HPA’s First Luncheon Series on Selling Into the Workflow - Red Camera
Wow… I just got back from the the Hollywood Post Alliance’s first meeting for sales folk in the creative media space called “Selling Into the Workflow - Red Camera.” The stated purpose is to have panels of experts take the time to explain new technologies to the sales people who THEN get to explain the value to Studios, Networks and Advertising production. I had no idea what to expect but came away feeling like the HPA really nailed it.
Bob Glassenberg from Ascent Media did a great job setting up the conversation. He had some really nice quotes regarding the role of sales, specifically that sales reps’ credibility is a “non-renewable resource” and that it’s a real challenge to keep up a credible knowledge base in such a competitive space. Sometimes customers knows what they want. Sometimes customers think they know what they want. It’s your job to really understand what they need. It’s not just how many baseball tickets you give them over the course of the season - they really need your vision and understanding.
Ted from Red Camera described his simple process of educating a market on their new technology, a vital approach because they have changed the game so significantly that it can be hard for people to absorb on their own. So, Ted and the team are actively providing education to get the word out.
About the Camera
The Red Camera is NOT an HD Camera, it is a Digital Film Camera and has the same depth of field as traditional film cameras. The best way to think of it is like a Digital SLR on steroids, capturing 2 to 4K Raw images from 1 to 120 fps. This helps clients get over the intimidation factor of “new technology” while also setting expectations about what they see from the camera on set. Unlike the Sony Cameras (which have a technician tweaking color dials on the camera on set), Red Cameras playback may look flat on the monitors… just like your DSLR photos in Photoshop. The difference is we are all used to adjusting colors in Photoshop, which is the same approach you would use with Red.
Once you get used to the new camera, you instantly gain time as changing digital mags can be done in 15 seconds (swapping cards) instead of 15 minutes (changing film mags). When you have millions of dollars of talent waiting around, these repeated minutes become really expensive.
About the Workflow
“All workflows seem complex until they are explained.”
Red Cameras introduce many different workflows, all can be right or wrong depending on your clients’ needs and comfort levels. As a DP, Brandon Lippard represents the new breed of digital shooters who have no legacy ties to Film, so he’s completely comfortable with the equipment. He did say his friends who are film DPs are a bit nervous to make the jump, because they don’t know the camera will respond under the extreme pressures of shooting. Brandon’s experience points out that shooting with the camera is really easy, but getting the video out requires a lot of planning.
Michael Cioni from PlasterCITY and Ted elegantly explained how to get video out of the camera the New School way and the Old School way.
“New School” Dailies Workflow
This is for clients who say, “show me instant dailies, don’t give me VHS or DVD. I want to take proxies on projector without rendering.” Red captures both Raw and Proxy video, which gives you different options for onset viewing. Ted said to think of the video coming to the monitor as an HD video assist. Clients want to know “Will it look as good as master?” The answer is no, but if HD cam was good enough for you yesterday, Red proxies are good enough for you today. In fact, some TV shows are delivering directly from proxies.
So, how do you handle different client budget requirements on set? Give them 3 different options of software costs:
- FREE - Redcine is free software for monitoring 2K dailies on set
- CHEAP - Final Cut Pro is $1000 and offers better quality. Final Cut will give you timecode only, whereas Scratch will provide Afterburner (timecode in the data stream).
- EXPENSIVE - Scratch is the equivalent of onset telecine (at $750/hour). It can do D5 2k in real time with grades, power windows and all sorts of cool stuff I barely understand
The important part is that clients need to know that they are not locked in a “low res” wasteland.
“Old School” Dailies Workflow
So, what do you say to people who say “but I need tapes! Don’t confuse me with all this newfangled stuff” You can easily use Red in the a traditional low res DNX workflow. As a business proposition, this is valuable to know - make clients comfortable by introducing only small amounts of change at a time. If they have a good experience, they will come back for more. The easiest way to tell someone who’s old school is if they ask “Should I use the Red?”
About the Client
The panel talked about one of the biggest perception problems that exists with the commoditization of technology, where some clients feel that now that workflows are becoming digital, they don’t need to pay for it or think they can do it themselves. Why is OK to pay for dailies on Film but expect to not pay for dailies in digital? As mentioned above, it is necessary to provide pricing options, because no one size fits all. People who stick with one price may be pricing themselves out of business. There is a clear reason digital business is getting bigger, as clients are looking how “can we do it less expensively” so we can pay writers and talent more. Producers come to the production team with a set budget and ask, what can we get for this budget? Red is filling into that category faster than any other cameras, as it does eliminate certain costs in film processing.
The reality is that clients CAN do more, they just should not expect to do it ALL. If you tell them you can do it better than them, they think you are selling. Still, clients who are comfortable handing off film to a wetlab for a “chemical processing workflow” need to respect the change to a datalab for a “HUGE file processing workflow.” Michael pointed out that not many people are used to a workflow based around film that only has data deliverables - very few people doing data only for dailies. This will change and do require new line items in the bid. He stressed how he’s training his clients on their shift from price per hour to price per GB. Digital dailies can be output as 480p, 720p or 1080p, which have entirely different impacts on storage and CPU processing. The challenge now is to educate the industry on the role of file size. Realistically, many clients will start of small (storage and price), but as they get comfortable they will ask for more. That’s how you continue providing value to the clients - through the magic key of quality.
Ted gave a great example of the vital role of the modern post facility. He mentioned that feature production recently tried to build an entire post facility themselves and do everything themselves. They did about 70% OK but fooled themselves in to thinking they could do it without “adult supervision”. They didn’t get in trouble with editorial, they failed to manage the huge streams of data in the new workflow. The non-sexy infrastructures of top post houses play a vital role in keeping creatives working smoothly and simply should not be overlooked.
There has been some rumors that even some big post houses have been turning down Red work because they are either unfamiliar with the workflow or see the whole effort as a commodity pricing effort. The general sense is that this wave is just starting to build and people (including post houses) should figure out how to go with the flow. Of course there is a learning curve, but that is a lot better than obsolescence.
Finally we ended on an interesting and controversial topic - Red Users. Apparently there are quite a few fanbois on the reduser bulletin boards who get caught up in the new revolution. The prevailing theory is that the louder they are, the the less they have used the camera. The problem is that they are following all the rumors and are trying to influence people (price negotiating, planning for shoots) without the necessary understanding of the territory. Ted recommends everyone download the operations guide for the Red Camera and actually learn all the information themselves to be better informed.
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed seeing this kind of dialogue get started and am really glad to know that HPA is starting this new line of Luncheons. I never felt that we were being sold to, even though the entire conversation was on one particular vendor and their unique workflow. That’s pretty impressive, considering I’ve witnessed so many other companies cross the line and give essentially a paid sales presentation. I definitely look forward to the next event.
I’m also looking forward to working with Red users and getting their proxy files up online through Wiredrive. This is starting to happen now and we are getting really good feedback from the guys at Red and their clients
Regards,
Bill