RedCam Central :: View topic - John Schwartzman ASC

Site Admin

This testament to the quality of RED footage was posted online recently by DP, John Schwartzman ASC:

"RED MX and Anamorphic film

I recently concluded my first shoot using the RED ONE MX camera, or rather a pair of them because I was doing reshoots for a film in 3D that I originally shot on film in 2D using anamorphic lenses. I consider anamorphic film the "gold standard" for cinema. The film was "The Green Hornet" which is currently in the process of being converted to 3D, at the time of the reshoots the option for shooting film and converting the new scenes was not an option due to the time constraints of conversion, the vendors are working 24 hours a day just to do the work they were contracted for and adding to their plate was not an option. The dilemma for me was how was a going to find a digital camera that had enough resolution to intercut with anamorphic film, I tested every system, The Arri Alexa, 12 bit F35, RED ONE MX and anamorphic film at the same time, based on this test I chose the RED ONE MX because it had incredible resolution, both the Alexa and the F35 didn't hold up well in 2:40. 2 weeks ago I finished timing the DI with Stefan Sonnenfeld at Co3, in addition to 2 new scenes, there were 4 scenes in which the RED ONE data was intercut with existing Anamorphic film, I was amazed at how transparent the match was, Stefan did a great job and actually we added grain to the MX data to match the film. I would venture to guess that the only way anyone will be able to tell the difference between the film and the MX data is not in the image quality but in field of view differences between shooting flat vs scope. As a die hard film user I must say I have been blown away by the image quality of the MX, it doesn't have the same dynamic range in the highlights as film but I believe with EPIC and HDRx™ it will."

Site Admin

More thoughts from John Schwartzman, DP on "The Green Hornet" and 'Spider-man" (4):

"I am very excited to see the Green Hornet, it opens on the 14th and unlike the project that I am working on right now, which is being captured in 3D, the Green Hornet is a post conversion, and a very good one at that. I hope the readers of this forum look at it with unprejudiced eyes, and don't condemn it just because it is post converted. There is no question that shooting in 3D is far more satisfying because i can be a part of the authorship of the 3D, with conversion I am just an audience member, having said that I really think that Rob and Grant did a great job riding herd over the conversion vendors, and making it feel of a piece. I certainly was set to hate the 3D version of the Green Hornet, the film was shot in 'scope and we certainly didn't think of a 3D finish while shooting. Michel and I encouraged lens flares and lots of "mistakes" and smoke, things that make converting from 2D to 3D more difficult. I love the 3D version of the Green Hornet, I am happy with the "look", I wish the projector was brighter but i think we got a great look from Co3 for both the 2D and 3D versions of the movie. Judge it without prejudice of how it was originally shot and I think you will may come away with a different opinion of post-conversion when it is done right.

On another note, I wish I could share the tiff's from my current project, the look from the Epic is really Epic, I am totally in love with this camera. At 75megs per tiff I have had to go to 2TB drives for my personal computer but such is the price of 5K. Happy holidays to my friends at RED and see you in 2011."