Camera professionals train at RED Foundation workshop

Last week, Advanced Media concluded a three-day Red Foundation Workshop at the newly opened Ravenscar Film and Studios in Al Quoz. The workshop brought together a small gathering of directors, producers, camera assistants, production managers and film students. UK-based Director of Photography (DoP) Steve Johnson conducted the classes.

Johnson, a self-trained filmmaker has worked on several short films, music videos and feature films as DoP but more recently, he has donned the film director’s hat with three feature films to date and another in pre-production, which will be shot later this year. As a big fan of RED cameras and an active participant in the RED Digital Cinema community for more than 15 years, Johnson has taught courses in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brisbane, Dubai, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Oslo and Singapore.

The workshop last week was based around the RED Digital Cinema DSMC3 cameras, namely the Komodo, V-Raptor and the new V-Raptor XL. 

“With these being some of the leading cameras on high-end Hollywood films and streaming television shows, the course gives confidence to anyone wanting to use these cameras and how to get the best from them,” Johnson explained to BroadcastPro ME.

The workshop covered everything “to do with the operation of the RED DSMC3 cameras”, he added.

“This includes calibration, camera operation, settings, resolution, compression, advanced features and working with the footage in post-production. By the end of the three days, all the students usually understand and feel confident in using the cameras and how to get the most out of the footage they shoot,” he elaborated.

Johnson is no newcomer to Dubai. He ran a similar course back in 2019 with Advanced Media, RED distributors in MENA.

“It was nice to be asked back by Advanced Media to run the course. Only this time, I think we have improved it by having access to a larger studio with more shooting assignments for the students to help consolidate their learning.”

Although a small intimate gathering, Johnson stated that the quality of attendees was impressive. 

“Most of them already have a RED camera, be it a DSMC3 Komodo or a V-Raptor camera; so for them, being able to use their own camera on the course helps them become more confident and proficient. But even if you haven’t bought a camera already, it doesn’t matter as we have the entire range available for students to use throughout the course. For this particular course, we had attendees from the UAE, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Egypt and the United States, which made it a truly international group of attendees,” he added.