10 Things Every Camera Assistant Should Know About the RED Camera

Cameras 27 Comments

The RED digital cinema camera came along a few years ago and has revolutionized digital filmmaking. While RED now has stiffer competition from the likes of ARRI Alexa, DSLR’s and even iPhones, it’s a camera that is used frequently and heavily by the low-budget indie crowd. On any professional set, it’s always the camera assistant’s responsibility to take care of the equipment and whether you’ll be working your first RED gig or your 100th, seeking out tips and advice can never hurt. Without further ado, here are 10 things that every 1st AC should know about the RED One camera…
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Advice from the DP Red Wizard, Timmy Rubensteiner

Miscellaneous Tips 1 Comment

I have featured Timmy Rubensteiner, the self-proclaimed DP Red Wizard, on my blog before when he released a useful video explaining how to use the RED Camera Magic Movie Input Machine. But Rubensteiner, surprisingly, is willing to share even more of his knowledge of RED, cinematography, and set etiquette on his Facebook page where he posts intermittent pieces of advice.

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10 Keys to Your Success on a Film Set

Miscellaneous Tips 6 Comments

10 Keys to Your Success on a Film SetCreative Commons Licensephoto credit: Jai Mansson

These aren’t ten tips that I got out of a book. Or film school. Or from a filmmaking “guru.”

These ten keys to success were learned to me from the sweat of experience and the blood of many long days next to a camera. It covers stuff I’ve seen crew do on set that annoyed me or somebody else and, because of that, a lot of it is common sense.

Yet every day people on film sets fail to follow these pieces of advice. And it’s costing them jobs.

So pay close attention and you’ll take one big step towards helping yourself get more work and be better at it.

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RED ONE Camera Reports Download

Toolkit 15 Comments

When I was doing prep-work as 1st AC on “Red Herring,” shot on the RED ONE, I went ahead and created Red specific camera reports. The document was created out of a variety of different types of camera reports I had seen. Many of them were either for film or for video, but neither tailored to the specific settings of the Red One. The result was a template that enabled easy marking of traditional notes (lens, f-stop, etc.) as well as Red-specific meta-data.

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