Peter Jackson purchases thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit in 3D

By on Nov 28, 2010 at 2:19 PM
Cameras November 28, 2010

If you think a single $58,000 RED EPIC camera package is a lot to blow on a 5K resolution production camera, Peter Jackson and crew have just swooped in and snagged thirty of them. The entire package comes with the EPIC-M body, titanium mount, 5-inch touchscreen LCD, REDmote, four batteries, a four-pack of 128-GB SSDs to shoot onto, and of course, a charger. RED is planning on assembling Peter Jackson’s order by hand starting next month into January and then roll into full production one month after that. They are hoping for general availability by NAB in April, but as usual with RED, that’s not something written in stone. The Hobbit starts filming in February.

[Via Engadget]

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28 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    He plans to shoot The Hobbit in 5K resolution 3D? This is going to be exciting.

  • sirpaul

    Wow….I wish I could have 30 cameras to film my friends doing stupid stuff and put it on youtube in 3D…

    Edit:
    If you look at Engadget’s post 3 hours ago you will see that BGRs post is practically copied. Just in different words. I find it kind of humorous :)
    http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/28/peter-jackson-nabs-thirty-red-epic-cameras-to-film-the-hobbit-t/

    • sirpaul

      OMG I posted a link without moderation! It’s a miracle!

    • Anonymous

      You noticed that, but not this part at the bottom?

      “[Via Engadget]“

      • sirpaul

        haha no acutally I didn’t, thanks!

  • Dsuzuki63

    I dont get it, why doesn’t he just rent them? He’ll make his money back for the cameras, but would have saved so much just to borrow them from the manufactures…

    • http://twitter.com/yoshipark Yoshi

      I really doubt the Hobbit will be the only two movies he will use these for. His company has dozens of other projects.

    • sirpaul

      I don’t remember where but I read somewhere that it costs around $1200 to rent a camera for a day. It would make more sense to buy them, especially if he is planning on using them for future movies.

      • Booboolala2000

        The followup to District 9 comes to mind.

    • Anonymous

      As a former developer, buy/rent, RED cameras are much cheaper than it is to rent film cameras like Panavision.

      He’s saving a bundle either way and it’s easy to extend for 3D.

    • EV_Doh!

      Agreed. The equipment will be obsolete before he completes production.

  • Norm

    So what? James Cameron is shooting Avatar 2 with 60 DROID X’s. Beat that Jackson.

    • Anonymous

      Its a big issue because the technology will be used for a decent movie, not another tech demo like Avatar was.

    • Goofan (aka Apple Hater)

      Brother, there’s not a single time you don’t make me crack up with excitement! That’s one I didn’t know. But you know what, it makes sense. The amazing thing is that I am sure that different from the RED’s on the Droid X’s they will be able to edit and produce the entire movie, and they may even be able to transmit it to movie theaters EVERYWHERE using the amazing Verizon. A few hundred GB’s? No problem, 15 mins to ALL THE THEATERS around the world.

      Norm, you rock man!!!!

      • Booboolala2000

        Sounds like a classic case of Droid X envy that you have going there goofan. How’s that antenna thing working for you on your iphone 4?

      • Ernie

        OMG, you idiot! Are you kidding me? No wonder I am thankful the world isn’t ran by techie morons such as yourself. You can’t ONE THING wrong with the iPhone and you HOLD ON for dear life to a premise that is not even accurate and you, more than likely have never seen. But because all your fellow morons tell you there’s that ONE thing and you can’t find anything else to criticize then you hold on to it. I can imagine 5 years from now, you total anti-climactic morons will still be talking about that ONE time with iPhone 4! By the way, I have both a Droid X and an iPhone 4 and the iPhone’s a MUCH more elegant machine and OS. MUCH and guess what antenna is PERFECT.

      • Goofan (aka Apple Hater)

        I would never touch an iPhone. I am clear in my convictions. Unlike you. I can imagine Apple Fanboys such as yourself would immediately switch and say you love the iPhone if someone just gives you a reason! I, on the other hand, am a real Goofan (aka Apple Hater!)

    • http://www.facebook.com/peterf Peter Fares

      LOL for once Norm said something funny.

  • MSF

    I wonder what are they gonna do with them when they are finished shooting.

  • Cheekybastard

    “If you think a single $58,000 RED EPIC camera package is a lot to blow on a 5K resolution production camera, Peter Jackson and crew have just swooped in and snagged thirty of them.”

    Really, Peter Jackson and crew snagged thirty of the cameras *whether or not* you think it’s a lot of money.

  • Mgl323

    Looks like he lost weight.

  • Mr.Right

    he totally should of rented those..

  • http://twitter.com/AzizPBrimah Aziz P Brimah

    Very interesting news, but just wondering what made this newsworthy for BGR?

    • Guest

      agreed, and if engadget is the source link, why bother posting this?

  • Anonymous

    finally!!! I’ve been waiting for the Hobbit 2 come out FOREVER ago. I’m glad Peter Jackson is still attached a looking like he’s trying his hardest 2 make it right. =]

  • serpentor

    How many minutes of 5K video can you shoot with 4x128GB SSD?

    • Michael Scrip

      I know 4K RED is 2.14GB a minute. 5K would be about 3.5GB a minute.

      RED footage is commonly recorded onto 8GB CompactFlash cards… so you get up to 4 minutes per take.

      In the film world… you weren’t able to shoot more than 3-4 minutes on a single film reel anyway. That translates into the digital world as well… using multiple short takes instead of letting the camera roll.

      Even though they could potentially hold 35 hours of footage on a SSD…. they are probably rotating all 4 drives to transfer smaller amounts of footage to computers all day.

  • http://twitter.com/livingbasehead Shelton

    The electric forks had been covered.

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