What resulted was a fun journey into the company, with new experiences of running around air hangars, jumping into airplanes and putting on cool anti-static lab coats.

This was the first time the company had a video crew running around their offices and asking questions in interviews, and we can tell how the production started to bring everybody together for the sake of cheering on their second family – Otto.

This film was completed around when Onyx Cinema acquired its Red Scarlet-X camera. So while the vast majority of the film was shot run & gun DSLR, we snuck a few bonus shots of our first field run of the nifty new camera into the final edit.

Filming in a location that was a natural bounce board made it so a lighting setup was unnecessary, but also put the dynamic range of the camera to the test.

Even with us just learning how to operate “Rockwell”, the Red footage impressed us with its flexibility, but also showed us the behavior of the footage when there are beams of sunlight, clipping the highlights. The flexibility of the R3D files allowed us to tweak to our heart’s content, in Redcine-X Pro, to make a couple of clipped shots work well. Redcine-X pro is definitely a BIG improvement over Redcine-X and I can’t go back.

Along with balancing the package to the steadicam, it was a great overall learning experience made easy due to the subject matter of course.

We took our R3D into Red Cine X Pro and transcoded out to Apple Pro Res 422 at 2k. Edited in Final Cut Pro. So nothing fancy in terms of 4k workflow. We still love the footage at 2k. Typography was done in After Effects.

Alice Wen and Edward Rowley in the opening scene of "Unmentionables"

Penned by Owen Andrade, “Unmentionables” brings our hero into the dark pasts of others where he is faced with a decision of changing history. The 68 Degrees Films group – who Onyx Cinema’s Michael, Joseph Vu and Georgia Yeh are founding members of – teams up to make this film a reality.

Director of Photography Andy Chen and Director Michael Shu strike a pose as Sound Mixer Jakob Beetem does.. something

The first overnight day of shooting not only includes the main cast of Edward Rowley, Alice Wen and Luca Rodrigues, but also guest stars the 5 year old Anabelle Vu, who lit up the set with her adorable screen presence.

Director of Photography Andy Chen commands the camera, lighting and grip crew, utilizing Onyx Cinema’s new Red Scarlet-X camera. This one of the very first film productions in the world to be shot with the new model camera, and it has performed admirably as a very flexible and lightweight camera for its class.

Michael stands in as 1st AC Nick Bianchi preps Onyx Cinema

Also on the crew are 68 Degrees Films’ Elaine Shengya Hu, Jakob Beetem, Joseph Vu and Georgia Yeh.

More updates on the shoots as they come! Special thanks to Georgia Yeh of Georgia Yeh Photography for her behind the scenes work!

Onyx Cinema’s Michael Shu, Anthony Vu and Georgia Yeh join forces to create the beautiful and sexy imagery that our cameras can capture.

The RED SCARLET-X is flown on the Steadicam Zephyr and given a slider treatment thanks to Midas Mount’s skate-rail dolly.

The RED SCARLET-X is equipped with View Factor’s APU-IDX V-mount battery plate and is powered by VL batteries, mounted on a Zacuto Universal Baseplate joined with the Redrock Micro Shoulder Mount and microMattebox. We have the microMattebox on 15mm rails, so in order to get the mattebox to the correct height, we added the microLink3.

Here is the footage:

We try to make helpful tools for people out there who want to learn more about filmmaking. With the purchase of the RED SCARLET, we needed to familiarize ourselves with the R3D workflow. So we created a simple graphic we wanted to share to help guide the process.

It was a super windy day with our lips flapping outside, but we had loads of fun.  The Scarlet-X is able to give the power of the Red cameras in smaller, confined spaces like the cockpit.

We took advantage of the EF mount Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 and the 50mm f/1.4.  Footage soon to be featured in our next addition to our “Works” section!

As the employees were walking into the lobby to go home for the day, we were greeted with smiles and congratulations. It was a great feeling.

Thanks to the folks at RED!

Michael Shu is collaborating with the talented screenwriter, Owen Andrade and the members of the recently founded 68 Degrees Films group to develop and produce the short film, entitled “Unmentionables”.

Full Announcement Here

Pre-production is currently underway.  If anybody would like to collaborate in this production, feel free to contact us!

Along with co-founders Simon Schterenberg, Elaine Shengya Hu, Andy Chen, Georgia Yeh, Joseph Vu and Jakob Beetem, 68 Degrees Films and Onyx Cinema Productions pulled off a steadicam “one-er” shot on Oct 11th, 2011.  The shot was 3-4 minutes long and went all around a restaurant, following multiple characters.

Steadicam operator Michael Shu also wrote and directed this short. Starring Rhiann Woodyard, Alvin Lam, Kazumi Zatkin and Eric Guiterrez.  Set photography by Georgia Yeh.

We’ll keep you all updated with news as the post production concludes on this fun challenge!