Film scholar Bruce F. Kawin weighs the artistic strengths and weaknesses of high-end HD cameras against film: color, latitude, depth of field and motion.
New high-end HD cameras have unique artistic features as well as advantages and disadvantages over film. Some of these features include in-camera color correction, latitude, cost, tapeless acquisition and HD projection. At “A Regional Media Maker Showcase and High-Definition Workshop,” presented by The University Film and Video Association (UFVA) and Department of Communication at Georgia State University, we had a chance to get a little hands-on HD production and projection experience. “We are still learning about HD,” says Niklas Vollmer, Assistant Professor of Film/Video and coordinator for the all-day event.
Most of the comments from the educators and students at the workshop reflected a sense of high expectations for the future of HD. Attendance for the event included folks from such universities as Temple, Spelman, American, Emory, Albany State, Georgia Tech, Howard, Florida State, Georgia State, Valdosta State, and South Carolina.
Sheldon Schiffer, MFA Associate Professor, Georgia State University, did the hands-on portion of the seminar with of one of the school’s Sony CineAlta HDW-F900 24p cameras. With the most interesting feature demonstrated being the color control settings, he outlined his use of the camera in his work and pointed out some advantages and disadvantages of HD over film.
According to Schiffer, HD’s technical and operational advantages over film include cost benefits – such as cost of, film stock, processing, transfer, crew and talent – and time, as time is money. Also with HD, you have more flexibility in controlling your look during production. Operational advantages, according to Schiffer, include color “correction” control, variable frame rate, a memory stick to store all your settings, and the fact that everything is adjustable.
Schiffer spoke about the disadvantages of HD as well. Those being video response to mistaken exposure; the
High End HD Cameras Offer Creative Advantages
Pros and Cons of HD over Film
necessity to use a waveform monitor if exposure control is needed; weight and size; and limited latitude compared to film although gain can help.
In a recent article by David E. Williams entitled, “Survival in Space,” published in American Cinematographer, December 2005, Stephen McNutt, CSC, explores the HD creative advantages while shooting with the Panavision CineAlta 24P.
“Although Ransom shot the miniseries on 35mm, Moore and Eick wanted to shoot the series in 24p high-definition (HD) video,” wrote Williams. “They initially selected this format for the sake of expediency, reduced expense, and compatibility with the show’s established post pipeline, but they soon found that HD also offered them some intriguing creative advantages.”
I was fortunate enough to attend a workshop in which Bob Primes, ASC, demonstrated some of the Panasonic VariCam image control settings. He explained that the color matrix settings could be set to make an image look like you were on another planet, and that is exactly the kind of technique that McNutt used with the Battlestar Galactica show.
The image control is one of the most useful artistic features of the higher-end HD cameras. The changes can be saved on memory sticks and used for multiple camera setups, or you can have multiple settings saved to be used on the same camera for different scenes and characters.
The possibilities of using the color matrix settings to engineer color composition is almost limitless. These kinds of image control settings can also help you keep the post production true to your artistic vision. It is about controlling the image through post.
Some things to look forward to are more resolute images and tapeless acquisition. According to Vollmer, we are headed for a tapeless era where cameras will record directly to hard drive, and tape will go away or be used for back up. Recording directly to a hard drive gives you the ability to start editing faster with less downtime logging and capturing tape.
The color and clarity of the images we viewed during the workshop and in the “Showcase” segment of the seminar were truly amazing. During this segment, Kodak representative, Janet Tiller, pointed out a new angle for bringing film back to the format. Tiller said that actors prefer lower contrast images because they don’t always want lines to show on their faces. Seeing the clarity of the HD images projected demonstrated the potential problem of too much detail.
After you shoot in HD, you can output to film or any of the other formats. You probably won’t use the HD format to distribute your work today. Some theaters have the digital capabilities, while most do not. Studios may be pushing things along in the next couple of years.
In an article called, “Digital Film Revolution Poised to Start Rolling,” published in USATODAY.com, May 2005, media columnist, David Lieberman wrote: “Studios look forward to the day when they can slash by 75% the $1.2 billion they spend each year to make film prints and ship them in bulky metal cans to and from theaters. With digital, they transmit encrypted signals to theaters via satellite or ship a small, reusable hard drive with the film preloaded.”
In the recent article, “Top Theaters on Path to Digital Films,” CNET News.com, December 16, 2005, writer John Borland points out that major theater owners signifying over a third of US screens said they will join efforts to upgrade their theatres to new digital projection technology. Theatres, including AMC Entertainment, Cinemark USA and Regal Entertainment, said they were already in the process of setting up digital technology to Hollywood standards and working together to bring the process mainstream.
Some good reasons for going to digital projection: images are consistently crisper; studios can distribute films with soundtracks in multiple languages and respond more quickly to audience reactions; and better digital anti-piracy technology can be provided to reduce the hundreds of millions of dollars lost each year.
I enjoyed visiting the Georgia State University campus for the Showcase, and the High-Definition workshop was a wonderful experience to meet with educators and graduate students and learn about HD. I hope to get a chance to return in the near future.
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