The RED Epic’s first foray beta test into the professional world is attached to a huge production. The new Spider-Man reboot film is being shot with the RED Epic – in 3D.
To capture the 3D footage, they are using a pair of RED Epic 5K cameras mounted on a 3ality TS-5 rig. In fact, there are 4 RED Epics on set that make up two 3D rigs.
Cinematographer John Schwartzman has been on the RED User forums over the past several days touting the quality of the new RED Epic and answering a handful of technical questions along the way.
One of the most interesting factoids (for me anyway) is the data management going on behind the scenes. While those of us who use HDSLRs for video are accustomed to 200-300MB of data for every minute of video captured, the Epic chews up 6-8GB per minute of RAW video captured at 5K resolution. On the set, they’re using 128GB cards for around 16 minutes of video per card.
After capturing these massive files in camera, the digital technicians have to get the data off of the cards, back-up the raw files, then color, sync and coverage every shot, the process multiple codecs for different applications, and then transfer those files to a shuttle drive. The technicians working with this footage then have to get the color-corrected and converged daily takes onto iPads for the production team to take with them for overnight review.
The RED Epic has picked up quite a bit of clout over the past few weeks with this announcement and word that Peter Jackson ordered 30 RED Epics for capturing The Hobbit films in 3D.
