With this much time behind us we should stop, turn around, and look back at our rush to embrace the HDSLR concept (more useful here). Where did it come from, what was pushing it, where will it go and is it a big deal or not - or what.
In the recent past (the time of the miniDV camcorders) we were all thrilled that semi-good-looking footage was finally possible in an equally semi-robust format that didn’t cost an arm and a leg and another leg. We did, however, still envy the film folk for, well, their filminess. Many were the tirades about how great film was and that video could never (that’s never) equal that quality - yack, yack, yack. The video people would all sigh and walk away, thinking, you know, that’s a bunch of crap, but video did look like video.
Then somehow that vague future-concept high definition thing kind of oozed out of the woodwork behind us and suddenly there was a new format on the block. Mostly the new students showed up with those HD camcorders and we all went, whoa, what’s that. The image was really big and crisp and well - big and crisp. I had seen HD way back in the 1980’s at an NAB trade show and it was great, but amazingly expensive and not really on the market. Now it was and it didn’t cost any more than the miniDV camcorders we were still buying.
You’ve got to remember that miniDV replaced Hi8mm and that Hi8mm replaced regular 8mm, and regular 8mm replaced 3/4” and that had replaced 1/2” and that had replaced both 1” and quad (really 2” tape) and, oh yes, somewhere in there was VHS and S-VHS, but the common thread here is tape. It’s always going to be on tape, right?
Oops. Then HD (I’m not ever going to talk about HDV - just forget it) got really clever and you could record to tape, or a little hard drive, or a DVD-ish disk, or a flash card (a really, really expensive flash card: P2), and then a cheap flash card and wow, here we are. (Hey, are you going to eat the rest of that sandwich? This is making me hungry.)
So that’s just the history of the people who hold the cameras. On the other side, the manufacturers loved all the "Ezekiel begot Herinedies" upgrades and thought - man are we on the gravy train or what. Then HD hit them and they lost their nerve and all the ideas they ever had. (That and the fact that Broadcasting is going down the tube or rather over to the tubes.) It went dark on the factory floor. No one was buying equipment. We were just waiting to see what would happen and where it would all go. We all said, “I’m going to sit this one out.”
Then came Red.
OK, you either love or hate Red, but you do have to admit it was a game changer. People who made sunglasses are now going to design and build high-end digital cinematography cameras and what’s digital cinematography anyway - never heard of it. Once you stopped laughing and thought about it and then finally saw some footage - hey, that looks really, really good and that’s video?
Then we all did the math. Sure it’s 10 times the cost of a good miniDV camera, but look at those women, and the color, and the grain, and OMG look at the background all soft and well - filmy. So people bought them like VW’s (That’s Volkswagens to you young folks, you know like a car - the people’s car. OK, forget it.)
So we spent a whole year looking at footage online and checking the updates at Red’s web site trying to figure out if you really need rods and a matt box or more specialty cables. We kept track of how many shows were shot with a Red this month and what’s their workflow. Ah, the workflow.
Then one day a photographer posts some footage he’s shot with a Canon still camera. Yea, so what, my little still camera shoots video too. It’s great for the web. Want to see some party shots I took over the weekend? This dog is so amazing, you’ve gotta see it.
Then we all finally looked at the clips. Say, that’s nice. Wait a minute, that looks like the Red footage. Hey, come here and look at this. This is shot on a goddamn Canon still camera - WTF.
You’d look at the “milkgirls” footage from Red, then back to Vincent Laforet’s video, then back again and pause and think - gosh, this is shot on a $2,500 still camera. Whoa - the buzzer goes off - game changer. Red stops production and re-tools.
Then 6 months of looking at Canon movies online and yes, you can shoot with a Nikon (hmm, not as nice) or look over there, Panasonic has one too (OK, a little different). Now, do I really need a matt box and rods on this thing?
If you get your hands on one it’s quite a surprise that you can’t see a *&$# thing on the LCD screen outside in the sun. So now you absolutely need a clip-on viewer and magnifier for the screen.
No, I don’t have any Zeiss-Vistavision lens in my bag to pop on for those razor sharp, zero depth of field shots, but I do have an old Nikon lens so I guess I need a lens adaptor for that.
OK, now I can finally shoot. Hey, focusing sucks. Maybe I do need one of those matt boxes with the follow focus knobs (so cool), so then, yea, I do need the rods. Now what does that all price out at? Ouch!
Oh no, wait, I forgot about the audio. Camera audio is lousy so I’ll get a Zoom (save a little money over the Edirol hah, hah, ha). etc, etc. Notice no one is talking tape in audio land. Wearing a Nagra around your neck was like wearing a lunch basket. No more, no more. It all fits in your pocket, but we are back to the start line again shooting with dual system sound. Forward into the past.
So here we are: the big hand on February and the little hand on 2011.
End of part 1.
Hmm, I wonder, do I really, really need those rods?
Are you going to eat that sandwich or not?
gunther
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