Hell In The Eyes Of A Sound Mixer

Yesterday, I had the dubious pleasure of working on a test video of a few  methods of shooting in 3D with a video camera.

Still not worth seeing, but now in 3D

Here’s one version of the 3D Red Cam

It was an interesting day, from the standpoint of seeing what has contributed to the ruin of the film business up close and personal, since now that anyone can make a movie, everyone is going to make a movie. Not necessarily a watchable movie, or one that can be sold, but for sure they’re going to make one and get it in all the festivals. Or so they say.

I already know what a hyped up piece of crap the “RED” camera is from working around this “cure for problems that don’t exist” on several projects. This Rube Goldberg device can be best described as a computer with a lens attached to one end of it. Now, they’ve gone and stuck two bodies together in a few different configuration, and we can look forward to a future of working on very sharp Hi-Def crap that no one other than the directors immediate family will ever see.

Another 3D RED Camera configuration, I’m thinking that this one’s going to be called a “Harley V-Twin Model”.

The RED Camera has an audio section that can best be described as substandard (on a good day), so we who work as location sound mixers are required to make a back-up copy of all audio, because the one the camera records is for the most part not useable for real world projects.

So why the big time success of the RED? It’s just a case of follow the money, it’s cheaper to buy than a film camera, no film, no processing lab, instant results means less interest on loans to make the film (ummm, video), quicker access to computerized special effects, you name it. Oh yeah, any monkey that can get one can get work as a cinemat,   er… Director of Photogr o.k., let’s just say a camera owning person, found by some know-nothing producer who gets it that if he or she was to hire someone who owns one of these, they won’t have to rent it or pay for insurance for it, pay for it to be picked up and returned, and probably won’t have to pay a decent wage for the person who will be so happy to at least get a job creating material for a demonstration reel so that they can get hired again to repeat the cycle.

So loads of DP wannabees have begged, borrowed, or stolen the money (about $50,000 USD to buy one all tricked out so they can be the next Haskell Wexler or whomever, not getting the (sorry about the analogy) “big picture” that with this flood of cameras and DP’s, the slice of the financial pie would be sliced quite thin and they would be whoring out their cameras and their services out for ever shrinking budgets and their place in the race to the bottom.

The true humor will take place soon, Sony and a few other makers of “real” cameras are beta testing and soon to be releasing their own 4K, 5k, whatever imaging cameras that will knock the RED and all its propritary cables and accessories into history, with all of  those owners still stuck making payments on them.

Here’s a low budget 3D camera that is based (somehow) on the Panasonic DVX / HVX line of cameras.

And if  it’s cheap enough and the image is good enough, it may stick a knife in the side of the 3D RED project.

Hey, here’s a Related post worth reading if you’re a crew person or want to be one

N.B., The ownership of any and all photos, opinions, and/ or quotes above (including those of mine) belong to the material’s creator(s). Credit is given when it’s known, but as everyone knows, success usually has a million parents and failure is an orphan.

Feel free to ignore any ads that are shown below, I don’t get to choose them and (sadly) I don’t make a penny off any of them, so in the holy name of capitalism I rebuke and don’t endorse or support any of them, unless of course they’re made of funny stuff…..  

P.S., check back for occasional updates and rewrites….

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