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What expensive camera obsessions are doing for filmmaking


Vincent Sweeney

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I'm not sure what expensive cameras are really doing to filmmaking, it's an interesting article, but I don't believe anything about the art of good filmmaking has really changed. David Fincher still makes good digital movies, Spielberg still makes good film movies. The format is just an added extra, when the audience is sitting in a theatre watching a movie, we all know they're after entertainment. They're not nit picking noise, grain, artifacts, rolling shutter. Even all of us here, just want to sit down and enjoy a good story and let the visuals and sound take us to another place. If the film succeeds, whatever perceived subjective flaws become practically irrelevant as to whether or not a million people are gonna tell another million people to go see your movie.

 

The only real concerns about this advent of digital technology is that it's making it harder for camera operators to stay ahead of the game, new gear is coming out every few years and making the old obsolete in process, but digital technology is a hell of a lot cheaper than it used to be. I just think no one wants to pay the same as what they used to which is a scary added extra. The other concern is its making film vastly expensive in comparison and an increasingly rare option.

 

We can't forget that these cameras aren't all that expensive either, 20 grand today for these cameras wouldn't have got you close to a betacam back in the day.

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We can't forget that these cameras aren't all that expensive either, 20 grand today for these cameras wouldn't have got you close to a betacam back in the day.

 

Yes, the bang for buck these days is much better than it's ever been. The key part of Art Adams statement is about hiring the DP rather than the gear, although article doesn't seem to mention that this may also involve the use of a more expensive camera depending on the production.

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  • 4 weeks later...

"I find it interesting that Ryan Koo of Nofilmschool recently pre-ordered the new Scarlet-X for $10k, and once all the accessories and SSD cards are accounted for it will cost upwards of $20k. Before his successful Kickstarter campaign Koo was a DSLR shooter and he still is an aspiring filmmaker, and I wish him the best of luck. Of course he can invest how he sees fit but isn’t the generously donated $120k better spent on the actual film? Hell knows why he felt he needed it. It is like a guitarist joining a band and immediately feeling the need to splash $10k on a guitar and $4k on an amp before writing songs and jamming with his band members."

 

 

I don't really agree with this analogy from the article. Musicians who are serious about their music and their art will gravitate towards better instruments with which helps them hone their sound and help them in their artistic direction. Can you imagine Wynton Marsalis using a student trumpet? Or Art Blakey using a student drum set? There comes a point when an entry-level or student instrument will do more to hinder your development, if nothing else.

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i've been yelling at people for years now to stop obsession over equipment and go shoot already. images have been up to par ever since the dvx. we've all seen movies shot 1080, 720, and even standard def. i even went to see crank 2 high voltage to see what a bunch of canons you can buy at bestbuy would look at on screen, and sure enough, no one stood up in the theater and said this is BS i'm outta here, they used terrible cameras....

 

i'll be the first to pine over new tech enabling better images, but not before doing proper story, preproduction, production, lighting, sound, acting, and everything else that is far more important than which record button you're pressing.

 

first post. cheerios ;)

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