This year I'm working on a short film my friend is setting up. I've already read the script and we met today to discuss technical aspects. We set up days within January and February to watch movies: discussing the aspects as far as lighting, camera angle and movement, and whether we'd want Super 35 or Anamorphic style video. We'll likely take three weekends (Friday, Saturday & Sunday) to shoot the short at three locations. The whole short is shot at night, except for the beginning. The best part, we'll be renting a Red One MX for it's extraordinary low-light capabilities. We plan to save on lighting equipment by using this. Another reason why we're going to use an expensive camera, is that DSLR's and other consumer video cameras have something called a "Rolling Shutter," which most DSLR's fall victim too. But we're not opposed to using one as a second camera in any of the scenes. If the short had been set during the day, I'm 100% positive we'd have used a DSLR, but the Red One MX will allow us to use "natural" light (street lights and light fixtures) without us having to invest in or maneuver any lights of our own.

The bad boy:

About six movies into January we've got the premise down. As much as he wants to shoot Anamorphic, we're likely going to shoot Super 35 because it's cheaper to shoot; anamorphic lenses are mildly expensive (even to rent). Those of you who saw Super 8 or Let Me In, those were Anamorphic movies.

It's going along quite well! On the 30th or so he's going to get the whole crew together to discuss ideas and possibilities. We're going to fill a binder with photos of scenes we'd like to mimic in terms of lighting, angle and technique as we continue. He plans to start shooting by April, which is quite exciting! That leaves February & March for casting, location scouting and permit gathering. It hopefully won't be too difficult but after watching some director commentaries we're about worried on how long the whole process is for obtaining the rights for music.

Since we're creating a non-commercial adaptation, we're prohibited from making money off the short. Which makes fundraising a problem. Usually people who back projects on Kickstarter & IndieGoGo get something in return: a DVD of the film and added perks as the donation increases. He'll be contacting Steven Kings lawyers (or whoever deals with this stuff) to see what we're able to do. We'd like to offer DVD's for donations we're not entirely sure if that's legal under the rights of our license. Maybe we'll offer a Commentary Only version of the movie for donations if that's legal. Not sure who'd be interested in that, but it's something!

More to come in the next few weeks!

Just got some awesome news! The Pacific Train Association would like to work with us!

Some recent developments over the last few days. The camera rental store we were initially going to rent the camera from charges us for shipping - both ways. So, we'd pay for the camera and for them to ship it to us (then back). Four times: one for a test sessions to get familiar with the camera and three weekends to shoot. My friend found another store that (as far as I understand) costs the same as the first store - and much closer, driving distance - but we get the camera for 7 days straight. Which might be a bit more difficult.

Initially, the weekends were great because we could all get three days off work a few weeks in a row, and if not over the course of two months or so. But since it's 7 days straight, we need to request an entire week off work and get shooting. Since most of the film takes place at night, it'll be a bit hard on everyone.= as our hours will likely be 9pm to 4am or something wacky.

Also, the store we're looking at now is trading in their RED ONE with the MX Sensor for a RED EPIC. Which, well, is epic. 5k video at 120fps. A better sensor than the MX on the RED ONE. Not sure if the price will hike up as a result but in talks to my friend it sounds like the price won't increase. Yay.

I must say comic, I LOVE the red camera. The resolution on those is SICK!. ENjoy the movie!

The Mysterium-X Sensor on the RED ONE could only shoot in 4k and reach 60FPS at that resolution. We have no plans to use the 120fps (or slo-mo in general) in the EPIC but if I get the time I'm certainly going to have some clips at 120fps or faster! My friend - the director - wants to shoot at 24fps, natively.

I also don't think we're going to shoot at 5k. Personally, I'd love to just to say I've done it. So, shooting with a RED camera will cause myself to soil my underwear out of awesomeness. So one way or another I won't be kicking dirt over the things I didn't do with the camera at the end of it all.

I wonder how fast 5k video will fill up a 640GB drive. Haha. We'll have plenty of storage nonetheless, but the storage of the camera is 640GB's. That's all we'll be renting. The place we were looking to rent from in the first place would have given us two 320GB drives. Which I liked. Fill one up, pop in the second and off-load the first to a computer. So, we'll have to stop shooting if we fill up the drive.

I got a text from my friend saying the drive can hold 9 hours of video, which would be plenty for each night of filming,

I can't wait to see how this develops. I've always dreamt of using a RED camera.

Why only 24fps? I'm surprised that with such a sophisticate camera you all won't be taking advantage of it. Why not just use a Handycam or something?

Wait wait wait, your movie is going to have trains in it? I don't think I can possibly not watch this, if that's the case.

The movie starts out on a train - pretty much just the interior - then about five minutes in we cut to the train station and don't see a train for the rest of the film. If we get the time we'll definitely take exterior shots and but unlikely any side of the rail shots of the train passing. For your obsession, I'll post details about the train when we film on it!

Sadly, as for watching it you're SOL. I understand that we can't distribute the movie. Not on YouTube, not on my website, not on Facebook or via USB/DVD/BRay/etc. The only way you could watch it is if we submit it to a film festival in your area. We can however, release a trailer which can be put on YouTube and wherever we desire.

It's a rights issue. The next movie he makes will not be a Steven King adaption. That's not because of the limitations we're working under, but he figured it would be a great, and fast way to make a first movie. The next film would be copyrighted soley to him (and whoever else) so that he could sell copies, upload it to YouTube and such.

You'll have to plan a trip back out to the SF Bay Area around March next year That's when Cinequest is held and our first festival for the film.



Contrary to modern day popular belief, movies are shot at 24 frames per second on film, opposed 30 frames per second on digital. A lot of movies are shot on film and thus at 24fps, and he's going for the cinematic feel. He's a major movie buff so I suppose he notices that stuff more than the rest of us. He's mentioned that there may be scenes he wants to shoot in slow-motion but I think it's more of a "if we get a chance, let's film it twice."

We won't be using a handycam because we pretty much need a RAW video format. The MX sensor has 13.5 stops of light sensitivity in RAW, opposed to 10 stops in 35mm film and basically none in a non RAW format. Since we're shooting at night with little to no stage lights, we may not be able to shoot the scene as bright as we desire. So, those extra stops will help us in post, as well as ensure we don't have any blownout highlights or shadows.

We also won't be strictly shooting with the RED. I proposed we use a DSLR as an "alternate viewpoint" camera that some crew member can hold. Get behind the scene shots as well as a second angle of the scene. A lot of the camera movements will be precise and the placement will be pretty static for each scene. So, we won't really know what the scene would look like from a different angle while we're shooting it.

When we location scout, we'll get a general idea of where the camera will go for each scene, and we can think "Oh, what about over here as well?" but we won't know how good the second angle would be unless we shoot it. So, that's where the DSLR would come in handy. Maybe we'll use the DSLR footage or maybe we'll reposition the camera and shoot the scene again.