What expensive camera obsessions are doing for filmmaking

[Andrew Reid]

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[img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/canon-c300-with-lens.jpg[/img]

Are filmmakers being superseded by cameras? The gear is often the first thing that is noticed, indeed it is often the first reason you get hired says Art Adams…

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[Guest moebius22]

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Wow, my editing instructor showed me this same article yesterday and now you cover it the following day.

I respect Koo, but I suspect he is getting a little too giddy from all that newly found money he now has to spend.

The money would be better spent elsewhere. Good talent ain’t cheap.

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[Guest tuliocampregher]

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We are in the point now that any camera will do cinema quality, you could shoot a film on an iPhone 4s or HX9v or GH2 or NEX 5n. But companies want to make money, and bad film-makers think that a better camera will make them better film-makers.

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[Guest rossawilson]

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Envy? Disgusted? Dreams? I think you’re the one who’s being emotional. And who are you to make the assumption everyone who posted here can’t afford it? If someone makes money for their project by going public then they have to expect some critical analysis of their choices. This is the internet after all. God knows Koo is critical of the choices and of others and equipment but that’s his right. No one is shooting down his dreams, we’re discussing the pros and cons of buying rather than renting and the well know desire that this equipment can produce. Content is king, and I’d rather watch a compelling story shot on a dv camera than a few beauty shots in a resolution I have no way of actually appreciating. I wish him all the best, I’m sure his project will be awesome. But don’t mistake disagreement as envy.

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[Guest FelixC]

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I find it very odd that he has coverage of the C300 but there is no coverage of the the Red Scarlet. In the past, he has bashed the Red as vaporware. They delivered and it is a stunning camera. The fact that there is no coverage indicates a bias against Red. And as such, really reduces the credibility of this site.

As far as workflow, the entry level Macs are more powerful than the Macs that were used 3 years ago to edit Red One 4K files.

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[Guest moebius22]

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You can accuse him of not having all the facts, but the accusation of envy is ridiculous. Narrative filmaking is an expensive proposition. Given the fact that pre- production costs are not getting much cheaper, it pays to be budget conscious whenever you can.

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[Guest ujojazvec]

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“I think Andrew really needs to correct this post immediately, I like both NoFilmSchool and EOSHD, but let’s not spread lies when information is clearly available.”
that´s right , Koo´s making feature film.. i think scarlet makes sense here.. i am a DSLR shooter but i would like to shoot on scarlet too ,rather than 5D/Gh2 or FS100 …..if i can afford it of course

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[Guest carsonbenett]

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Look what ujojazvec and I wrote. He bought it with separate money.

I think Andrew really needs to correct this post immediately, I like both NoFilmSchool and EOSHD, but let’s not spread lies when information is clearly available.

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[Guest quobetah]

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You know what separated statn from all of the other Angels in heaven before he deflected? ENVY. And I can smell a lot of it in this post.

Your prelude started well, like valuing the talent more than the equipment on projects..that’s all good. But then you get into Koo’s Scarlet-X buying spree and pretty much went around thru it till the end. So after reading this article, instead of agreement, i feel disgusted that you had the impulse to actually post such emotional envious entry onto your otherwise great blog.

First of all, he has the right to spend the money he raised on kickstarter however he see fit as long as he delivers the promised product.

Secondly, while I agree that talent should outweigh equipment everytime, as I have seen really crappy work even with RED touting filmmakers..to some extent, equipment do matter. RED in particular. Forget Canon’s mpeg codec, RAW capture forges in a million reasons why its infinitely better to have aRED on any one of your “serious” productions like his pet project. The things you can do in post with a 4K RAW footage is infinitesimally greater than what you ever could with avchd from Canon or GH2. So yes, in this particular scenario, where he’s trying to make a movie,not some 5 minute vimeo clip, its justifiable to have a RED, IF YOU CAN.

He’s got big dreams, and he’s found a way to do it, we have no right to tell him how to spend his earned funding because he, above anyone else should know what to prioritize.

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[Guest rossawilson]

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Never a truer word spoken. The RED format really requires a beast of an expensive edit bay too those files are huge. Has Koo taken this into account? 20K gets you a lot of camera hire time.. more than you should need by a long shot! That said there is a case for owning and shooting if say you’re sporadic in your schedule.. but then how much does better scheduling cost? I completely agree, money like that would get you some awesome actor/s and to get awesome you need to pay for casting. Cash should go in front of the camera, god knows just feeding and moving people takes up enough! I’ve got the cash in place and project coming up that the scarlet looks like a great option.. but one needs time to get over giddy spells and focus on whats real. The decision to buy a camera should come after looking at the shooting schedule and getting rental quotes in.

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[Guest carsonbenett]

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Being the good journalists that we are, we should read as much as we can about a given situation before we jump to conclusions. Koo is not using any Kickstarter money for the camera purchase, to quote the man himself:

“Koo on 11.3.11 @ 11:41PM

Thanks Michael! I’m actually not going to use the Kickstarter money to buy the camera — the Kickstarter funds are all going on screen. I’ve been saving up a long time to get to this point, and it’s as much a business investment (as any camera at this price point should be) as it is for one project. But thank you again!”

That’s what $10-$20K cameras or higher actually are, they are long term investments. A RED makes sense as a long term investment because of the 4K capture and the commitment of RED to free firmware upgrades and hardware upgrades (Scarlet is upgradeable to the new Dragon sensor being released later next year.)

If you are going to be making 1-2 films or shooting many professional projects over a period of a few years, this camera, or any camera at this price range, will pay for itself.

We want gear that will stand up to a beating, made of metal, not made of plastic. These are professional tools for professionals, if you’re not making money off your shooting, then yes you are wasting your money. But if you need a high end camera to shoot for a couple years, one of these cameras is a sound investment. Specifically the RED seems like a better one for the reasons I stated earlier.

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[Guest ujojazvec]

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he´s making a sports movie.. i understand why he bought scarlet.. it´s the cheapest pro camera that offers raw workflow with faster frame rates than any other cheaper camera.. If i would Koo i would buy scarlet too.. 4K raw and faster framerates will give him more latitude in post.. and i think raw workflow is far better than silly 4:2:2 or even 4:2:0 8bit ..grading, stabilization ,vfx and other postproduction things will be better to do on scarlet footage.. it´s also investment in your time..who wants to spend all day grading something from cheap camera when you can grade something easily and quickly..time is money … and the last thing.. Koo mentioned he didn´t bought scarlet from money which he earned in his kickstarter project..

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[Guest rossawilson]

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Phillip Bloom took 4 days to render one of his shorts shot on Red. There are ways around it with the Red Rocket just a snip at $4750. You need speed and through put for which thunderbolt helps with.. but you still need raid, and grading files that are 4k is gonna call for a lot of power. It’s just another costly consideration. Anyhow. I agree there seems little coverage of scarlet her.. but then you are on a site called EOS HD and Nofilmschool are happy to make the opinion the canon is already dead and he has ordered a scarlet and if that’s not bias I don’t know what is. Besides a specced up scarlet with batteries monitoring capability and storage is at the same cost point as the canon. It’s not all about big numbers.

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[Guest quobetah]

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But Nofilschool posted the C300 coverage and the crappily directed Mobius short.

Yeah, the direction was crap. the cuts were off. There were dead scnes. And the pace and flow of the scenes were forced and disconnected. I’ve seen better shorts. The camera quality though is pretty good.

I actually visit this site more frequently than Nofilmschool, but now that might change.

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[Guest carsonbenett]

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Wasting your money buying a Scarlet if you’re not making money on your shooting. I thought that was implied based on the next sentence after that – “But if you need a high end camera to shoot for a couple years, one of these cameras is a sound investment. Specifically the RED seems like a better one for the reasons I stated earlier.”

People can do whatever they want with their money, but unless you’re loaded, you’re not going to be buying one of these cameras just for fun. It’s made specifically for people who are going to get paying gigs constantly, or who will amortize the cost over a number of features. Possibly even one feature.

You still haven’t fixed your post about Koo – he stated he’s not using the Kickstarter money for the Scarlet. It’s a hefty accusation and it’s been proven wrong.

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[Guest alanhalfhill]

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Good Article. Thank You. I am happy with my 60D. All this accessorizing and more expensive gear make me glad that I am happy with my 60D. The nice thing about new technology is that it filters down to the less expensive gear soon after.

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[Guest danyyyel]

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I do understand your point about RED and that it is in another market than what eoshd threat. But for today, I think the big news is not the Canon but the RED scarlet-X. November 3 will be remembered as the Scarlet-X day and not the C300. I am far from a Red Fan (mostly because of their marketing), but they are also democratizing cinema camera but from the top. That 8bit 50mbit 720p 60fps camera for $ 20 000 is a joke, compared to the $ 14 000 packaged 4k raw scarlet-X. That is not to say that I am critisizing you about not covering RED, but just for todays news it is the major announcement to all film makers.

The Pana, Sony and Canon of this world will have to adapt to this new pricing. For example I don’t see an S-log Sony F3 selling more than $ 10000 in the not so distant future. In terms of market value i don’t see this C300 more than $ 8000.

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[Andrew Reid]

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Business, business business.

It is all I ever hear from most filmmakers these days. “If you’re not making money off your shooting, you’re wasting your money”? What utter crap.

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[Andrew Reid]

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I am not in the least bit envious because I don’t subscribe to their philosophy, at all. I am of a completely different belief system.

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[Andrew Reid]

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Philip’s EPIC also skipped frames every second of a major project, and had had to be repaired twice so far in as many months. That is a an entire project affected by a major problem, on a $50k camera.

I don’t cover RED on the site because they haven’t produced an accessible sub $3000 DSLR competitor yet. The Canon is interesting because it is new technology and the tech will filter down into affordable DSLRs. Plus it is the bigger news of the day by far. RED cater for a very small niche in comparison to Canon.

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