JimJannard
Latest
Jim Jannard steps aside, hands the Red Camera reins to Jarred Land (updated)
With Red Camera's industry footing now quite solid, CEO Jim Jannard is relinquishing his position at the helm. Jarred Land, the company's president, will become the new face of Red. Jannard announced the change in a post today over at Reduser, the forum he's used to announce everything from a lawsuit against Sony earlier this year to a DSLR replacement that never quite saw the light of day, way back in 2008. Today's thread, titled "My Final Post," details Jannard's nearly eight years at the company he founded, which began with the NAB 2006 debut of Red One and ran through shipping the Dragon upgrade, the component that essentially served to make "Obsolescence Obsolete." What's next for Jim? Retirement might be in order, and with upwards of $2 billion in the bank following his sale of eyewear and apparel maker Oakley, he certainly has the financial footing to back some pretty posh R&R. Update: While Jannard will not continue posting, he is not retiring or leaving the company. He'll continue working at Red, but behind the scenes, with Jarred Land representing the firm publicly.
Red Digital Cinema settles with Arri over email hacking, terms undisclosed
One of the strangest corporate espionage stories in recent memory has come to a conclusion with a confidential settlement between cinema cam makers Red and Arri. It started when a former Arri honcho, Michael Bravin, pleaded guilty to hacking into email accounts at his ex-employer, camera distributor Band Pro Film & Digital. Red founder Jim Jannard claimed his personal account was also compromised during the attack and that other Arri executives were aware of it. As a result, Red sued its competitor for "unfair competition based on email hacking, invasion of privacy, conversion, misappropriation of trade secrets and unlawful trade practices, among other charges." In a post on Red's user forum, Jannard said "we are very happy with the terms of the settlement with Arri and glad to have this behind us." He added that a separate suit filed by Band Pro against Arri has yet to be concluded, saying "hopefully they will settle in a way that Band Pro is as happy as we are." Whether Red will be equally gleeful at the conclusion of its recent clash with Sony remains to be seen.
RED unveils Dragon sensor upgrade, turns Epic and Scarlet into a 6K camera
Love gadgets named after Hannibal Lecter movies? Good, because RED's announcing the RED Dragon upgrade kit that'll bolt onto your EPIC or Scarlet camera to provide resolutions of 6K at 85fps or 5k at 120fps with 15+ stops of Dynamic Range. Company founder Jim Jannard has said that the sensor is slightly larger than that of the Mysterium-X, but the pixel size is smaller, promising that "most of the current lenses will work" with the new hardware. It'll cost EPIC users $6,000 and arrive "late in the year," but bad news if you've got a Scarlet: it's back of the queue time for you until 2013, with no word on what it'll cost you, either.
RED teases 4K REDray player and projector for the theater / millionaire set
We don't deny our unhealthy love for RED's gear, so just imagine the look on our poor-but-aspiring faces when Jim Jannard teased a 4K laser projector coming this year. Now the spec-list is out, we can see that the subtly branded REDray Laser will display 2D or 3D for passive glasses at up to 120fps, while lasting over 25,000 hours and costing less than $10,000. At the same time, there are more details on REDRay, a compatible player that'll throw out 4K content from its internal HD, SD cards or flash media. Wish list. Added.
Red Digital Cinema sues competitor Arri over e-mail hacking, adds new charges to the list
The behind-the-lens drama between camera makers Red Digital Cinema and Arri has taken yet another step recently, as Red filed suit December 21st against Arri alleging corporate espionage. Former Arri executive Michael Bravin has already plead guilty to criminal charges that he illegally accessed emails at his previous employer, camera distributor Band Pro Film & Digital. At the time Red founder Jim Jannard also revealed his personal account had been compromised, and now The Wrap reports the company is accusing Arri of "unfair competition based on email hacking, invasion of privacy, conversion, misappropriation of trade secrets and unlawful trade practices, among other charges". The extra charges come as a result of information it has indicating other Arri executives were aware of the hacking. Other than listening in on conversations between Red and Band Pro, Arri also stands accused of launching a false advertising campaign ahead of the launch of the Alexa, while Bravin posted with a pseudonym on RedUser.net. Hit the source link for additional details on the sordid affair, we'll find out what can be proven if / when Red gets the jury trial it's seeking.
Former ARRI exec pleads guilty to hacking into rival CEO's e-mail account, faces jail time
There's some Oscar-worthy drama brewing in California, where ARRI executive Michael Bravin has pleaded guilty to hacking into a high-level e-mail account at rival camera maker Band Pro Film and Digital. In a plea agreement filed yesterday with a US District Court, Bravin admitted to intentionally accessing a corporate e-mail account belonging to Amnon Band -- Band Pro's President and CEO. More details after the break, including a potential connection to RED's Jim Jannard.
New RED Scarlet to be announced November 3rd
Well, it looks like Canon won't be the only company making a big camera announcement on November 3rd. RED CEO Jim Jannard has now confirmed that it will also be officially announcing its "new" RED Scarlet camera on the very same day (no coincidence, it seems), at which point it will detail "all the changes" the company has made to it. Unfortunately, that's about all the company is saying right now, although Jannard promises that "when we announce the changes, we will be ready to ship." [Thanks, Lucario]
James Cameron picks up 50 RED EPIC-Ms, high-fives Peter Jackson
Looks like another director's been on a shopping spree lately, as RED's Jim Jannard's just announced that he sold another 50 EPIC-Ms to one generous customer. Who's this, you ask? Why, it's James Cameron of Avatar and Titanic fame, and he's probably just blown $2.9 million on his latest stash of cinematographic toys -- it's $58,000 a pop for these hand-machined professional cameras. Details are scarce at the moment, but any educated guess would point at the upcoming Avatar 2 due end of 2014, meaning our favorite blue aliens will be returning in a healthy 5K resolution. Keep an eye out for Jannard's official announcement later this week for the full lowdown. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Peter Jackson nabs thirty RED EPIC cameras to film The Hobbit, tempt you to blow your savings
We're still slightly bummed that Peter Jackson never made Halo, but this should patch things up a tad -- the Lord of the Rings director will film The Hobbit in 3D entirely on thirty hand-machined RED EPIC cameras, starting early next year. That's the news straight from RED founder Jim Jannard, but that's not all, as a limited number of pre-production EPIC packages will be available to early adopters as well. $58,000 buys your deep-pocketed budding director a machined EPIC-M body, titanium PL mount, Bomb EVF and 5-inch touchscreen LCD, a REDmote, a four-pack of batteries, a charger and a solid state storage module with a four-pack of 128GB SSDs. Jannard expects to hand-assemble that first batch of 5K imagers in December or January, start the real assembly lines a month after that, and hopefully have widespread availability by NAB in April, though he's not making any promises there. That's how RED rolls. PR after the break. [Thanks, Patrick]
RED founder Jim Jannard calls prosumer Scarlet 'a mistake'
Perhaps it should be no surprise, considering the heartbreaking delays (and $1,000 price bump) the Scarlet has already endured, but it looks like the project is undergoing a major shift in focus -- namely, it will no longer be targeted towards prosumers. EOS HD quotes RED founder Jim Jannard thusly: The concept of RED was to build a camera with as much capability as possible... for the professional market. Then we thought we could extend it down a bit to the prosumer level. Apparently, that was a mistake. He also says that "plenty of companies [are] dedicated to selling prosumer (short for 'almost right') cameras. We aren't going to be one of them." And later, "we had no idea what we were doing... Nothing works like it is supposed to." Ouch. Although we respect the man's candor (if not his eyewear), it's hard to say exactly what this all means: is the Scarlet camera going to be scuttled completely (probably not), or merely priced out of consideration for the (well-heeled) consumer? Either way, you can officially consider us bummed out.
ARRI Alexa joins RED to kill celluloid in 2010
Got 50k to spend big daddy? Good, then meet Alexa from ARRI, a German company founded in 1917 that just happens to be the world's largest motion picture equipment manufacturer. Alexa is ARRI's answer to the RED ONE digital, so don't be held captive by your consumer-based experience of what a camera is or what it should look like. ARRI has a trio of cams slated for release in 2010 offering a 3.5k pixel count, 800+ El equivalent sensitivity, 1 to 60fps frame rate, electronic viewfinder and on-board HD recording. The A-EV Plus model adds uncompressed on-board recording and wireless remote control to the 16:9 aspect ratio shooting A-EV. The A-OV Plus switches things up to a 4:3 aspect and adds an optical viewfinder to the mix. The rest of the details will arrive during an April 6th launch event where ARRI will reveal the complete media, format, and what's promised to be a "super fast workflow." Until then, check a side-by-side test done by the cats over at Animation World Network pitting a prototype Alexa against a RED One equipped with a new MysteriumX sensor and software. AWN was so enthusiastic by the results of the two cams that it proclaimed, "2010 is the year that celluloid died." Jim Jannard, RED CEO, graciously responded to the test by saying, "We had expected the images to be very similar and it appears that this test confirms that." He then added the following: "We have believed, since IBC last year, that these two platforms would be the ones standing for the future. We are very proud to be in such good company. But for the moment, we tip our hats to Arri." Now hit the source links for the full read because the future of film looks set to become historic.
RED shows off DSMC cam configurations in the flesh, new lenses
RED fans have been getting quite an eyeful this week in the company's forums, as Jim Jannard and crew have been posting all kinds of sneak peeks at the company's latest gear -- including a few configurations of the modular DSMC EPIC and Scarlet systems in action. The company is also working on super-high-end prime lenses for their cameras that supposedly outperform every other test lens the company has in its possession -- Jannard says "it isn't close." As usual, RED doesn't say when any of this is coming out, but it's definitely enough to make a camera geek's hair stand on end -- check it all out in the gallery.[Thanks, Jun-Dai]%Gallery-46951% Read - Prototypes configurations thread Read - Prime lenses thread
RED making "Big Change" announcement on December 3rd
Oh noes, here we go again. At the risk of becoming RED's marketing pawn, we'd be remiss to the gadget community by ignoring Jim Jannard's latest attention begging tease. Titled simply, "Big Change...," Jannard writes, "New announcement on Dec. 3rd. Everything has changed... just as we promised." This comes after revealing "several nice breakthroughs" related to Scarlet and EPIC in the REDUSER forums. JJ then amps up the hype by calling the November 13th announcement of RED's Digital Still and Motion Camera (DSMC) system "insignificant" by comparison. Ok Jim, we'll be at your beck and call. But you'd better show up on the 3rd with something priced more competitively to Canon's EOS 5D Mark II if you expect us to consider your modular SLR / HD video camera anything other than a novelty for the consumer or prosumer markets. In other words: please, with sugar?[Thanks, Ben H.]
Official RED Scarlet and EPIC pics are sure to induce drool [Updated with OMG]
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/RED_s_amazing_DSLR_shoots_5K_video_amazing'; While the announcement isn't scheduled for another 7 hours and change, RED's Jim Jannard is whipping his fanbase into a frenzy with a steady stream of fragmented pictures. The one above looking every bit the 5D Mark II-killer we've been expecting. Jim's even dropping facts about Scarlet and EPIC being "completely modular and upgradeable in every way." What's more, he's offering hope to RED ONE owners who might feel cheated by today's introduction of Scarlet and EPIC. After all, he did promise to make "Obsolescence Obsolete" with his modular approach to camera building. So in addition to a TBD upgrade price for RED ONE owners to make the jump to a Mysterium-X sensor, owners will also have the option of trading in their cams for a $17,500 value towards the purchase of "any EPIC" (there's more than one?) or keep the RED ONE and receive a 12% credit on a Scarlet system. Nice... expensive, but nice. Check the gallery for all the images including one that looks like a telephoto lens for a RED DSLR.P.S. Jim confirmed that, "Scarlet and RED EPIC are part of the same DSMC system." While you may not know what DSMC stands for, we're pretty sure that Canon and Nikon are well aware that DSMC means Digital Still & Motion Camera.Update: Three-pound Scarlet and four-pound EPIC Mysterium-based "brains" capable of shooting 3K and 5K video, respectively, pictured after the break -- choose the brain then build a system around it. What look to be final (and complete!) product shots added to the gallery.%Gallery-36762%
RED teases with yet another mysterious image
The RED folks sure do like to tease out their upcoming products -- and occasionally even lead folks astray -- and it looks like they're really pulling out all the stops for their forthcoming Scarlet and Epic announcements. That includes a slightly perplexing teaser image released a few days ago and now this new, even more confounding image, again posted on the Reduser forums by RED founder Jim Jannard himself. While speculation abounds, no one seems to have quite pegged down exactly what it is, or if it actually is something at all, so feel free to take your own shot at it in comments.
RED teases some more in preparation for November 13th
This is just mean. With 10 days to go before Red goes official with its Scarlet and Epic announcement, we get this image: a teaser for those of us already teased. Sure, it doesn't look like much now (don't bother looking at the EXIF: nothing), but it's enough to prompt RED Digital Cinema's CEO, Jim Jannard to write that "the most aggressive speculation will not come close to what we will announce Nov. 13th." Careful Jim, our expectations are already pretty high.
RED's next move: Monstro super DSLRs
Red CEO, Jim Jannard, is stirring up trouble in the RED User forums, J. Wong-style. His latest volley discusses the new Mysterium "Monstro" sensor program, the next evolution (and future free upgrade) to the Mysterium X sensor slated for RED's 5k Epic. The most interesting revelation though is this little nugget: in addition to Epic, RED plans to place Monstro into, "another camera aimed squarely at the DSLR market." He later adds, "Future cameras will shoot ultra-high resolution stills and motion..." Now, considering that the second generation, full-frame, ~25 megapixel Mysterium X is already a serious challenge to 35mm film, we can only imagine what this DSLR with a third generation RED sensor might offer. Hear that Nikon? Your D90 is just the beginning of this story. Let's just hope that televisions and monitors, already struggling to reach 4k, Quad HD can keep pace.[Thanks, Jundai]
RED brings the trademark pain against LG's Scarlet HDTV
You wouldn't think that anyone in the market for a $3,000 handheld camera capable of shooting 3K HD at 100MB/s would somehow get confused enough to end up with a mediocre LG plasma TV, but it seems like the folks at RED are worried -- the company's lawyers are preparing an opposition to LG's filing for the "Scarlet" trademark, and they've filed for their own mark. It looks like RED is getting pretty serious about protecting its marks -- president Jim Jannard is politely asking RED fans to include a trademark disclaimer when they post about the company's products, and he says that the proceedings against LG are "just the tip of the iceberg." Honestly, we think RED's going to have a tough time selling a judge on the likelihood of confusion between a consumer-oriented HDTV and a decidedly pro-grade camera, but we've been surprised in the past -- we'll see how this one plays out.Read - Jim Jannard forum postRead - Request for extension of time to file opposition
Red to unveil the Scarlet "pocket professional" camera at NAB
Details are totally sketchy, but it looks like there's about to be another Red HD camera to lust after: a posting from CEO Jim Jannard on the Red user forums confirms that Red will be launching a "pocket professional" camera named "Scarlet" sometime this year, with prototypes to be shown off at NAB in April. Jannard says the camera won't be a competitor or replacement for the Red One, but that's all we've got for now -- but you know we'll be all over this thing as info comes in.[Thanks, MonsterDog]
RED ONE HD camcorder finally gets a street date
So we know a lot of you have been on the edge of your seat concerning the RED ONE modular, high-end, HD HD-clobbering camcorder system. The camera -- announced at NAB way back in the wild, sun-soaked days of 2006 -- rocks 11.4-megapixel, 60fps video, and is designed as a multi-part system, featuring a base unit that can be modded with a variety of add-ons -- allowing for all kinds of crazy configurations (just what the low-budget auteur is after). Now, according to the Reduser forums (and more specifically, Jim Jannard, Oakley founder and Red Digital Cinema company head), the RED ONE shipments will begin on August 31st, with a second batch to follow on September 7th. Sure, the $17,500 base system price-tag may seem prohibitive to some, but as we all know, fear is the mind-killer, and if you're really serious about that film you're making, you're going to need something like this. Time to break open the piggy-bank.[Thanks, Blayne G]
