If you’ve walked through the doors of Videobred, chances are there’s been at least one four legged companion roaming the halls.  Steve’s dog Archie literally just walked up to my desk.  We’re dog people here at the ‘Bred.  We love our dogs and we love bringing them to work.  That’s why I was so excited when I met Sunny for the first time. She came in the lobby just as excited and happy to meet us as we were to meet her.  Sunny, as some might recall, was the pit bull that was thrown off the Clark Memorial Bridge in July 2009.  Kelsey Westbrook rescued and adopted sweet Sunny. Saving Sunny Inc, a non-profit organization founded by Westbrook, rescues, shelters, and finds new homes for abused and neglected dogs. Saving Sunny Inc. also dedicates their time to promoting “public education about responsible dog ownership, spay/neuter, and reporting animal abuse, neglect, and dog fighting.”

Our team could not be happier to help Westbrook, and her tireless crew, promote their message and mission to the community.  In December, we followed them to Crestwood Elementary where Westbrook spoke to the students about the dangers of stereotyping, what you should do if you see animal abuse, and how these sweet and loving dogs need a good home just like any breed.  As you can see in the above picture, the kids loved Sunny and she loved them right back.

We are excited to document this organization’s journey, through a video mission statement that will live on the Saving Sunny website. Stay tuned for the final project. My hope is that by seeing the story of Saving Sunny, you will be inspired by their strength, dedication, and most importantly their fight to save these voiceless victims.  Please check out SavingSunnyInc.org to learn more about Sunny’s story, and  Westbrook’s blog about the “Unsaveable Six.” Learn how you can help in their efforts to give love to dogs who some said did not deserve it.

http://www.savingsunnyinc.org/

The past couple of weeks have been a cinematographer’s dream.  Not only did Canon announce their new cinema camera, the C300, but Red FINALLY came out with the details regarding their long-announced Scarlet camera.

And both companies surprised us in different ways.

I’ve read lots of people talking about how the Red is a Canon killer, and at first glance it seems to be the case.  Scarlet allows users to shoot 4k, while the C300 is limited to standard 1080p.  Just as importantly, the Scarlet body retails for $9,750 (with the Canon lens mount) while the C300 is a whopping $20,000.

Looking closer, though, both these cameras have their strengths and weaknesses, and I don’t think it’s a simple matter of saying “this is better than that.”  Just like all technology, it comes down to how you plan to use it.

We’ll start with the Canon.  The C300 disappointed many when Canon announced that the camera didn’t do 3k or 4k resolution.  Sure, the 35mm cine-sized sensor is able to pick up tons of information, but the camera takes all that and outputs a native 1080 image…which downright stinks if you’re trying to make movies that will hold up on a 4k projector splashed across a 30 foot screen.

But let’s go a little deeper.  Canon seems to be all about the sensor.  The super 35 mm-equivalent CMOS sensor (that’s bigger than the 7D but smaller than the full-frame 5D) has, according to their press release, “8.29 million effective pixels and has a pixel size that is larger than that for conventional professional camcorders, enabling greater light-gathering capabilities for enhanced sensitivity and reduced noise.” The sensor also reads a full 1080p signal for each of the three RGB colors which should dramatically reduce the age-old CMOS problem of moire.

What does that mean for you?  To be quite honest, we won’t know until the camera ships.  But most likely it means that Canon has built the hardware to attempt to create the absolute best 1080p signal on the market, and certainly the best 1080p signal on the market for this price point (sorry Sony).

Plus the camera writes to media at up to 50Mbps which is twice that of Panasonic’s AF-100.

But let’s look at the Scarlet and see how these settings square up.  The Scarlet will also shoot to digital media.  Only its bitrate is a little higher: 50 MBps (That’s BYTE, not BIT), meaning it’s writing ten times the information.

Which is important, because the Scarlet can shoot 5k at up to 12FPS and 4k at up to 25FPS.  So it needs that data to be able to effectively write its MONSTROUS video signal.

The sensor is a little bigger, too, which means that when shooting 5k, you are actually shooting with a sensor slightly larger than Super 35.  At 4k, the sensors are virtually identical.

So yes, at first glance the Scarlet is a flawless camera.  But that really isn’t the case.  To see the problems with this camera, you have to look at the way it handles its different formats.

The Scarlet can shoot 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, or 1k.  Unlike other cameras with multiple formats, though, the Scarlet doesn’t simply down-rez its original image to make these other formats. Instead, it “crops in” on the sensor, using only the portion of the sensor needed to produce this image.

And as any 7D or AF-100 shooter knows, when you crop in on the sensor, you crop in on the effective image, and you change the effective focal length of a lens.  For example, a 5D is a “full frame” still sensor, so its crop factor is 1.  If you put a 25mm lens on the 5D, it will look like a 25mm lens does on any full frame camera.  The 7D, however, has a smaller sensor and a crop factor of 1.7.  So if you put a 25mm lens on it, it will be the equivalent of a 42.5mm lens on a full-frame sensor.

At 4k, the Scarlet’s crop factor is 1.6 which is identical to the standard of super 35mm film (if I’m slightly off with the numbers, forgive me.  You get the idea).  The C300 is also a 1.6 crop factor.

When you shoot with the Scarlet at 3k, however, that crop factor increases to 2.0, which is identical to the AF-100.  I can still live with it so long as I get wider lenses.

At 2k, though, which is closer to (but still larger than) 1080p, the crop factor skyrockets to 3.9.  And here is where the Scarlet and I have a disagreement.  In order to get a shot on the Red at 2k that is equivalent to a standard 28mm wide angle shot on the 5D, you’d have to have a 7mm lens on.  If you wanted an ultra-wide angle 16mm image, you’d put on an impossible wide 4mm lens.

This is, for all intents and purposes, impractical, making the prospect of shooting any wide 1080p footage (or 2k to be precise) on the Scarlet nearly impossible..

Also, choosing lenses becomes tricky as you now have to figure out what focal length the lenses will have in the 5 different formats the Scarlet shoots (we haven’t even looked at the 1k format which has a 6.4 crop factor).

So what if you are shooting for television or the web?  Or even a Blu-ray release?  What if you want to save on storage space by shooting a lower-rez (2k) format?  Well, good luck finding the right lenses.  Besides that, the sensor isn’t using its full potential to give you the image, and all of a sudden the C300′s 1080p sensor at a 1.6 crop factor and over 8 megapixels starts to look pretty nice.

There’s one more note to make about the Scarlet.  It will only shoot 60fps at 2k.  Meaning if you want to do slow motion, like we’ve been doing with the 7D for years, you’ll have to shoot at a 3.9x crop factor, making that coveted wide vista of trees blowing slowly in the wind impossible.  Just some food for thought.

Let me be very clear: I love the Scarlet.  I think the ability to pick up a 4k camera body for under $10k is fantastic.  And if you are planning to shoot a movie for theaters or any large format projection, the Scarlet is second only to Red’s own Epic.

But for those of you working on commercial work almost exclusively, who know where you’ll be showing your final product, an awesome 1080p image might be preferable to 4k.  Not only will it save on storage space, but it will eat up less processor power, allow for a faster workflow, and still enable you to get the image and quality you need complete with fantastic picture quality and slow motion using the full sensor.

But what about price? I mean, the C300 is literally twice the price of the Scarlet, right?  Kinda, but not really.  Remember that $9,750 buys you nothing but Scarlet’s body (or “brain”).  You’ll need to deck out the camera with a viewfinder and/or LCD screen, rails, battery packs with batteries, compact flash readers and compact flash drives.  The Red website offers a starter pack that is exactly that….just the basics…for just over $14,000.

It’s still cheaper than the C300, but the canon camera comes ready to shoot out of the box.

In the end, I’d still opt for the Red Scarlet over the C300. But I like making movies, and I have access to both a 7D and an AF-100 for doing slow motion and other specific jobs.  My point isn’t that one camera is better than the other, it’s just that different cameras suit different needs.  And while 4k for under $20k is wildly enticing, you have to make sure you can handle the workflow and are prepared to deal with the camera’s few limitations.

In the end, though, it’s also important to remember that a camera is a tool, and any tool is only as good as the way it’s used. I love to geek out about cameras (obviously), but I have to keep reminding myself that when it comes down to it, it’s all about what’s in front of and behind the camera, not what’s inside it.

For this project we were lucky enough to partner with producer/director Kay Milam of Donna Lawrence Productions, to create a short video documenting the history and growth of the company. With so much history to cover, this project required an all-hands-on-deck approach. The team combined elegant interviews shot on location, by Brian Cunningham, with archival images and motion graphic treatments.

Sorting through hours of photos, footage and news clippings, to bring the story to life is quite a task. Steve Hurst and Chris Johnson worked together to piece it all together. “I loved working on this project. It was a perfect team effort that allowed each person to truly focus on what they are best at,” Johnson reflects.

Annie Ratterman’s guidance as producer and Hurst’s “unshakeable calmness” Johnson said, allowed for a successful completion of the video. The final product was shown to the entire Humana staff in the Yum! Center, to which David Jones, Jr. said was a difficult act to follow.

I’d say that’s a job well done. Click over to our portfolio to see for yourself!

Project: Humana 50th Anniversary Video
Client: Humana
Director: Kay Milam
DP/Camera Operator: Brian Cunnigham
Gaffer/Key Grip: Marcel Cabera/Matt Ware/Bobby Spalding/Ben Newkirk
Camera: AF 100
Shoot Format: HD 1080p
Shoot Length: 2 days
Editors: Steve Hurst, Chris Johnson
Edit Length: 8:52
Delivery Format: DVD & Blu-Ray