RedCam Central :: View topic - Reflections on NAB 07 (+ Crossing the Line pics)

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OK, so I finally have some time to write about my NAB 07 experience. I wanted to get to this as soon as possible, but as soon as I got back to L.A., I started work on a Feature and it has been non-stop since.

Well, here goes:

I arrived in Vegas on the Sunday before the show and was contracted by a company to demonstrate their Switcher/Editing system for the week ahead. I thought to myself, "hmmm, if I'm demonstrating, I'll be in the hall earlier than everyone, and perhaps get a glimpse of the Red booth before the show opens."

When I arrived, the booth was already constructed and the Red Walls kept most from being able to see inside. I had enough on my plate, so I went to the company booth I was working for and decided to come early the next morning. (I even explained to the company that hired me that a condition for working NAB was to have enough time Monday morning to see the Red booth... they accepted the "terms" Smile

Monday morning came and I was slightly delayed getting to the Red booth, since I had to help with some technical issues at our booth. I arrived about 15-20 minutes after the floor opened, and discovered that the Red booth had a line to get in. Apparently, the way they set it up was that they would not let you in until you saw the "test footage" first. I waited in line for my first showing for about 25 minutes (starting to think I should get back to my job) and finally got in.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Jim Jannard welcome each and everyone of us into the Theater they had set up. We were told not to video tape the show for YouTube uploads or else we would be taken away and our arms and legs would be broken. I understood the concern... I certainly wouldn't want my pristine footage ending up on a 320x240 pixelated artifacted unbalanced, etc, etc, etc.

The test footage was shown. TEST FOOTAGE??????? Instead, we were treated to a short "film" made by Peter Jackson, Richard Bluck (DP), the Red Team, and of course a lot of other folks from Weta Digital, Park Road Post, etc. The results were fantastic... I have seen the 4K test footage shown months ago in L.A. and I watched the NAB footage twice. All I can say was that it was a new experience. The fidelity was incredible, and even though I was there to look at the results, I often was distracted by the story - which was a good sign that the quality did not "take me out of the movie".

The story was about two World War 1 troops... one a pilot and one a ground soldier. There was not much dialog, but a lot of action, including gunfights, explosions, tanks, and biplanes fights. A helicopter was used and the Red cameras were put through their paces.

The footage looked outstanding. It was beyond Film in many ways... with such clarity... partly due to a 4K Sony Projector, but just incredible.

I did a couple of slight artifacts in one or two low light shots... and this was actually addressed by the Red Team. There was a shot inside the plane, near the flight controls, that was low lit and there seemed to be a very slight distortion in the form of vertical lines. When asked about it, the Red folks said they were aware and had already fixed the problem, which was a bayer pattern sensor glitch.

Also, there were a couple of stuttery looking sequences due to the fixed 180 degree shutter that the cameras were in due to being early prototype versions. These both should be non-isues... and you really had to look for the artifacts to see them. The wavelet RedCode looked great.

After viewing the footage, we were released into the booth and allowed to play with live cameras, try out the assortment of accessories, ask questions to various technical gurus, and see working demos of Red Cine.

Also, Apple had RedCode working for Final Cut Pro and the Red Team made a presentation to the Final Cut User Group which can be seen here:

http://www.redcamcentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=114

What can I say, the Red Camera is here and it's real. Disruptive Technology to the Extreme. Way to go Red.

Remember to click on the LowRes Thumbnails for hi-quality images. More to come...