This will all probably make me sound like a pompous jerk, but...
[JeremyG] "That's sort of a limited view don't you think?"
Yep, purposely. I'm just saying that it is overkill for many of the people who want to buy it.
[JeremyG] "I remember when the advent of cheap computer NLE hardware/software came out..."
And you're absolutely right about cheaper NLEs. It's much the same thing that happened in desktop publishing a bit earlier. Suddenly every corporation in town was self-publishing their own collateral instead of leaving it to the pros. So now Marge in accounting is "designing" a company brochure or flyer because, after all, she has PhotoshopLE on her computer. The results were a little bit of saved money and a LOT of bad
bad work. Fortunately that industry turned around, and the pros are doing the bulk of the work again.
Same thing when video production got very cheap. There were a lot of people who
could do it, including many that
should not do it. I'm not trying to be elitest, just honest... our work is an art and not everyone is an artist. Heck just go through and look at all the reels that you can find of all the posters here on the COW sometime. Some of them are incredibly
incredibly good, and make me green with envy. However, for every really great one you find, you are going to find one that is equally bad... some embarassingly so. The kind of reels that sometimes make us wish we were honest enough to say "You know, you
might want to think of doing something else for a living." And I firmly believe that while that may sound a bit mean, there are many people that saying that to would actually be a kindness.
[JeremyG] "What's wrong with putting a new tool in someone's hands that might not know how to use it exactly?"
What's wrong is that I think it's going to give more than a few people (I'm not talking about the real cinematographers on this forum now) false expectations... and in the end I bet we see a few people having spent a GREAT deal of money on a tool that was just not right for them. Blowing $17K (or probably more accurately $25K, or $50-100K) on something that is not just what the doctor ordered is no big deal for a big company... but for a mom and pop business or a single freelancer it can be devastating. I don't blame the buyers, and I don't blame the tool itself (I have said several times that I'd love to have a RED), I blame the marketing. If a Genesis body was only $17K (and if you
could actually buy one), do you think Panavision would be marketing it to the masses? I doubt it.
[JeremyG] "Also, so what if you shoot for the Boob Tube? I don't see the harm in capturing 4k"
There's no harm in it per se (except for the cost of storage), it's just unnecessary, at least in my case. There's no
harm in buying a Hummer (well, except to the earth and my wallet), but if I only really need a Hyundai why bother?
[JeremyG] "I agree that just because you get a Red doesn't make you an experienced shooter, but it sure allows you to get hands on experience a lot faster than working your way up through that 1% you mentioned."
If experience is what one wants, there are many better/cheaper ways of going about it. If someone wanted to learn to shoot film, but his experience was limited to videotaping family reunions, no one would suggest that he go out and rent a Panastar II and buy 100,000 feet of 35mm stock to play with. I think the RED is going to be a fantastic tool for real cinematographers... but it's not a toy, and it's not going to be something to "learn on."
Harley Davidson will sell a motorcycle to anyone, but they don't
market them to novices, they market them to
bikers...guys who already know what to do with them. I just think the RED suffers from a little bit of the opposite marketing mentality... I know I've just personally had waaaay too many people asking me about the RED (as if I would know), what it will do, whether it's right for them... and in the vast majority of the cases it most definitely was
not the right camera for them, for their particular usages and level of skill.
Those are the guys who are just gonna end up frustrated and wasting a lot of money.
Ok... I'm off my high horse now, surrendering the soap box here. I'm back to packing gear for a shoot across country... we'll be flying to San Francisco on
09/11 so you can bet the airports will be just a
breeze. Grrrr.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
