability of A, B, C keys and USER 1, 2, 3, 4 keys
• Allow return to last menu position before exiting menus, when SHIFT-SYSTEM is pressed
• Disabled auto-reset of reel counter on change of project time base.
• Decreased boot time. Roughly 68 seconds.
• Also need new FCP Log & Transfer plugin (will be available soon)
• Red Alert will not loose audio tracks when re-generating QuickTime reference files
• QuickTime codec now supports full resolution reference files and full render quality output

Some other important things:

1. Exposing properly on Red One is much easier with Build 16. Here’s Jim’s simple instructions on how to expose properly with Build 16.
2. Quicktime Gamma problems still plague Red Build 16 footage (as they do many other things). What’s up with this Apple? This really is ABC and needs to be fixed. People have been suffering this problem for years and it has no place in a post-production tool set touted as “professional”.
3. Tobias Straka and Octamas have provided once again an excellent crowd-sourced Red One Build 16 menu guide, in pdf format.
4. Very important: there is no rolling back from Build 16 to Build 15 or earlier builds. So Red is advising that you do NOT upgrade to Build 16 if you have paying production jobs to shoot. Build 16 is beta only and may very well break an established workflow you have. RedAlert! (uploaded in the past hour) has been upgraded to handle Build 16 footage. But you will still need to wait “several more days” for the Build 16-compatible version of RedCine. And whatever you do: make sure to read all the documentation that comes with Build 16 (it’s a two-step upgrade + black shading calibration is necessary, etc.)