Why shoot with the Red Digital Cinema camera? Here's the terse executive summary, with bullet points, for Powerpoint addicts:

• Over 4x the definition of “high definition” (HD)
• Same selective depth-of field control as 35mm motion picture film
• Can use the same lenses as the best 35mm movie cameras: Super Speeds, Ultra Primes, etc.
• Mounts PL lenses, with additional mounts for Nikon and other lenses
• Significant cost savings over film production
• A lower cost option to other 4K cameras. The very few others.
• 4K is the coming standard for theatrical distribution.
• Rocky Mountain 4K offers the innovative Red camera package backed up by two very experienced film and video professionals based in Denver, Colorado.

Tried and Tested

Though the Red Camera is new that doesn't mean it hasn't been tried and tested. Several features shot on Reds have already hit theaters and many more are in the pipeline: Soderburgh's Guerilla, The Argentine and The Informant (his latest), Ron Howard's Angels & Demons, Alex Proyas's Knowing, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor's Game and many more projects. On television: Leverage and Sanctuary, plus scores of commercials.

Information is Power

The Red One's 4K image means never being limited to one output format. You can always go back to the "negative" to output to something else entirely.

The illustration below shows the relative amounts of information delivered by several common video formats — with the 4K format having over four times the resolution of even the best HD format . Having more information is almost always a good idea, but in the case of 4K video production it means that the image can be downconverted to any of the other formats — or projected in 4K to rival 35mm film projection.

The Red One's 4K image means never being limited to one output format. You can always go back to the "negative" to output to another format entirely: your speculative web movie could be re-rendered to play on a big cineplex screen.

Depth of Field Control

When you're making a movie or commercial you want the audience to look where you want them to look - not to read that guy's t-shirt there in the background. This is depth-of-field control and it's something that's very difficult in other video cameras - it's why you end up trying to keep your subject about half-a-mile from the background.  With the Red, as with 35mm, it's simple.

The Red's Super 35mm-sized sensor gives that control back. It takes more work, but the result is wonderful.

35mm Look for Indy Film Producers

Up until now the "35mm Look" has been out of reach for the most indy of independent film producers. The Red allows indy fllm producers to shoot with a 35mm look on a video budget. Okay, a big video budget. True, it's possible to shoot cheaper, but it's not possible to shoot better cheaper.

Did that make sense?