Dumbworld: A Sacramento Based Blog on Entertainment, Media and Art

So far, I’ve only heard glowing reviews about the Red One, about how it outperforms more expensive HD and Film cameras. Until now. From Rian Johnson, the director of Brick (a pretty damn good flick) and The Brothers Bloom,

The RED camera does not do what it claims. Which is not to say it’s a bad product, or that it doesn’t have its place – in terms of quality it’s a good alternative to things like Varicam and HDV. But it does not hold a candle to regularly used high-end HD, let alone film. And we’re going to tell you why.

More here. Via CHUD.COM by way of Cinematographer.com

Admittedly, I don’t really care, but it does make for good conversation (among film making nerds like myself). Whether the Red One outperforms the F23 or Genesis is a good problem to have. We have a saying: give Steven Spielberg your grandma’s old VHS camera, and he is going to tell a good story (Unless it happens to be Indiana Jones IV).

11/14/08 Update: Red reveals specs!

Sounds like it is back to the drawing board.  From Red founder Jim Jannard:

We have changed everything about Scarlet because the market has changed and we have discovered a lot of things in the process. We have a new vision. Wipe you minds of the past announced Scarlet. Forget the design and forget the price. It is all different now. We think you will be surprised. Glad we didn’t take any deposits…

more here.

via Digital Cinematography

11/14/08 Update: Red reveals specs!

From August.  In the comments, some people point out some of the errors in the article, but nonetheless a good article.  The article talks about the development of the Red One, about Peter Jackson shooting Crossing the Line and Steven Soderbergh shooting his Che Guevara biopics with Red One prototypes, and shows some footage shot on the camera.  For fun, see if you can find the errors without peeking.  And I know, I know, if you don’t have a good story- it doesn’t matter what camera you are shooting on.

11/14/08 Update: Red reveals specs!