upgrade path advice for future project

arrestthisman

Well-known member
I could really use some insight, and yes even speculation, regarding what cam would benefit me for a project I'm gearing up for.

Hopefully shooting this fall with a budget of 50k or so. LOTS of guerrilla shooting required. Some scene's we'll only have access to rooms for 15 minutes or less for a setup.

I was originally planning on shooting this with my HVX200, but thought about the RED if the budget were to accommodate it. However, I'm having second thoughts about this, even if there is plenty of money to shoot RED.

I'm quite pleased, and sometimes amazed at the output from the HVX, the RED is jaw-dropping, albeit a little softer than I expected from a 4k cam. (I'm assuming this is due to the singlechip/bayer design.) I'm also not a rolling shutter fan, although I read that Red has done quite a job at reducing the problems.

I'd like the quality to be high enough to be presentable in theaters if we're lucky enough to get a deal like that. I haven't personally seen HVX200 film-outs, but I also hear they look plenty good.

What worrys me about the RED for this is: 1. work in progress. -- The p2 workflow (knock on wood) has been rock solid for me. 2. Crew size. I know I can pull off the results I want with a crew of 3 with the hvx200. I don't know if that's possible with RED. 3. Size. I know RED isn't that big, but every inch and pound counts in the kind of tiny confined rooms we'll need to shoot in. The lenses make it even bigger. Between the LCD and the powerpack, it would just barely fit the part for some of these rooms. (For instance, I used the DVX once to shoot an entire scene in an elevator. The HVX can do the same. RED is a question mark for something like this and a 90 second boot up time doesn't help.) 4. How much better will the image really be when taking into account how many more manhours are involved in the RAW/4k workflow?

As far as the benefits of RAW, I actually like the idea of doing my color correction in cam. For THIS movie I don't think raw will help me a whole lot. (Maybe I'm wrong.)

Last thing is that I just plain old love that panny look. It never gets old for me. I love the motion, the grain, the color. If the RED is going to be INSANELY good in terms of image quality, then it may be worth the concession with my panny obsession. But to me, even double quality may not be enough for me to sacrifice what I know and love.

I hope nobody thinks that I already have this figured out. I don't. Repeat, I DON'T! These are simply concerns I have about moving platforms. That's it.

Obviously if the money's there, I'd like to have really good quality, and I'm also concerned about the quality of image making the film obsolete. (Then again INLAND EMPIRE will never be out of date IMO.) This may or may not be a valid concern.

So my options really are... just do the HVX. Go RED and just "deal" with the differences/problems. Jump on an update to the HVX by the time shooting takes place. (Which will presumably have a somewhat significant image quality boost.) Scarlet? (this would alleviate some of the concerns I have with the RED, like size. And interchangeable lenses are not a must for me.)

So literally any and all opinions will be appreciated. It occurs to me that I may not be the first with this conundrum. I did do searches and couldn't find anything relevant to my situation.

Thanks in advance to the most awesome community on the internet!
-Alex
 
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