{"id":386,"date":"2011-12-24T12:24:51","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T20:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=386"},"modified":"2023-03-12T18:34:33","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T01:34:33","slug":"get-a-grip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=386","title":{"rendered":"Get a Grip!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wherein the Blognosticator acts as Key Grip for his son in a beautiful redwood forest<\/em><\/p>\n

My Son Patrick is a cinematographer in Los Angeles. You have probably seen his work if you watch music videos, or have looked through the LRG<\/em> online catalog. You can see much more at vimeo.com<\/a> (forgive my pride when I tell you he\u2019s really good at what he does<\/em>).<\/p>\n

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Patrick controls the Epic X camera with a Red 18-50mm lens along a small dolly track.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Patrick began his career as a movie maker years ago when he picked up my video camera and started shooting action movies in our front yard. Over the years he learned a lot about film making, ultimately graduating from the Academy of Art in San Francisco with a degree in cinematography.<\/p>\n

Last week he \u201cpicked up\u201d a new Red Epic X<\/em> digital motion picture camera. And yesterday I was his Key Grip on a shoot in a redwood forest in Mendocino County, California. He would say, \u201cbig lens\u201d and I would hand it to him. One thing I learned about being the Key Grip: you learn really quickly never to let go of anything until the recipient says, \u201cGot it!\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason this is true is the value of the \u201cthings\u201d I was handing him. The \u201cBig Lens\u201d is a $6,000 lens. It can\u2019t ever<\/em> hit the ground, or even a table. It is handled like a valuable work of art, which it is.<\/p>\n

The Epic X is the latest digital cinema camera from Red, a California-based company that is among the leaders in the world of serious<\/em> motion pictures. The Epic has a sensor in it that is capable of capturing cinema-quality images with a variety of frame rates and resolutions. My still photo background prevents me from appreciating everything it does, but I am learning.<\/p>\n

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Beautiful sword ferns and a carpet of clover cover the ground in Montgomery Woods.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We were shooting video in Montgomery Woods, a California State Reserve that until 2006 boasted the tallest tree in the world. Locally, and affectionately known as The Mother of the Forest,<\/em> the tree is somewhere in the 375 foot range. In 2006, arborists found a much taller tree in a nearby forest, one which measures just over 391 feet. Montgomery Woods is still a lovely place, even if its tree is in second place.<\/p>\n

In wintertime, Montgomery Woods is fabulous. I have visited a few times in the summer months, but never in winter. On our visit yesterday we were working in near-freezing temperatures, but I was reasonably comfortable in my insulated boots and bicyclist\u2019s mittens.<\/p>\n

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Patrick used a string to pull the Epic along its track in the forest. Beautiful mossy trees made way to views of the lush forest in these shots. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The winter visit had advantages: very few visitors \u2013 the park normally has only six visitors per hour in summer months \u2013 we saw about a dozen people in three hours. We also enjoyed seeing a forest ground cover that is not as verdant in summer. Everything is mossy green, the forest floor was covered in Sword ferns, and below those was a blanket of clover. Greens greener than almost anything in the world make this place sacred in my mind.<\/p>\n

My cinematographer son would shout from around a tree, \u201cCan you bring me another battery?\u201d (We had six). I would grab the battery and take it to his shooting location.<\/p>\n

We carried into the forest the Red Epic, two specialized lenses for that camera, and my still camera with three lenses. We also carried two tripods and a five-foot dolly track for rolling shots.<\/p>\n

The batteries, extra memory cards (Red memory cards are 128 GB each), and extra gadgets made the shoot particularly technical; we looked like a couple of motion picture Bedouins, I am sure. But I am confident that Patrick got some wonderful video scenes. His video is posted on Vimeo.<\/a><\/p>\n

For those interested in the Red Epic camera, you can get on the waiting list now, and expect a camera body in the coming months. The eagerness with which professional cinematographers hold Red announcements is amazing. There is a certain imprimatur about the Red. If one were cynical, one could call it a cult, but my observation is that the camera is an amazing piece of mechanical, electronic and cultural engineering. It makes beautiful cinema.<\/p>\n

Red is driving filmmakers to digital production, and away from film, in droves. When you look at the specifications of the camera and its Mysterium<\/em> sensor, you will be impressed if not amazed. Disk drive manufacturers must love Red cameras!<\/p>\n

What impresses me about the Epic (in addition to its stunning resolution) is the new smaller size and weight. The Red One,<\/em> predecessor to the Epic, weighed more than three times as much, and that made it an incredibly heavy unit when paired with almost any lens. Epic is \u2013 almost \u2013 a hand-held device, one which can be mounted in small spaces, and one which captures cinema-quality images in digital formats.<\/p>\n

If nothing more than an opportunity to spend time with my son shooting in one of the quietest and most beautiful places on Earth, it was a wonderful cinematic adventure. I also learned how to say, \u201cGot it!\u201d whenever I am handed a lens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wherein the Blognosticator acts as Key Grip for his son in a beautiful redwood forest My Son Patrick is a cinematographer in Los Angeles. You have probably seen his work if you watch music videos, or have looked through the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,9,11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-video","category-new-technology","category-people","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3589,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/3589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}