Clips and pics from Peter Jackson’s CROSSING THE LINE
This article was edited on 22 October, 2007. Same info, words are reconstructed to make more sense.
The first short movie to be shot with RED Digital Cinema cameras, Peter Jackson’s short World War one film entitled Crossing the Line, is making a slow trek to the net in bits and pieces. Today, 4k frame grabs (in compressed JPEGs) and a short Quicktime excerpt (at 1k) were released. They are hot.
For those wondering “what is RED?”, basically this is a camera that is better than film quality. Think the size of film with no grain. (Unless of course you want it.) The camera is entirely digital too, so you don’t have to worry about any complex scans – just import the data off your RED Drive (or whatever storage method you choose) onto your computer and process it with the included software.
Further, the camera is modular, like a LEGO toy. Don’t be tied into your camera manufacturer’s configuration, switch it up however you like. There is no limit to the number of combinations you can assemble.
What’s best is the price – at only $17,500 indie filmmakers (and studio filmmakers) will save millions of dollars because they don’t need to worry about film processing (think of what you save by not having to develop dailies) not to mention the price of the film stock and the film camera themselves. For the price of a new car you have better than anything available now. This is revolutionary. Furthermore, RED is backed by Jim Jannard (creator of Oakley sunglasses) so we know there is a name to trust. Jim communicates frequently with RED fans at REDuser.net in an act of radical transparency.
Even after seeing this 1k sample, it’s apparent that the RED will be a force to be reckoned with. This is a defining moment for the digital revolution.
Find the video and credits at REDUser.net and the stills at RED.com.
Images copyright 2007, Wingnut Films. Used for educational purposes.