IndieWire: From 'Drive' To 'Melancholia,' Here's Why 2011 Marked a Shift In the History of Cinematography

In the wake of Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony, it's good to look back on last year and cull some final lessons from it. Martin Scorsese's Hugo, shot digitally on the ARRI Alexa, took home the "Best Cinematography" and "Best Visual Effects" trophies, while David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, shot digitally on the RED and edited on Final Cut Pro, won "Best Film Editing." It really seems like we're seeing the final stages of the film industry's move toward digital cinema as the new standard. Writer Jamie Stuart over on IndieWire seems to agree:

2011 was the year in which the Arri Alexa, the first significant digital camera released by leading equipment developer Arri, was put to wide use. Three wildly different examples of the new camera can found in "Drive," "Hugo" and "Melancholia."

 Read the complete article on IndieWire.

ProLost: 'Red Scarlet, Canon C300, and the Paradox of Choice'

Late in 2011 when Canon announced its new "Cinema EOS" line of cameras with its new model, the C300, tech guru, filmmaker, and DV Rebel's Guide author Stu Maschwitz as usual cut right to the heart of the issue of what camera to buy, and when:

All filmmakers are on a journey, and that journey is going to take you through many cameras. It’s dangerously easy to get swept up in advancing technologies, and all-too tempting to think that a new camera will slingshot your filmmaking forward.

Read Stu's entire post for the run-down on the capabilities and pricing of the current crop of digital cameras, from the Red Epic M ($43,000) down to the Canon Rebel T3i ($659).

What’s the Difference Between the ARRI ALEXA and RED Cameras? One Humorous Explanation

Another great find over on nofilmschool.com:

The ARRI ALEXA and RED EPIC (and RED ONE M-X) are cameras that we’ll be seeing hundreds of features shot on over the next several years. What’s the difference between the two? Check out this amusing video from Inspiration Studios, whose comparison of the ALEXA and RED cameras includes a none-too-subtle suggestion about the fading utility of their DSLR rental package:

Sensible Digital Cinema: The Arri Alexa from Inspiration Studios on Vimeo.

120 FPS is Nothing: Here’s What 2,564 FPS on a Phantom Flex Camera Looks Like

Picked this one up on nofilmschool.com:

With RED touting 120 frame-per-second shooting speeds — impressive on its own, and even more impressive given each frame is at 5K resolution — Vision Research’s claims that their new Phantom Flex camera shoots at up to 2,800 FPS (2,500 in 1080p) seems like a joke. But it’s not, and the following is proof. Tom Guilmette was hired to shoot the World Champtionships of Ping Pong, and found himself alone in his hotel room before the shoot with the Phantom Flex; here is the resulting video.

Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

RED ROCKET - Now That's FAST!

Check out this video of the RED ROCKET in action as it transcodes 20 seconds worth of 4k frames in just 19 seconds! (In other words, faster than real time.)

Red Rocket from Ted Schilowitz on Vimeo.

The ROCKET is RED's new accelerator board for decoding, transcoding, de-Bayering and playback of files shot with the RED ONE camera. What is "de-Bayering?" I'm glad you asked!

The simple explanation is that digital video camcorders and digital cinema cameras such as the RED ONE employ a Bayer filter to optimize image capture and compression and emulate the way the human eye perceives chrominance and luminance. The result is that images shot using this filtering process end up with twice as many green pixels as blue or red pixels, and a "de-Bayer" process is required to ensure proper color balance on playback. What's noteworthy about the RED ROCKET is that it does all of that (and more) at breakneck speeds, for not a lot of money. This bodes well for 4K-capable desktop editing machines at even high performance benchmarks with lower costs in the near future.

Red One, Canon 5D Mk II, and Panasonic Lumix GH1 Footage Comparison

Here's an amazing bit of footage posted by premiere Hollywood equipment rental house Birns and Sawyer on their Vimeo channel.

Red One, Canon 5D Mk II, and Panasonic Lumix GH1 Footage Comparison from Birns and Sawyer on Vimeo.

What's so amazing about it? It compares side-by-side-by side the output of three hype-worthy cameras - the 4k-capable digital cinema RED ONE camera (roughly $20k) and two DSLRs equipped with "movie" modes, the $3500 Canon 5D Mark II and the $2200 Panasonic Lumix GH1. This is the first time I've seen footage from the Panasonic, and the first time I have seen anyone cut together material from a RED with footage from a DSLR. What it shows is that the technology has definitely shifted and this new generation of DSLRs are game-changers in terms of comparing price to image quality.