Boris RED User Story

Steve Kahn - Edit on Hudson

Steve Kahn is many things. He's a video pioneer, whose creations for artists as diverse as Run-DMC, Kris Kristofferson and Bow Wow Wow (over 100 videos in all) have landed him in the MTV Hall of Fame. He owns and operates Edit On Hudson in Sleepy Hollow, New York, where you can enjoy gourmet meals by the fireplace while overlooking the Hudson River. He's a commercial pilot, a volunteer EMT…

…but not, according to him, a graphics specialist. "I've always felt very comfortable with every aspect of production," says Steve. "I can find locations, run a shoot, operate a camera, handle music and editing, but I've always relied on outside contractors to take care of my video graphics.

"Boris RED has changed all that: it makes me look better than I am. It's dramatically changed the kind of work I can bill my clients for, and because it's so easy to use, I no longer have to send my graphics to outside specialists for finishing. At the same time, I'm not sacrificing power or sophistication.

"By doing animation that I would have farmed out. I've added a new range of skills that I can now bill my clients for. I'm even expanding the range of jobs I can bid on. For the first time, I'm even looking at jobs that call for a title specialist!

"This never would have happened without RED."

"What immediately caught my eye about RED is how incRedibly easy it is to build titles," says Steve. "I need strong titles for every project I do, so that much of it was a no-brainer. RED was clearly the way to go. I've done titles in one or two clicks that my colleagues tell me have taken them days to do in other products."

Some of Steve's previous projects have included "The Warbird Trainers" on Speedvision, "The Wonderful World of Flying," and video projects for the Federal Aviation Administration. A more recent effort of Steve's, called "121.5" went further than he's gone before.

"Titling is so easy in Red that my confidence grew very quickly. With a DVD I just completed for Aviation Media, I decided to see just how far I could go on my own. With the exception of some high-end 3D, no farming out intense compositing animations, no bailing out to After Effects, which I'd been comfortable with - just RED.

"Not only did the project exceed my expectations, but I found myself feeling at the end that I'd really masteRed Red.I was shocked at how short the learning curve was once I'd committed to just DOING it."

When pressed for specifics of how he uses Red, Steve has many examples. "For the DVD, I used Red for everything - image processing, titles, animation...everything. I used Red's Fire filter for a project I did recently called 'Fire is Black' with the New York City Fire Department. I've used vector paint to create 'telestrator' animations.

I've been doing more 3D titles, again, because it's so easy.

"One of the recent ones that I enjoyed most was one for the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, kind of a 'how NOT to' project with lots of bad takeoffs and landings. We wanted to take a humorous approach, so I made cartoon-y drawings of judges giving poor marks to the pilots.

"Drawing, painting, animation - these are all things that I never imagined being able to do in my Media 100."

Workflow is one of the themes that Steve returns to, not surprising for someone with so many projects underway at once. "I love being able to bring Red up as a plug-in inside my editor, but I'm also finding that it's helpful to be able to use the Red Engine to build and render effects on one machine while I also keep editing. I love the flexibility - nobody else offers anything like it."

So Steve, any last thoughts before taking off again?

"From the moment I first touched it, Red was always going to be my first choice for titling. But now, I genuinely can't imagine using anything else for graphics and animation in my video programs besides Boris RED."