Cost of Shooting Red

Ted Schilowitz of Red Digital Cinema recently published an open letter to Variety in reply this article where the magazine challenges the perception that shooting digital is cheaper than shooting on film. Ted makes some excellent points with regards to the cost savings concerning shooting on Red vs Film, but importantly also includes a rough comparison of where those savings are.

He uses as his comparison costs of shooting 3-perf 35mm using an Arri 435, HDCamSR using a Sony F23 and RAW using a Red One. He uses typical kit hire and lab list prices in LA (so before any discounts) and compares Rental Rig cost (without lenses), Stock and processing costs, Copying and Transfer costs and Conform, Grading and print costs. With all these taken into consideration the costs of shooting Red come in at around a third of film and around 35% of HD.

Although this doesn’t take into consideration the kind of deals that can be obtained (which are subject to individual circumstances anyway), it is still a fascinating look at how the different costs of rental, production and post stack up.