-
Resources
FreshDV @ PVC- Dymo DiscPainter Review
- Imagineer Offering up to 90% Discount to small shops One Day Only
- Should Politicians and VIPs get special DMCA exemptions?
- Building Good Hardware (is Harder Than it Looks)
- Interview with Ikonoskop about the A-cam dII Digital Cinema Camera
- Redrock Micro cinescreen ground glass upgrade cuts light loss
- S/N Ratios Demystified
- Audio Peak vs Average Levels: How our ears perceive loudness
- Can Ikonoskop?s DII Digital Cinema Camera Coexist with Red?
- Behind the Scenes at a superfad Phantom shoot
Speed Racer DOF Rumor gets the InterTubes Humming
Published by Matthew Jeppsen August 28th, 2007 in Art, Cameras, News, Web 
I read yesterday that the Wachowski brothers (you know the ones…filmmakers behind The Matrix, and one of ‘em thinks he makes a nice lady as well) are “using a new camera” in the filming of Speed Racer to create the effect of the entire frame in focus at one time. Which is ironic when you consider the countless indie filmmakers jumping through countless hoops to get a shallow depth-of-field look. If they had called me, I could have rented them a stock Sony FX1 for a lot cheaper…but I digress. On a more serious note, Susan Sarandon (starring in the film) is gushing over this new technique, stating in an interview;
“They’re doing something where they’re layering film so that the front and the back are in focus like a cartoon and they’re also doing two dimensional and three dimensional stuff and mixing and everything is very, very saturated with some new kind of film, so they actually have to treat the actors in some way so we can hold our own with the background.”
Sounds tedious. And interesting. Which may account for the fact that the intarwebs are abuzz with this (tiny and unsubstantiated) bit of news. Unfortunately no real details have been shown or explained. Just this mysterious layering technique. I even read one commenter say in a definitive statement that they are shooting Speed Racer on the (forthcoming) Red Digital Cinema camera. Surely we would have seen this first at Reduser, no? Stay tuned, I’m sure that Larry the cross-dressing director will clear everything up shortly. Expect the film to be released sometime in Spring of 2008.
-
About FreshDV
-
Sponsors
-
Recent Comments
-
Fresh Links
The guys at Speed Racer are using the new Sony F23s for their image acquisition. It seems they have five working according to some recent articles.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0811080/technical
http://www.fletch.com/bobprimesevent.html
http://www.definitionmagazine.com/
It could be that Mrs. Sarandon is referring to the sharp image quality and deep focus that come with an F23/Digiprime combo when stopped down to a 5.6 or 8.
Despite the wishes and dreams of fanboys everywhere they are not shooting with the Red camera. As it seems the Wachowski brothers chose quality imaging over over-promised hype and although one of the directors has a pension for heels they still know a professional camera when they see it, the F23…not the high-end prosumer Red.
As a “fanboy” and future RED owner I’m happy with 4K RAW 4:4:4 recording to CF card, native 35mm lens using, 9 lbs weight, best EVF and 1/10 of F23 price ;-)
Steven Soderbergh (Guerrilla and The Argentine) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) are happy today.
I think the word “future� is the key to your statement. Some things you mentioned (4K RAW 4:4:4 to CF) surely will be available in the future for Red users and good luck squeezing that much data on the current state of CF cards…maybe though in the future.
I hope that the first 25 to receive their Red at end of the month will not feel misled by the Oakley hype machine…But then again fanboys tend to forgive and forgive fairly quickly.
As for projects currently in production with the Red prototypes, I’m sure most of those who are looking forward to their future camera will not be able to afford the fleet of engineers that follow those cameras around to keep them running and recording. Maybe directors will not need those guys…in the future.
Recording to CF cards is enabled today and this method is highly reccommended.
I’m sure RED ONE will be easy to operate. Peter Jackson shot CTL with start/stop button only, locked FPS and shooter angle. Swapping CF cards and copying to computer is easy for DSLR users. Processing REDCODE RAW with REDCINE is similar to processing photo RAW files. And native editing 4K REDCODE in FCP is amazing.
Or connect RED DRIVE to computer and use it immediately as external hard drive. You don’t have to be engineer to do this things.
Compare it with F23 workflow, hardware requirements, prices.
Wow okay guys fight nice LOL. I won’t get into this one as I also am Red Reservation holder and very excited about the camera but it does have some things to prove. The proof will be in the field experience over the next several months. We will all know soon enough how this camera will function and perform.
I won’t get into the viability of Red’s forthcoming product, that has been hashed over countless times by much smarter individuals than I…bottom line, we’ll know VERY shortly if the camera lives up to the hype, and my favorite variable; does the workflow, well, WORK? All signs point to “yes” from Peter Jackson’s tests and the NAB Apple demonstrations. But we shall see.
In regards to the Wachowski brethren shooting on the F23, I don’t blame them. It works, has been shown to deliver a high quality digital image, and Sony can support them. And 4K isn’t necessary at this time when most DI’s are done at 2K anyway. They surely have plenty of budget, and shouldn’t have to shoot with a beta camera. Heck, I wouldn’t either if I was as high profile as they are. In fact, I’m surprised that they are even shooting digital. Figured they’d go the way of so many other high profile directors and stick with proven film until the digital workflow kinks are smoothed out (I’m talking about digital cinema acquisition in general, not just Red).
-Matt Jeppsen
So… We this posting xenophobic or homophobic? I’m trying to figure it out…
Seriously, leave the gossip to the rags and let’s talk discuss what we’re all here to read about: Digital Cinema.
J
It was neither. Just a tongue-in-cheek lighthearted reference. Some of my best famous-director-friends are cross-dressers…
FWIW, the comments have been entirely Digital Cinema related up to this point…though a few seem to be Red-ophobic. ;-)
-MJ