Jim Jannard's final post and comments on REDuser

I can't think of a more capable human being to take over for Jim than Jarred.

And while Jim has many "critics," no single person has done more to advance digital cinema, and to bring the technology to the masses, than Jim Jannard. His vision changed an industry.
 
I was struck by that post, very honest. Kudos to him and the Red team for their accomplishments, I hope Jim gets to take a nice long vacation now.
 
refocusedmedia said:
He's apparently stepping behind the scenes now.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?104367-My-Final-Post
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Very smart business move.

Red needs a professional spokesperson and Jim has never been professional with his posts about Red. He's entitled to his emotional feelings about the company and camera he created, but they don't belong in print as part of the advertising for his product.

I like the images that come from Red cameras, but I was always skeptical about the modular approach and I am still not sold on it. In some cases obselence is the way to go rather than trying so hard to reuse everything for as long as possible. It creates a larger than necessary upfront cost to make everything modular and the appeal of upgrading is less and less as time goes by and newer models are available.
 
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Gillvane said:
Very smart business move.

Red needs a professional spokesperson and Jim has never been professional with his posts about Red. He's entitled to his emotional feelings about the company and camera he created, but they don't belong in print as part of the advertising for his product.

I like the images that come from Red cameras, but I was always skeptical about the modular approach and I am still not sold on it. In some cases obselence is the way to go rather than trying so hard to reuse everything for as long as possible. It creates a larger than necessary upfront cost to make everything modular and the appeal of upgrading is less and less as time goes by and newer models are available.
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true that they aren't professional but I'm a fan of his posts. Not all of them but a significant amount. Way more appealing than the sterilized approach other companies go for.
 
Incredible post, incredible vision. To create a product to compete with household names, and established brands... and to beat them. Amazing. My hat is off to Jim, and congrats to Jarred!
 
I have respect for what RED cameras have done for the industry, but I'm sorry - this post is just more of the same that has me disgusted with RED culture, and for me, taints the product nearly irreparably regardless of how many K's it has. Threatening violence and calling highly respected industry professionals "idiots" is ok? This is a post that would get anyone banned in any forum, and we're saying that it's incredible? And then ending with "God love us all." Give me a freaking break - what a joke of a farewell post.

Good riddance to Jim, he should have never been a public figure for RED at all. I wish the company well on repairing the damage he's done to RED's reputation, and look forward to their continued success in development.
 
swaneon said:
true that they aren't professional but I'm a fan of his posts. Not all of them but a significant amount. Way more appealing than the sterilized approach other companies go for.
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It is almost always possible to write something appealing that is not at the same time repellant to another segment of your audience. If you can't do that, you should hire someone that can. If people are posting about the CEO instead of the product (and they are when it comes to Jim) you're doing it wrong.

Do you even know who the CEO of the Arri Group is before you google it? I have no idea, and don't care, which is exactly what you want. If I see a discussion about Arri, more than likely it's going to be about the cameras, not that the CEO is a [insert expletive here].

But yes, Kudos to Jim for putting his money where his mouth is and creating the Red Dragon. Truly amazing camera and I look forward to seeing a movie made with it.
 
Jim's posts are full of truth. If he crosses the line, he admits it and apologizes.

I'd seriously pay a monthly subscription to read his posts, it's incredibly inspiring to read such raw insight from a guy like Jim.

Plus his cameras take incredible pictures (speaking from experience).
 
This reminds me of something I would have written in college :)

It's not that he's wrong... there are people who are overly critical of Red. But whenever I wander over to REDuser, I get the distinct feeling that people have a chip on their shoulder about their camera. Like they need to convince me, not only that RED is a viable camera, but that whatever camera I'm using is inferior and/or total garbage.

They made a lot of people mad with their comments about DSLRs and the "sub-par" results they produced. And then they wonder why people critique their system? If you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen. If you're going to critique almost every other camera system and pronounce your camera the be all, end all system... then you have to be ok with people doing the exact same thing to you.

I'm still very grateful for what he's done for digital cinema. But I feel like this is a little overwrought. At the end of the day, it's a camera. It's really not worth getting into sparring matches over.
 
It can't be argued that Jim Jannard has made incredible contributions to the cinema world, and has been wildly successful with Red. That being said, his public image is at times elitist, petty, confrontational, and dismissive. Speaking privately, I'm sure most of us share those same traits, particularly when it comes to our own products and projects, but as a CEO or someone speaking publicly for a corporation it's repugnant to many potential customers. While the enthusiasm is justifiable, a little less bravado would go a long way towards changing public perception of the company.

I hope this means Jim will still be an active contributor at Red, because I think his presence would be missed in the product, if not in PR.
 
I am extremely happy that Jim had a vision and had the guts to try and achieve it. Disruptive players like RED definitely helped in the directing the film world towards more "Ks".

It is natural that some people called the initial RED one as a scam as it was from an upstart in this business. However, like a street fighter marshaling his band of followers, he managed to grow his loyalists and get people to adopt the camera. He could get folks in Hollywood use his cameras. He made the brand highly visible. However war mongering has got its limits. Local politicians, however rabid, when they move up to the national stage they calm down to widen the follower base. So it is smart strategy to back off from the PR field and have the dedicated guy handle that.

I know of many people who don't want to touch RED just because of the "cult" like talk and a few rabid fans. I was planning to buy an EPIC when the incident with Philip Bloom happened and he was asked to return his EPIC because he pointed out that the camera misbehaved a couple of times. We all know that RED keeps on tweaking the firmware. However, I thought that I am a very small fry and dropped out from buying EPIC. I am not saying who is right, however, all I want to point out is potential customers can back off because of certain perceptions. So communication is extremely important.

The rhetorics which helped in increasing the bonding of the Red users, may not be as essential tomorrow when RED is growing and appealing to a much wider global audience. Jim Jannard, who has built two successful businesses in two diverse industries (sunglass and cinema camera) is smart enough to know his strengths and limitations as well as the consumer psyche. So he has rightly removed himself from the PR game. Look forward to lot more disruptive products from RED in the future.
 
I have a lot of respect for the products and companies that Jim Jannard has created. I even enjoy his rants...to a point. However, the emotional outbursts aren't doing him or RED any favors. It's been a big factor in the "cult behavior" of some RED shooters, and even more RED forum members. Make a good product, get it out there, find what's wrong and fix it, make it better, and then make something even better than that. All the emotion charged hyperbolic rants, promises, and missed deliveries only made RED look unreliable. I really, truly admire the guy for what he's done, and I think it's a wise move for him to concentrate on the actual product and business while leaving the PR to someone else.
I look forward to RED's next innovations and even if I never own a RED camera, I still appreciate the kick in the ass that it gave to the other companies in this business to do more and do it better.
 
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