There were two big announcements in the world of prosumer cameras yesterday.  Canon announced their Cinema EOS C300 and RED announced the new specs on the Scarlet-X.  The Canon faithful were disappointed in Canon’s new cinema camera.

The C300 records a 4k image but it’s output is only a 1080p image.  4k is slowly becoming an industry standard, particularly if you intend to show your footage on the big screen.  Why not start with a bigger, better quality image before output.

Slow motion is only available in 720p.  Shooting 720p is like shooting standard def.  Slow motion just looks better and should be done in camera not as a speed ramp in post.

The 10 bit color depth and 4:22 color compression are a huge improvement but we are talking about something that should be industry standard and a minimum requirement if you are doing any animation or green screen work.

The camera has an expended ISO and does well in low light but Mitch at Planet 5D and a few others commented on noise in the blacks during the live presentation.  Just because you can shoot at ISO 1600 with no lighting doesn’t mean you should.

The camera comes with either a Canon mount or a PL mount.  I would love to get my hands on the new Canon Cine lenses but it also limits the number of high quality lenses the camera can use.  This camera should have the option to use a PL mount as well.  Any good cinematographer knows that it’s more about the lenses than the camera and not shooting PL is a sever handicap.

The mpeg2 .mxf codec is non-proprietary making it easy to use in any post-production suite and shooting on CF cards is cheap; but this is little comfort with a $20,000 price tag.  I’ve already seen rumors that the price will come down.  It has to if Canon is not offering a lens at this price point.  (See the Sony F3).

Scarlet-X offered by RED impressed everyone and even angered a few EPIC owners.

It records a 4k image at 24fps and up to 120 fps at 1k.  The camera accepts both Canon lenses and for an additional $2k an interchangeable PL mount.  The same camera can use both cine and still lenses.  The still lenses come in handy because the camera shoots 5k stills.  The color depth is 16 bit with RAW color making things like ISO and color temp metadata. The image compression is 3:1 and the body starts at $9750.  The full package without lens is $14k.  Again, overall better specs than the Sony F3 with a comparable price.

Amy Puzia, Cinematographer and RED Owner

The Writer and Director Chuckie Marshall approached myself and Amy Puzia to work in the Camera Department as Cinemtographer and Camera Operator. After reading the script, the first question I had was, “what happens next?” That’s a great sign in a script, where after 8 minutes you are engaged in the story and care about the characters and where they are going.

With a title like, “The Road to Magehaven,” one has to wonder, will they get to Magehaven? And what will happen when they do?

I sent off a note to Chuckie about making this into a web series along with a brief series one outline. A week later, I got back a very detailed season 1 outline, along with treatments for seasons 2 and 3, and the first draft of the script for episode 2. WOW!

To get this project started we have set up an indiegogo campaign to raise the funds required to shoot the pilot. A small donation will help us reach our goal and allow us to bring this story to life. Please visit the indiegogo page and “Yeah, Man. Let’s do it!”

ABOUT MAGEHAVEN:

UPDATE 2:

It’s with great excitement that I am working with Sinohui again, and this time on a feature film, “Dark Harvest”.

I will be providing DIT (Digital Imaging Tech) services for the film. We are shooting on two RED MX cameras and I will be converting footage for edit through REDCINE-X with a RED ROCKET card.

Check out some behind the scenes.

Get the film at netflix or Amazon.com
Goodbye Baby

When Melissa Brooks (Christine Evangelista, The Joneses, The Good Guy), discovers she can’t afford college, she moves in with her brother and his boyfriend in New York City and lands a job as a waitress at a comedy club run by Mr. Perlman (veteran actor Jerry Adler, “The Sopranos,” “Rescue Me”), and his son (indie-favorite, Kevin Corrigan, The Departed, Pineapple Express).

While waiting tables, she watches and learns from other professional comics, including Donnell Rawlings (“Chapelle’s Show”), Sal “The Stockbroker” Governale (“The Howard Stern Show”) and Jay Black. With some fatherly encouragement from Perlman and his comic son, Melissa gets up the nerve to go on stage.

Melissa soon finds herself testing her material in front of the toughest crowds in the country, taking her lumps and earning respect in the process. Offstage she becomes involved in a complicated love triangle (between Vincent Piazza of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and “Scrubs” star Michael Mosley) while confronting a painful secret from her past, and finding the comedy in those dark places.

Featuring: Christine Evangelista (“The Joneses”, “The Good Guy”) Michael Mosley (“Scrubs”) Donnell Rawlings (“Chapelle’s Show”) Sal “The Stockbroker” Governale (“The Howard Stern Show”) Jerry Adler (“The Sopranos,” “Rescue Me”) Alan Ruck (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) Kevin Corrigan (“The Departed,” “Pineapple Express”) Vincent Piazza (HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”)

Directed by: Daniel Schechter Run Time: 87 min. Not Rated. 2007, Comedy/Drama From US

World Premiere – Slamdance Film Festival, 2008 official selection;

Winner: TBS’s Just For Laughs Festival, Christopher Wetzel Award for Independent Comedy;

Tampa Int’l Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Winner 2008 Best Actress Award Christine Evangelista;

Nantucket Film Festival, Winner 2008 Tony Cox Screenwriting Award;

Santa Cruz Film Festival, Winner 2008 Directors Award

I recently worked on a short film by Amy Puzia called, “The Gift”.   The shoot was actually just an editing exercise for class at De Anza College, but in order to edit something, you have to shoot something, so we ended up doing this piece.  We had a very minimal crew, and did very minimal lighting.  In fact most of it was natural, or the ambient light was enhanced with a single HMI 400 Joker. It’s a silent film, so there is no audio. If anyone wants to put music to it, let me know.  The camera settings were tweaked to reduce the contrast of the 5d Mk II or 5Dii as I like to call it.  The contrast was reduced to

Amy edited the film in 1 day, and then it took another 4 hours of color correction inside apple color. Here you can see the difference between the two versions:

Download the PDF

Here is to hoping the Stages go by quickly so my RED ONE can get into the Stage 4 upgrade slot!  That and I’ve got Scarlet on the mind.

NATIVE R3D SUPPORT in FINAL CUT PRO!

Buried on the site is a listing of software applications that handle native .r3d files.  They list Final Cut Pro, so I wonder when we’ll be able to see that in action in Final Cut!!!!

If you have ever used the h.264 files from the 5D Mk II, 1D Mk IV or the 7D, you know that it’s not real time.  It’s not easy and the rendering is a real pain.  I an edit RED 2K proxy files in real time, but not Canon Quicktime movies from their dSLR cameras.  So now, that ability to convert those files to Apple Pro Res files is going to really speed up my editing.  The Plug-in works just like the P2 plugin for FCP.

As you can see you have the option to make these files in every flavor of Pro Res.  Personally, I have been using Apple Pro Res 422 HQ for most of my footage.

For an in-depth review and tutorial of the plug-in check out http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/ssimmons/story/canon_releases_a_dslr_plug_in_for_final_cut_pros_log_and_transfer_tool/

Canon pulls 5d mk II firmware

UPDATE:  Canon has put up firmware 2.0.4 on their site which is again live.