We did it, the film was delivered with only one minute to deadline.  This not the most sound way to produce a film, I do not recommend this to anyone unless you simply enjoy a challenge cause challenging would be an understatement.  Making a film in 48 hours is simply exhausting as you will tap all yourself creatively and exercise all skills available in the shortest amount of time.  UPDATE of my notes from field coming tomorrow.

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Never too late to donate today! Well thats the spirit of 48 hour I suppose, trying to make due with what you have available is half of it. One thing you must have is food cause a fed crew is a happy crew and thats why we are taking some donations and possibly holding a fund raiser for our 48 hour film…food and transportation. The 48 hour film competition (make a short movie in 48 hours) is a fun exercise for everyone and it should serve as a great field test for our RED 1781. Patrick Sarni and myself have been doing some planing and trying to figure out who our talent is and what locations we are using but it complicates the situation when you do not know the genre or the story until the night it begins…June 20th! We will keep you posted with our progress.

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Greetings Gotham Guerrillas…

Our RED package is now ready for hire. If your looking for a complete RED ONE digital cinema package for rental in the NYC area then please don’t hesitate to contact me directly or email REDRENTAL@GothamGuerrilla.com. This is a fully loaded package with all the bells and whistles! Special offers for NYC rentals and I will consider traveling anywhere in the world. Redrental@GothamGuerrilla.com

Hit the jump for all the juicy details.

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Comrades! Our RED ONE is finally home and I would like to take this moment to raise my glass and solute RED, the RED team, and RED community for delivering and supporting the future of Cinema….Cheers! These are exciting times in a troubled world so I say lets make the best of it shall we? I have much work to do and even more writing to be done…RED is here and here to stay, time to get busy. Salute! Image Courtesy of RED DIGITAL CINEMA

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At last, I have obtained the tracking numbers to our 1st RED ONE and tomorrow I will be waiting patiently to take delivery TOMORROW! I went ahead and activated my insurance a few weeks back in case the FedEx truck gets held up on a bridge and taken over by terrorist…must protect the precious cargo.

48 hour film competition is right around the corner so we might as well double it as a our RED camera test. I just hope the workflow does not slow us down considering we only have 48 hours to complete the short film. I have been experimenting with Final Cut Studio’s log and transfer tool which encodes the R3D (raw RED file format) into a 2k ProRes format which I feel is more then enough to deliver in. The results are stunning and this was all done on my laptop.

If you live in the NYC area and are interesting in participating in a 48 hour film festival then drop us a line with you name and contact and include “48 hour crew” in your subject line.

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The anticipation is starting to kill me and after waiting over a year from when I 1st dropped my deposit for the RED ONE and then endured multiple production holds and delays…the time has finally come. I am fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to be working with the RED for the last several weeks as a REDTek and recently promoted to DP on my last gig so I am ready and more importantly I feel prepared. If you know anything about RED its expect the unexpected, RED owner Jim Jannard signature on RED’s official forum is

“Everything in life changes… including our camera specs and delivery dates…”

This is why my post titles ends with “maybe”, but I feel pretty confident since they released the image above showing camera numbers 1751-2000 being prepped for shipping. You can not argue Jim Jannard’s honesty, not to mention the man is a hype master with his recent thread titled “PREPARE”, which is a brief post on the new firmware build 16…an example of how RED can improve system specs overnight. RED is controversial for stirring up a fire in not only the RED community, but the film industry in general. As a RED technician, or what I call a REDTek… I have worked with film crews who I find very bitter over all this RED hype and I can imagine it gets out of hand but what can I say…so far RED lives up to all the hype. After the break you will find where the RED delivery schedule currently stands in case your interested…

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Thats right, Patrick Sarni has officially departed the big apple to make a new life out in LA. Patrick is a writer producer so he should be right at home, not sure what this means for JoyHog but if they need a NY correspondent I have volunteered to help out where I can. Fear not… Patrick has not officially cut the umbilical cord to Manhattan, when I last spoke with Patrick he said

I have not officially cut the umbilical cord to Manhattan.

YOU SEE! He will attempt some bi coastal relation with liberty city and to prove that he claims to be here to help produce the 48 hour competition that is coming up in a couple of weeks! We solute you Patrick, best of luck in the city of sin…in the meantime I will prep the couch for your return.

FYI: Only if you catch this post fresh, The eyeballs of the Incredible Hulk (see Ad on right) were actually rendered from Patrick Sarni’s eyes.

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Sorry I have not updated as soon as I wanted to, I have been hustling on the streets and in the field to keep this vessel afloat and continue, aka… bring home the bacon. I have been going non stop the last two weeks working on several RED camera shoots so I have lots to post about my experience and some images behind the scenes and from the Mysterium (RED footage frame grabs). I am going to gather my notes and update this evening as soon as I catch my breath.

RED 1781 UPDATE: Spoke with my RED dan who says they are catching up fast with back order and trying to beat the current delivery schedule but I am still on standby for my tracking numbers. I hope to continue getting RED related work in the meantime.

RED 1781 UPDATE 6/2/08: Spoke with Dan again today, he says 1781 could ship this week!

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After 20 years the good doctor is back, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is everything you’d hope it would be and much more. I was 8 years old when I 1st saw Indiana on his Last Crusade and have been hooked ever since so as you can imagine I have had high expectations in this 4th installment of Steven Spielberg’s series. I wont spoil anything but even from the trailer you can tell there are certain choices that were made in the development by Spielberg in regards to making sure the look and feel of the “kingdom of the Crystal Skull” pertained to the aesthetics of the originals. Sure the picture was woven with very impressive visual effects as you can expect from this kind summer blockbuster, some of which were simply jaw dropping but for me it was not the FX but the color treatment, the textures, the photography, art and direction, and the comic performances that overwhelmed me with nostalgia for my experience I had watching the original trilogy.

Harrison Ford returns 20 years later and still hunting treasures, raiding tombs, teaching part time, dodging bullets, and some hoe always under the red tape of the KGB and now CIA. Although a slightly older and more rusty Doctor Jones, Harrison Ford was spot on, the gloves certainly still fit. Shia LaBeouf enters the picture as…well Shia LaBeouf, expect pretty much the same performance he plays in most of his recent roles except this time he is a 1950s punk greaser type, Indiana’s sidekick a little tougher…but tough enough to be the next Indiana Jones? I have mixed feelings about the speculation of Shia taking over in the franchise, those are some big shoes to fill Shia. I felt the two had a decent on screen chemistry overall. Cate Blanchett plays the sexy soviet villain, and plays it well she does. Her character is dark and sinister as you would expect but thankfully she does not play it off as comical as most the cast.

Simply put, this is a 124 minutes of pure Indiana Jones action packed joy. You are in for a ride from the moment the picture starts to the very end. I will say there were times I would have appreciated a moment to breath, Spielberg definitely did not hold back but the story manages to balance some of the over the top chaos with intertwined comic relief, did I mention it’s over the top? Many of the action sequences are just far-fetched enough to make you laugh. I am trying not to spoil anything but I will just say the end was a little unusual and somewhat anticlimactic with not whole lot of pay off, and leaves you asking, “What next”?

If you have not seen the original installment of Indiana Jones then now is a good time to (re)visit them…there is some back story that will help tie things together but overall will not effect the experience of new comers. In a nutshell…If you like Indian Jones at all then you will most likely love the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Enjoy.

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Gotham Guerrilla was fortunate enough to be invited to a press screening of Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull, a week before the actual release. This will mark our 1st and hopefully not last of many sneak peaks to come. I would like to thank our affiliates, Joy Hog, for this special invite. Now I need to get off my phone before it gets seized and destroyed as the fine print says on the back of my ticket. Review coming tonight.

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