Around the Red community there was a strong reaction to an article posted about the RED and the HYPE vs the Reality of 4K, RAW and it valid use for Feature film production. To discuss the article we have recorded a round table discussion with film makers and geeks. This week’s special podcast finds Jason and Mike joined by Stu Maschwitz of the Orphanage (who has just come off set of a major feature being shot on Genesis) and John Flowers, Micro studio owner and independent film maker.

Visit our red centre page to listen or subscribe via RSS or iTunes. The Round table special is Ep #17.

If you disagree with our take - email us at Red at fxguide.com

One of the things about trade shows is wandering around and finding the “little things” or surprises on the floor. In this ep we take a look back at a few of our faves in Amsterdam, including a new LCD reference monitor from Barco, cool gear coming out Sonnet, a look at Gridiron’s soon-to-be-in-public-beta Flow software, and more.

Visit the fxguidetv page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To be notified automatically and have the episodes downloaded in iTunes, subscribe via this link.

Visual Amalgam Art Show offers the public a rare opportunity to see personal artwork created by visual effects professionals behind some of the biggest motion pictures at one of the premier art venues in the Los Angeles area.

Patrick Finley, a successful painter and visual effects artist for motion pictures, conceived the first Visual Amalgam Show back in 2006. “I’d been showing my paintings in galleries for a while and I wanted to provide all these amazingly talented film artisans I was working with in visual effects an opportunity to show their art to the public in a gallery setting,” says Finley.
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Contrats to the Foundry. Their Ocula stereo plugins received a ‘Best of IBC’ Award for Post Production by the IBC Daily/TVB Europe team. fxguidetv episode #037 contains an interview with Simon Robinson about the new plugins.

The Foundry has published a ocula stereo whitepaper which provides more in-depth details about the technology behind the product.

Well, RED said their specs were subject to change and not a week after saying RED would also be going into the DSLR camera market with their own video, stills hybrid, the company pulled photos of the Scarlet $3,000, 3K camera off its web site and said the camera is being fully rethought and redesigned.

Still targeted for next year, founder Jim Jannard said on the company’s web site that “We have changed everything about Scarlet because the market has changed and we have discovered a lot of things in the process. We have a new vision. Wipe you minds of the past announced Scarlet. Forget the design and forget the price. It is all different now”. When asked by users about delivery he said “full working models at NAB(April2009)… shipping to ramp up after. Volume estimations are high so the long wait like a RED ONE should not be an issue…We are making these changes ‘in the nick of time’”. But they have decided to not wait until NAB to show the new plan and they expect to unveil details within weeks, this decision was reached 3 days ago he said online, from an initial idea 10 days ago, but the old Scarlet was at IBC and fully on display. In the same discussion he said back orders on RED ONE would be solved by the Fall, but Jannard was at pains to say this was in no way a reaction to the Canon 5D MKII which offers ultra high res stills and full HD Progressive video.

Epic is also set to be completely redesigned. In a second release on line, Jannard said that the Epic would also be completely changed from their initial plans - but that the upgrade program for Red One cameras remained. The Epic is still slated for “early-mid 2009″, he said.

Autodesk released a Stereoscopic Filmmaking Whitepaper delivering a comprehensive understanding of the state of the industry and its current barriers. The whitepaper provides valuable knowledge for anyone curious about the future of Stereo 3D (S3D) and highlights current industry challenges from technical production complexities to studio considerations and theatrical acceptance.

While the industry faces numerous economic, technical and creative barriers, the growth of Stereo 3D is omnipresent and the demand for live action SD3 cannot be ignored. Autodesk’s whitepaper devotes a considerable amount of thought to standardized workflow processes and the creation of affordable tools to make S3D more available and accessible to a broader range of film projects—both independent and studio-driven.

The whitepaper is available for download (pdf) here.

In our second fxguidetv episode from Amsterdam and IBC 2008 we get a look at the soon to be released Ocula plug-in from The Foundry for problem solving Stereoscopic images. Also a preview of what’s new in Fusion 6 and Generation from Eyeon.

To be notified automatically and have the episodes downloaded in iTunes, subscribe via this link. Visit the fxguidetv page for the direct RSS feed links.

Cooke Optics Ltd., a premier manufacturer of precision lenses for the motion picture industry, has announced that its i/ Technology will be available on all RED ONE cameras that ship from 12 September 2008.

Jarred Land, Fire Chief at RED, announced on the RED website on Friday 12 September that all new RED ONE cameras would come with /i pins installed and fully functional.

Read more from the press release from Cooke….
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Autodesk Inc. has agreed to terms with the RED Digital Cinema Camera Company and has signed the RED R3D Software Developer’s Kit License Agreement. RED provides a high-performance digital cine camera with the quality of 35mm film and the convenience of pure digital. Autodesk is a world leader in entertainment and design software.

Read more of the press release from Autodesk….
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Thomson announced that it is selling the Thomson Grass Valley equipment business to private investors led by PARTER Capital Group, a German private equity advisory firm. The sale includes the Spirit film scanning family, together with the Bones digital intermediate workflow tools and LUTher, a colour space management product. Financial terms of the sale are not being made public.
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