Low Budget Shoot On HD or 16mm?

Walter Graff · February 26, 2008

Fear not, I do not get upset or take others words personally. You certianly have a right to express yourself without being condemned.

"If the rules and customs in social scientific research and statistical evaluations haven't been fundamentally changed in the past minutes, you will find that a significant group of people were actually able to make out a distinct visual separation between different media in different set-ups, and the more the set-up was less alien to the audience, the lower the digression between the felt expected-viewing experience and accustomed-viewing experience."

I was involved in Sony's Corps. attempt at research on their then new Japanese HD system back in the 1980's, along with testing of their system at the 88 Olympics in Seoul. In teh US tests, we went to numerous malls around the country. We had a then first generation "high def" monitor playing back Sonys then high def footage. Next to that we had an NTSC SD monitor playing identical footage. The result, more than 70% of participants picked the SD monitor as more realistic and better looking than the HD footage. Of course at the time it was all new so no one we interviewed had any pre conceived notions, as did that MIT white paper which made numerous mistakes in how it presented the test to people. I did read the PDF of it in it's entirety.

I have also been involved with numerous demonstrations of display medium where large groups of some of the most experienced engineers in the business who had trouble differentiating various forms of display and properly identifying originating mediums. I was also involved with focus group tests last year in Phoenix for an unnamed advertising entity where we did testing of perceptions of both display mediums and origination material to understand better perceptions of the public when it comes to how they watch TV, what focuses their attention and, what does not. Some of it should have been in the journal of advertising because the results were eye opening, but being this is for a large multinational advertising firm, they keep it all to themselves.

And my apologies, while my post was sloppy and rushed at best, I don't think it was misleading. In most tests of peoples perception of film vs video, most will often pick video over film as more pleasing and lifelike, at least the ones I have been involved with or read up on. And no, whether it be a 30 year pro or home TV viewer, it is very difficult to describe what the effect of film is. If it was, it would be clear to most people when they saw the difference. But since they can not easily describe it, often they can not clearly see it, or at best get confused, and as you said that is where the length of time you give them can cloud their judgment or make it clear. Personally I call HD and film, video with a blur.

Javier Calderon · February 26, 2008

Man . . . Did I mention that I love this forum?

I'm finally done with my first feature film, by the way . . . If anyone wants to take a look at it, just send me or email me an address where I can send a copy of the film to, and I'd be more than happy to mail one.

Believe it or not, this is NOT a shameless plug. I'm actually simply sincerely extending an opportunity for anyone who might even be remotely interested to see what part of all this hubub has been about. :) And no, there's no weird catch either. I'm not charging for this. It's all on me. I'm not some spammer or stalker that'll keep your address and sell it to the highest bidder. Again, 1) this is (I think) THE longest post that's ever occurred on this website, and given that the reason I started the thread is because I was interested in a particular dilemma as it pertained not only my future as a film maker, but as it was related to the film that I just finished, I thought I'd, again, give people the opportunity to see the movie itself. And no. I don't want to put it online - at least not yet. I'd prefer someone have the opportunity to see it in its best possible presentation/form. Also 2) I can't say that I wouldn't at all be interested in what people actually THINK about the movie itself, you know? It'd be cool to hear from some of the people on here what they even think of it.

Anyway, again, feel more than free to send me an address I could mail the movie to, and I certainly shall. :)

Javier