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Cinema will be undergoing a revolution in the next few months and it has culminated in the release of the movie, “District 9“, directed by Neill Blomkamp. The movie was made for a budget of $30 million (small for a film of this magnitude) and has since made back its budget on the opening weekend alone. I believe there will be a new trend in cinema that will allow filmmakers to shoot at lower budgets, while maintaining film quality, all thanks to the RED camera, developed by Jim Jannard and Co.
Yes, the former owner and CEO of Oakley sunglasses took the path into digital cinema and movie lens production a few years ago and has since caught the eye of such directors as Peter Jackson and Steven Soderberg, who shot his biopic, Che, entirely on the Red One camera system. Aspiring filmmakers on a micro-budget also have some good news coming their way in the coming months with the development of a sister camera to the Red One, known as the Scarlet, it has the ability to shoot near film-like quality at the fraction of the cost of most HD cameras that can’t even approach the resolution (3K) that current cameras offer (1K) at the prosumer level. There are a bunch of websites devoted to following the news of the coming release date and reporting on the increasing number of films being shot on the current Red One.
Current fixed lens cameras that are still totally not within my price range are able to shoot HD at 1080p (or roughly 1K=1 million pixels), or around 3 times the resolution of a regular camcorder. The price for these cameras can range from $3,000-$10,000, the extra money being for more features and a better lens, which is sometimes interchangeable. The Red Scarlet, which is slated to come out some time this year, boasts 3K resolution (3 times that of HD and 8 times standard def) for about $3000 US! This already beats the resolution and price and feature set of all cameras currently available on the market. Oh, and it shoots stills.
On the pro level, film cameras can cost upwards of half a million dollars, but the Red One, currently being used by Peter Jackson to shoot his movie, The Lovely Bones, runs for about $17,500 for a base model. It looks like film, without the film because this baby shoots on hard drives and flash media.
What’s amazing is that this kind of quality will be available to people all the way down the trough. Suddenly, it will be within the range of most people to shoot on cameras that surpass most TV shows (many are using RED) and, if you know a thing or two about lighting, equal or surpass most films. This of course, is not taking into acocunt the many other factors needed to make a good film. However, besides those other elements, it’s always been important to me to get a beautiful image and not have to break the bank in doing so. I think, in the near future, that will be possible. Stay tuned for more.
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Tags: CInema, Digital, District 9, George Panayotou, Movies, Peter Jackson, Red Camera, Red One, Screw You Recession, Steven Soderberg
