A large amount of the big features that were shot with REDS were marketing deals...picked by the producers, not the DPs.....
Yea because producers for Ridley Scott, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, and Neill Blomkamp to name a few all put a gun to their DP's head to shoot RED.... Or did the word gun offend someone? I wonder why the dp and director of better call Saul choose the DRAGON for their first season? Probably because they thought it was the right camera for the job. Every camera can do a job. And the DP and director agree and choose the camera for the job. ARRI will always win out because it's ARRI, it's a elitist thing to look down upon other camera manufacturers and RED being the biggest threat to ARRI makes them the biggest target to be looked down upon elitist DP's that only work with ARRI or people who can't afford RED are so against it odds are like yourself. If you don't believe Dp's or directors can and mostly are elitist wheather they show it or not, then you may wanna go to a real film set some time. People choose cameras because they think to their mind it's the camera for them and the job. Notice I wrote them before job. Everyone is guilty of this, it's normal to a certain extent. Even myself, which is why I'm buying a Alexa mini cause it's now a form factor I grown so customed to, but I'm also upgrading to weapon, cause I perfer RED's menus and workflow. But now I'll have 2 flavors to choose from without form factor making my final decision.
So now your changing your agruement from marketing to buy vs rental. That method doesn't work well in the indie world and doesn't work in the big budget. Unless your the hobbit series and need 48 cameras cor 3d that no one else has at the time for the next 3 years or 50 cameras for 3d for the next 2-4 years with the new avatar where the director is his own EP who makes that decision himself. Your typical big budget film producer would laugh at the buying vs rental method, cause cost is not a issue with a camera package, in fact camera and G&E budgets is usually bigger then a lot of indie features whole budgets. Because there a lot more to a budget then camera. You wouldn't tell dekins or Richardson we can't rent your ARRI cam or ALEXA from panavsion cause I got a sweet deal on buying a RED. And thats another thing, do you know how hard it is to get panavsion lenses and the PV mount when your not renting a camera from panavision? Especially when it's a RED body. Its also not just one or two cameras shooting. You also have a spare fully ready package with matching lenses (depending on the glass for the job) ready to go if something fails. Remember the film days?
