10 Questions with Red Rock Micro's Brian Valente

by jared1October 18^th, 2009

10 Questions with Red Rock Micro’s Brian Valente.

1. How did Red Rock Micro begin?

RRM was started approx 7 years ago. We were a group of avid indie filmmakers disappointed by the cost of quality production equipment, and appalled at the quality of low cost equipment. We felt there must be a better solution for people who don’t want to compromise on quality but can’t afford to spend more on accessories than they did on their camera. As a result our mission has been to create quality cinema accessories that are affordable for normal human beings to own.

2. How does RedRock Micro come up with it’s designs?

We do all our designs in house in our facilities in Texas. We spend a lot of time talking to customers, getting customer feedback, and talking to industry professionals. Into that mix we add our own take on what’s needed, and of course include low price as one of our main product design criterias.

3. What is the manufacturing process?

There isn’t a simple answer for that! We have many steps in our manufacturing processes, and it varies depending on the product we are creating. In general, we do our machining in house, each product goes through a finishing process such as deburring, polishing, applying textures and anodizing, and then a rigorous quality control process.

4. How many units have you sold to date?

We don’t disclose specific numbers. We can say we have many thousands of customers worldwide.

5. Why is Red Rock Micro Better?

This boils down to our mission – create great quality cinema accessories that normal human beings can afford to own. If that’s what you want, then we are the best there is for that. For example when we were developing our M2 cinema lens adapter through public forums, many people said it couldn’t be done for our target price of around $1,000. The next closest solution was well over $10,000. We proved we could do it, and we got many customers and won several awards as a result. The microMatteBox is another great example. We produce a mattebox that has no equivalent in the marketplace at the price point we offer it – around $700 for a complete solution. The next comparable product is close to $5,000 for a similarly configured product.

6. You were able to capitalize on the ever growing HDSLR market, how did you know?

We had a long history with our M2 cinema lens adapter, that allows digital video to achieve the shallow depth of field and 35mm lens interchangeability previously only available in motion picture film. When we first saw the Nikon D90 (the first HDSLR product to come to market) we knew exactly what the potential could be, even though the execution is a first generation. It just went from there. We feel very fortunate to be the very first to market with cinema rigs that address the physical shortcomings of HDSLR cameras to turn them into something really great to work with

7. How are you making a profit?

We sell cinema accessories. We have extremely low overhead, so we don’t need to make a lot of profit, and we like to say we keep the money in our customers pocket.

8. I got to use the new carbon fiber rod system, how much lighter is it?
**Brian responded to this question previously.

Carbon fiber is 66% lighter than stainless steel. That’s 1/3 the weight. The CF rods (and the new offset) are available as upgrades and can be purchased separately.

9.Where is Red Rock Micro going in the future?

There are still so many cinema accessories that cost too much, and the options are really limited. Anytime you see a ridiculous price tag for a piece of production gear that seems like it should be a lot less, chances are we have seen it and are working on something. We have already announced our microRemote wireless remote follow focus, which is being worked on as we speak.

10.Where can someone give feedback to Red Rock Micro?

Anywhere you see us – online, at shows, in forums, etc. you can give us feedback – we really appreciate people who take the time to offer us suggestions, improvements, congratulations, feedback, etc. The simplest way is to send us an email to [email protected]