The RED Revolution
Hollywood’s homegrown, ultrahigh-resolution digital motion-picture camera unspools the supremacy of film
MATTHEW
FLEISCHER
Ted Schilowitz is all smiles as he strolls the grounds of the former Ren-Mar Studios. In long blue and white surf shorts, a T-shirt and sandals, he looks like he’s at the beach—not at the headquarters of an emerging Hollywood power player. Steps away, Steven Soderbergh is in his office putting the finishing touches on his film Contagion.
There’s a good chance David Fincher may be coming in today for test shoots. “This studio was one of the M’s in the original MGM,” Schilo-witz tells me, beaming. “Desi Arnaz bought it in the ’50s, and it became Desilu Studios. They shot I Love Lucy here!”
For all I know, Schilowitz’s kid-in-a-candy-store enthusiasm may come naturally, but I’m guessing it has a little something to do with the fact he’s helped preside over one of the most meteoric rises in recent Holly-wood history.
A year ago, Ren-Mar became RED Studios, home of the Red One camera, and Schilowitz became the public face of RED, since billionaire owner Jim Jannard, who made his fortune with leading-edge optics and apparel company Oakley, is notoriously press shy. He was the first person brought on board when avid photographer and cinephile Jannard decided in 2005 he wanted to bring the quality of still-camera digital photography to the world of motion pictures. “At the time, there were a number of com-panies presenting glorified video cameras as cinema devices,” says Schilowitz. “That wasn’t good enough.”
The result was the Red One. With 4K resolution, the Red One had roughly four times the number of pixels as its closest HD competitors, giving it an image quality on par with 35mm film. For nearly three years, the Red One’s resolution was unrivaled—until ARRI Digital’s 3.5K Alexa launched last year. That camera, however, has a price tag nearly double the Red One’s $25,000 cost. It’s often less to buy a Red One than it is to rent a film camera—and that helped earn it the Industry nickname Panavision Killer.
Since the camera’s inception, four Red One films have won Oscars: The Secret in Their Eyes, In a Better World, Inside Job and, most famously, The Social Network. Schilowitz says on any given day in L.A. there may be 500 Red One shoots. The company has sold some 10,000 worldwide.
But things weren’t always all smiles and Soderbergh. Back when Jannard first brought in Schilowitz, the idea of a 4K digital camera was Loch Ness Monster lunacy to a business that had seemingly resigned itself to 1080p HD being as good as it gets. There was also the little problem of having the offices in Lake Forest, far from the heartbeat of Hollywood. “They don’t call it the Orange curtain for nothing,” says Schilowitz. “It’s an hour away, but it might as well be in Idaho.”
Orange County or no, RED was lucky enough in 2007 to get on Peter Jackson’s radar, who offered to shoot a test with a pair of Red One prototypes named “Boris” and “Natasha.” He came back a few weeks later with a 15-minute, high-intensity World War I action short called Crossing the Line. “Peter had a camera up in a helicopter, on cranes,” Schilowitz says with a laugh. “That model wasn’t built to leave the studio.”
Still, Schilowitz and Jannard were thrilled. They screened Jackson’s film a few months later at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. Studio reps from Fox, Warner Bros. and Universal, as well as such producers as Dean Devlin, were in attendance. So were reps from RED’s prospective rivals. It was the motion-image debut of the camera. “Until that point, people were kind of laughing at us. There were a lot of pale faces after that screening. People were saying, ‘Hey, these guys might actually pull this off.’ ”
After a follow-up screening in Hollywood, Soderbergh committed to shooting both parts of his Che Guevara bio-epic on the Red One, and the camera gained a foothold in the indie world, where the stigma of digital was secondary to minimizing costs.
The Book of Eli’s Albert Hughes says, “The game has changed, and it’s due to RED. They’ve definitely put a fire under the ass of this industry.”
Hollywood was intrigued, yet the technology remained largely under the radar of public consciousness until director Neill Blomkamp used it in his Oscar-nominated sci-fi film District 9—a $30 million project with what looked like $200 million in effects. “We’d had a good insider reputation for some time,” says Schilowitz, “but if you didn’t know who we were after District 9, you weren’t paying attention.”
“The Red One lets you get the shots needed, you can shoot longer takes, and it’s cheaper over time,” Blomkamp told me last year in an interview with him for this magazine.
Albert Hughes, who directed the 2010 film The Book of Eli along with his brother, Allen, agrees with Blomkamp’s take. Their $80 million Warner Bros. movie was the first big studio film to use the Red One. “My brother and I always considered ourselves film purists,” says Hughes. “We never wanted to go digital. But after my experience with the Red One, I don’t see myself ever going back to film.”
Hughes says he still gets backlash on the move to digital when he hits the festival circuit, but he doesn’t care. “For me it’s the ease of use. By the end of the day, I’m looking at the dailies with effects. And the image quality is beautiful. The game has changed, and it’s due to RED. They’ve definitely put a fire under the ass of this industry. I hope Panavision and ARRI start getting their acts together.”
Indeed, Panavision built the pioneering digital 2K Genesis in 2004, but it hasn’t put out a new camera since. “There’s no doubt we’re competing with cameras that have the technological edge,” says Panavision executive VP of marketing Phil Radin, who says the company is in the research and development stage on a high-end digital-camera system. “Throughout Panavision’s history, new film cameras were developed every five to seven years. Modern cameras are more akin to computers in how often they need to be introduced to the marketplace. We are not conceding the market to anyone. We’re adapting.”
If those plans sound vague, be assured Panavision isn’t going anywhere. Though its cameras may be outmatched, its lenses remain the gold standard.
So Panavision can still figure things out, but catching up won’t be easy. RED just put the finishing touches on a 5K camera called the Epic. It has 60 percent greater resolution than the Red One, it’s a third of the size, and it weighs an anorexic five pounds. The Epic will make its feature debut in the latest Spider-Man reboot—a Sony film. Sony, if you haven’t heard, happens to make a camera or two itself. Amazing Spider-Man director of photography John Schwartzman, ASC, says using a non-Sony camera for a Sony franchise blockbuster was virtually unheard of—but necessity dictated the use of the Epic. “I love film,” he says. “But if you’re shooting 3-D, you have to shoot digital.”
The reasons are simple: 2-D retrofitting—shooting on film and then converting to 3-D—has earned a horrible reputation with the moviegoing public, which considers it a cynical ploy to extract more of their cash. Shooting in 3-D, however, requires twin-mounted cameras. Traditional film cameras are often considered too heavy and bulky to mount side by side and still pull off the elaborate crane, handheld and tight-space shots expected of any visually intensive 21st-century blockbuster.
The only camera that could pull off those shots in cinema-quality 3-D was RED’s Epic. “I can fit five Epics on the hood of a car, and they weigh nothing,” says Schwartzman. “These things are not much bigger than a still camera. I said to Sony, if you can build me a digital camera that can shoot 5K, weighs five pounds and has a data recorder the size of a Hershey bar, I’ll use it.” It couldn’t.
But there was still the little matter of getting RED on board. The company was already talking with Peter Jackson about using the Epic prototype for his eagerly awaited Lord of the Rings prequel series The Hobbit. But production delays gave Schwartzman the window he needed. “I got in there and told Jim [Jannard], ’How would you like to shoot a Sony movie on a Sony lot?’ That’s as big as it gets.”
Jannard agreed. Eight months later, Epic footage of a first-person Spider-Man web-slinging through New York had fanboys wetting themselves at this year’s Comic-Con. “There’s no question this is the future,” says Schwartzman of the RED Epic. “The genie isn’t going back in the bottle. This is the first time I felt like I’m not giving anything up. You can go home at night and know you’ve got it.”
With no other comparable device out there—RED stands poised to capture nearly the entire market share of Holly-wood’s growing 3-D fetish. Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is shooting on Epic, James Cameron recently purchased 50 of the cameras, and at long last, Jackson’s Hobbit films are being shot right now in New Zealand.
No wonder Schilowitz is smiling. “We were definitely behind that Orange curtain,” says Schilowitz, reflecting back to the company’s Lake Forest days.
Not any longer.
MATTHEW FLEISCHER is a Los Angeles–based writer, editor and blogger. He can be reached at mattefleischer@yahoo.com.
Categories: Film / L.A. History / Techno File / Technology
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Lakewood? The Lakewood next to Long Beach? That's not in Orange County.
As for the camera. That's a game changer.
Unless they screw it up, it will be the name in digital movie cameras!
Posted by: Gabriel R. | 09/02/2011 at 07:08 PM
Interesting piece. Am I the only one besides Jim Jannard who knows the city of Lakewood is in Los Angeles County, not Orange County?
Posted by: Ian Mega | 09/02/2011 at 08:36 PM
Ah, dude, Lakewood is not behind the Orange Curtain. It is in LA County, but is really quite a cultural study in itself. Still a good piece, I've wondered about the "lock" Panavision had on the biz, and pleased to read of RED's progress and success.
Posted by: "Engineer Tim" | 09/03/2011 at 12:11 AM
I wasn't aware that Lakewood was in Orange County.
Posted by: Bob Johnson | 09/03/2011 at 07:18 AM
The most interesting fact in this article was that Panavision built the Genesis in 2004 but has not put out a new camera since.
And now they're playing catch-up? So it took Mr Jannard to challenge big companies like Panavision to start "adapting" out of their comfort zone?
Sounds like Jim Jannard thought the customers weren't getting what they were entitled to be getting so he went and gave it to them himself.
Posted by: Mark W | 09/03/2011 at 07:32 AM
Matthew Fleischer shouldn't be writing about the RED if he doesn't know enough about the technology to know that the company is located in Lake Forest where it has been for years.
And he shouldn't be writing for the LA Times if he doesn't know enough LA/OC geography to have distinguished Lakewood from Lake Forest. Finally, ahem, is the Times falling into the no-fact-checkers trap of the NYT?
Posted by: Kiku | 09/04/2011 at 07:17 PM
Lake Forest, people....
LAKE FOREST, ORANGE COUNTY....LAKE FOREST, not Lakewood!
Can you read??
Posted by: denis | 09/05/2011 at 06:52 AM
Awesome article, very nice, I will share it around.
I've had the privilege of shooting Red MX, Arri Alexa and Red EPIC in the last six weeks. The EPIC stands out head and shoulders above the rest. My team produced some gorgeous shots for a period murder mystery short film.
It's finally the end of celluloid for acquisition.
Red One was a game changer, but not quite there, Alexa is awesome... no complaints at all, but EPIC in HDR is now beyond the imaging performance of 35mm silver halide. Not a doubt about it.
I'm in post now... cutting native 5K images in Adobe Premiere CS5.5, conforming for grade and finish in 5K with Quantel Pablo.
I could be looking at high res scans from 35mm neg here, only it's better.
Posted by: Richard Lackey | 09/05/2011 at 07:46 AM
You should interview the camera assistants that actually have to use these cameras! It's virtually impossible to attach and detach the BNC video cable to the RED Epic camera! It's too small making it difficult to mount all of the accessories that we and sound require. The Arri Alexa is about perfect! There's a Epic and zoom lens under all of that AKS: http://images58.fotki.com/v513/photos/4/43793/4909192/EPICcram-vi.jpg
Posted by: Fred | 09/05/2011 at 09:49 AM
FROM L.A. TIMES MAGAZINE: We mistakenly printed that RED started in Lakewood, California, when in fact it was Lake Forest. That error has now been corrected in the article online.
Posted by: Mayer Rus | 09/05/2011 at 10:46 AM
This is a giant kiss to Red, and I'm not certain they deserve 100% of that kiss.
Here are facts that this story glossed over, or just got wrong. The first Red camera was a disaster for image quality and reliability; opinions amongst the ASC were mixed at best. It wasn't until 2010 that promises made in 2006 started to be fulfilled in regards to reliability and quality.
Red got to ride the coattails of Dalsa, who made the first working 4K camera in 2005. Dalsa was around until 2008, and their 4K camera system was used on big features like 007 Quantum of Solance and Alice in Wonderland. They owe much of their "4K" success to roads paved by Dalsa.
Today, the Arri Alexa is at least three times as popular in the rental market on major feature and TV production, as anyone who works at a major rental provider (including Panavision) will tell you. One major company drastically recently reduced their order for Red Epic cameras due to quality issues.
Red's accounting and public statements are widely known to be untrustworthy and fuzzy at best, Red may have shipped serial number 10,000 but it's widely suspected in the industry that the number is closer to 7,000 camera. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors with that company, and it's too bad Matthew Fleischer didn't do a little more research and fact checking- as taking Red's word for image quality is a mistake.
For the record the Red One is still not "on par" with 35mm film, as in written in the article. Anyone who has has worked with both a Sony F35 and a Red Camera will find this out immediately.
There's a lot more professionals who would rather have less resolution, and in return have a much better experience on set, in post and on the screen.
Posted by: Albert | 09/06/2011 at 12:37 AM
Great article but not sure it's quite accurate to call the Panavision Genesis a 2K camera. While the Genesis uses a 12.4 megapixel Super 35mm sized sensor, it's output resolution is 1920x1080. It's also not quite accurate to call the Arri ALEXA a 3.5K camera. Again while its sensor does have a total pixel count of 3392x2200, the maximum recording resolution when using ARRIRAW is 2880x1620 and when recording in ProRes or using uncompressed HD-SDI the resolution is only 1920x1080.
Posted by: CineTechNews | 09/06/2011 at 11:01 AM
The point made by Fred, posted above, suggesting that the camera assistants be interviewed, is quite important. I hope it will be acted on. I am reminded that in the early months of the war in Afghanistan, soldiers with one of the British regiments with which I had trained as a young man complained about the rifles they were issued. These guns were great on the range and in exercises, but in the sand and dust of Afghanistan and heat of Afghanistan it was another matter. Lives were endangered. It took awhile for the soldiers on the front to get listened to. It is a similar situation with RED. The camera assistants are the folks at the spearpoint, and they should be paid serious attention. From this vantage, RED, though great, is still a work in progress.
C. ALEXANDER BROWN
Posted by: C. Alexander Brown | 09/08/2011 at 09:13 AM
Now how about getting rid of that archaic 24 fps frame rate and shooting in 60p?
And I wish the digital footage were not then post-processed to look like grainy tinted film. Screw this.
Posted by: AlexG | 09/08/2011 at 11:49 AM
Really? This article is about 4 years behind the facts.
So lame. Red Cameras are on the way out already AND NOW they write this article.
Posted by: Mighty 7 | 09/08/2011 at 01:02 PM
Lots of great comments by folks both skeptics and fans. My experiences with Red Cam are similar to many above, most glaringly how the rigs begin to approach something similar to Star Trek's "Borg" and can be nightmares in post. But I think it's a stretch to say Red is "on the way out" and Arri's are "3 times" more poplular. Three times more available, now I'll buy that. Tastes vary, there's plenty of room for Red, Arri, Sony, etc., etc.
Posted by: DA | 09/09/2011 at 04:08 PM
Interesting article, fascinating diversity of comments.
Having worked in video for 35 years and dabbling in film, finally crossing over, taking a REDucation class, shooting an indie feature with a world class screen credited feature film crew, multiple shorts and commercials with REDs, I am amused by the arrogance of some film people and their eagerness to proclaim supremacy.
Grumble all you want, the bottom line is Mr. Jannard and company accomplished the unthinkable - they have pushed access to better than film quality, cinema capable production into the indie film makers realm;
and they made digital acquisition a Studio term and a production staple in less than what - 4 years?
So not just Warner wannabes adopted RED systems, but true old time big studios used or endorsed films that millions of people have paid money to see. And that is the true bottom line.
Yes, Jannard had a Microsoft let our customers be our beta testers mentality, (and I have been a Camera Asst) but his product did evolve and will continue to evolve in it's own American maverick way.
as for the RED going away - HA!
My money's on Jim and Ted's excellent adventure.
Posted by: RFRipp | 09/09/2011 at 08:23 PM
1) Panavision is supplying nearly every EPIC show mentioned here (as the rental house, support, lenses, etc), including Spider-man. Sortof relevant to the story as it speaks to a fundamental difference in Panavision's business model.
2) Sony, Arri and Panavision "playing catchup to RED" is a tale RED loves to spin. When you look at the number of shows by camera body, RED is a 3rd or 4th place player, depending on whether you're looking at features or series TV.
3) If the EPIC becomes the camera of choice for 3D capture, that's really not saying much since movies captured fully in 3D are in the single digits annually - not nearly enough volume upon which to build a business.
4) In the end, there is a very big question mark around RED's ability to function as a going concern in the medium-long term. Their business model is flawed (a low-cost camera sales model quickly being squeezed by Canon and others), which leads one to question how much energy Mr. Jannard will funnel in the direction of the business.
Posted by: IndustryWatcher | 09/11/2011 at 04:47 PM
Panavision, with its long and storied history, of great cameras and lenses, used by legendary cinematographers and great directors, resulting in great film, being upstaged… by a guy who made sunglasses? :(
Posted by: daniel | 09/14/2011 at 03:19 PM
We bought 5 Red Ones out of the gate, did all the upgrades and never a problem. Just got our first Epic-X and in the process of mounting it on a gyrostabilized platform on a helicopter. Ever since we told a few DP's about our project word spread and the phone has not stopped ringing.
Needless to say we are pleased with Jim, Ted and Red.
By the way, their customer service is outstanding, every email or call returned quickly.
Posted by: Filmflyer | 09/14/2011 at 07:45 PM
THey are actually in Irvine not Lake Forest (they are in the building next door to my company) Just over the border from Lake Forest...
Posted by: KF | 09/15/2011 at 10:35 AM
Red camera is a post production nightmare. There are only a handful of houses that can handle 4K let alone 5K.
There is no comparison between film and digital. Quality has been sacrificed due to cost cutting and everyone wanting to jump on the band wagon of digital. The majority of HD show and movies look like complete crap. Granted reality and documentaries look good in it.
Red's are not that cheap either. The body of the camera might be. But after all the accessories and crap you need for it. Your right up there with an Alexa rental. Most shows use Alexa's and not reds.
Posted by: post production | 09/15/2011 at 10:37 AM
After using a couple of EPICs on an 11 day commercial shoot ... I have to say they worked very well, and their light weight kept everyone handling them happy. Some of the issues we had a first, even little things like getting the bnc connected, were due to our lack of familiarity with the camera. Using Mil Spec push/pull bnc connectors helped as did removing the RED Remote when cabling up. Still happy to be using an Alexa next week. We're recording in Rec709, but it still has a very wide DR due to the Alexa's method of in effect combining two exposures.
Posted by: Fred | 09/17/2011 at 03:00 PM
Nice fluff piece on Red.
Posted by: Greg Toland | 09/30/2011 at 08:16 AM
5K post is a nightmare? Change your post house buddy. For a $3500 custom built PC with Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5, Tom Lowe (TimeScapes) showed us (Vimeo) real time scrubbing and playback of native 5K Epic footage in a 4K timeline. Your comment would be valid last year but not this week.
Posted by: David | 11/04/2011 at 07:11 PM