What camera for VFX heavy film?

cordvision

cordvision

Well-known member
I will be shooting a visual effects heavy film in January and I'm looking for a good camera package that will make the visual effects teams work as easy as possible.

Currently I'm looking into the following options:

Red One: Pros: Cheap, decent resolution, easily available. Cons: CMOS artifacts that can interfere with tracking, somewhat unconventional post workflow,

Alexa: Pros: Apparently great dynamic range, easy post workflow, very well build and reliable. Cons: CMOS artifacts, very new system, expensive, not so easily available.

35mm Film: Pros: Great picture (lots of resolution, color info, dynamic range etc.), no CMOS artifacts to deal with. Cons: Expensive!


What other options would you suggest to look into? Does anybody know about a camera that has a 35mm sized CCD sensor that could be used for this project? I'm just worried about CMOS artifacts in handheld footage that might make tracking difficult, or am I worrying too much?
 
The F35 is a camera I've been hearing a lot about lately on high-end productions. The Genesis also was big a few years ago. Both are 1080, and from what I remember both are CCD based. They're both heavy beasts though (40-50+ pounds for a F35 or Genesis with deck). They record onto HDCAM SR decks, or onto SSD memory. I'd imagine both are going to be quite expensive, especially in comparison to a RED (I just saw one quote of $3000 a day for an F35 and deck), but they are CCD-based 35mm-sized imagers.
 
I'm just worried about CMOS artifacts in handheld footage that might make tracking difficult, or am I worrying too much?
Click to expand...

Yes you are. Alex Proyas shot KNOWING on the Red One and it looked great. Fincher shot THE SOCIAL NETWORK on it and used a lot of VFX shots for the twins. I'm not sure what you mean by "unconventional workflow", I find it intuitive and easy to use.

Make sure you get the Mx version if you can.
 
RED with MX sensor. RED's are great for VFX plates. Some shows will use a RED to get most of their VFX plates even when thier shooting the film on a different camera. Also, a great camera to shoot a film with :). We have two of them at work and I've tracked 100's of shots with no problems. Be sure to hire a VFX supervisor to ensure you get what you need.

Cheers,
Josh
 
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