Back to School

It's back to school time and this time it's Film School for OMG'ers. This is something actors, or a director's son or cinephile could discuss.

Is this the camera that is going to make analog film absolute?

Some think so. This is the Red One ultra high resolution digital camera.

Capable of processing five times more information than any other HD camera and matched with a 35mm PL lens mount, this new technology is considered by many to be the closest thing to shooting on film since, well, shooting on film. If all of Red‘s promises prove true and the around $17,500 price tag (without lens) for the camera, 90% less than the cost of a Panaflex camera, results in a supply that keeps up with the demand, the Red One could become a favorite of independent filmmakers. "It delivers all the dazzle of analog, but it's easier to use and cheaper—by orders of magnitude—than a film camera. In other words, Jim Jannard's, the founder of Oakley, creation threatens to make 35-mm movie film obsolete."

Just as there is a debate about film vs. digital camera for photography, so is the debate for movies. With television production going to High Definition as well, it seems like the digital format is giving movie making a run for its money. But all are not convinced. "It isn‘t that HD is sharper than film, it‘s just that it looks synthetic. Film adds texture, depth and roundness to the image that HD just can‘t do. My first reaction to hearing about Red was that it would look four times more synthetic. Which is alright, if that is the look the director wants.”

What does this technology do to the actors, does it help them or does it make them even more obsessed with their looks when you have technology to bring this type of definition to a huge screen?

But the Red One is getting fans, and not just independent movie makers. "The Red One is being used on at least 40 features. Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning director, borrowed two prototypes to shoot his Che Guevara biopics, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and later purchased three for his film The Informant. Peter Jackson, the Lord of the Rings himself, bought four. Director Doug Liman used a Red on Jumper."

Will Liman shoot the Untitled Moon Project on Red?

Can you imagine Jake blue eyes, the ultra bright of the moon surface and space in this format?
Take a look at how you might be seeing Jake in the near future.


skate - shot on red - 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.

“Working with the Red camera brings back the intuitiveness, the fun, the magic of working with film,”

Class dismissed.

And some more Red footage.
Red One Digital Tests Check out the underwater test.

Wired Magazine: The Red One