cinematography Mixing RED with Super16? Good? Bad? Or Ugly?

[eraserhead_in_time]

Hey guys,
I'm involved in a project with fairly decent budget as 1st Assistant..
I was adamant on shooting the whole thing on RED however, the director (also the producer) has some depth issues with RED (and even Canon 7d) so he wants to shoot action sequences and ext. on RED
and for INT. he wants to use s16 (blowup)

I want to know if in post prod. footage shot with diff cameras can be matched well or not?
Also, Is it a good idea???

Any input/advice would be welcome

Thanks a lot

 

[PaulGriffith]

A good editor/colorist can work wonders with different footage.

However, it's always best to stick to the same format when possible. How you shoot with each camera will make a huge difference. I'd run the RED on 2k for sure to get the closest resolution match.

 

[eraserhead_in_time]

Thanks for the quick response..
Personally I havent worked with RED so far..so do you think 16mm would be good to shoot for INT or do you think RED can match it provided DoP does his work well? cz RED would bring the cost down which is awsome

 

[PaulGriffith]

Yeah man RED can do interior stuff for sure. Just light it right and use the right lenses.

16mm is beautiful when done right, but like you said, way more expensive.

 

[David.rhsc]

Hey guys,
I was adamant on shooting the whole thing on RED however, the director (also the producer) has some depth issues with RED (and even Canon 7d) so he wants to shoot action sequences and ext. on RED
and for INT. he wants to use s16 (blowup)

Depth issues? As in focus wise? You should be able to give him some fairly deep focus with a RED, you just have to light to a higher stop and/or use a slightly faster ISO than you normally might (to allow you to stop down further). There's a limit to how far some DPs are willing to push that though, for good reason. Are you on an MX RED or the original chip? I read somewhere that several DPs have been quite happy rating the MX upgrade at about 800. Pretty common to shoot a regular read at 400 ish (320 is allegedly native IIRC).

Wider lenses will also help you here, as will distance to the subject(s). What are you trying to do that isn't working on the RED?

Not to suggest that you shouldn't mix formats. It can definitely be done, 2K on the RED is a good idea (if you are trying to match s16), but remember to adjust for crop when picking your lenses. Come to think of it, shooting RED 2K basically gives you the same FoV @ a given focal length as s16 would - so you'd be calling for a 24 instead of a 50, a 35 instead of an 85, actually instead of a 70, but those aren't common in primes, and either are 42.5s .

Edit: Somebody correct me on that last bit - the 4K to 2K crop might not be 100% analogous to 35mm/16mm.