I can hear all you microfilmmakers blinking in collective disbelief at such a large crew, however, they are needed. The RED has become so exciting for low budget filmmakers due to its quality vs its cost. Its price almost puts it in the pro-sumer category. However, the only thing pro-sumer about the RED is the price. What you have to get your head around is that the RED is essentially a 35mm camera setup and should be approached as such. Using a 35mm camera setup is quite different to using any other professional or semi-pro set up. It is not designed for fast, on the run style shooting where set ups and camera positions can be quickly flipped or moved as needs be. A 35mm setup requires planning and forethought, especially in lieu of experience, and enough crew to facilitate the process. Yes, it can be done with less. We did it with a camera department of two. But a couple of experienced extra crew would have meant better results and less grief all round. Additionally, as I mentioned before, grip equipment you would normally use with microbudget cameras such as the Panasonic H200 series or the Sony X1 will just not cut it with a RED. Equipment upgrades must be factored into your budget.
So on to the post process! Again, some context of what I’m using. I have a 2006 2nd generation 2.16 Ghz Intel core 2 Duo iMac 24”, 3gb 667 RAM, 256 Mb Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT graphics card running FCP 6. I had some concern about my machines ability to cope – especially as I was left with 4 days to complete a rough edit for a funding application. However, I am happy to say, it was a dream. I downloaded the relevant software needed from the RED site and started the transfer. That was the worst bit, as it took my iMac a bit over twenty-four hours to convert 600 odd GB of footage into Apple ProRes (HQ). Despite this being a bit slow, it was easy and straightforward with clear instructions available from the RED website. After that, cutting was great. Yes, my machine had to render a few transitions here and there but nothing major and nothing that took a great amount of time. I was left with the breathtaking awesomeness that is the RED picture. And this wasn’t even 4k.
