The Big Red One

Posted on March 9, 2009

I remember, six years ago, getting an opportunity to shoot with the SONY 700. For the previous five years, we had heard an infinite amount of hyperbolic buzz about HD. Color, contrast ratios, depth of field, signal to noise ratio, and of course the resolution, progressive, aspect, blah-blah-blah…

I used to second, pull, and load for an AC who claimed to have had extensive DP experience in HD. This was back in 2000, so we all knew he was full of shit. No one in our market had made the transition yet. The stupidest thing he ever said was when he claimed that he was going to an HD workshop the following week. When we pressed him for details, he refused to give up a name or location. “You wouldn’t know her. She lives up in Canada.”

So, a few years later, I got to spend a couple of days with the metachlorian camera. In the end, it wasn’t anything special. This was after waiting four agonizing years to get our hands on an HD camera. The most unbearable insult was having to endure the hype of it being used in a scene from The Phantom Menace. I was so disappointed to find out that it was just a regular ENG camera. Not much significant difference from the ten year old Beta SP Ikegami I had used the day before.

Four months later, I worked with the Panasonic equivalent. I don’t recall the model, but I remember the difference: frame rates from 6 to 120 and advanced image engineering control. One was for news, the other for art. Guess which.

The irony is that it was another four years until the software and processor speeds were universally ubiquitous enough to confidently edit HD.

Nowadays you can get an HD camera for a little over $100 at Walmart. Nothing special until the next big revolution.

That brings us to the Big Red One. There’s a lot of buzz. I started hearing it two years ago. And now that it’s here, all of it’s earned. It works. It’s affordable. It’s small. It’s almost film. Close enough, maybe (I haven’t heard much detailed discussion about latitude in post, but, I guess that would require enormous redundant hidden data.) I have colleagues who’ve invested in it. I’ve been impressed with the articles I’ve read. (As for the price, you can get it, plus lens kit, batts, storage, and lens support kit for what just the body of an HD “cine” camera costs.) 

And they tell me that the data rate is no problem for today’s computers (even with the layers, transitions, effects, and corrections.) So, the industry has the fever again. You’re the cool guy if you’ve been near one (and that red t-shirt!)

But… and I’m surprised it took me over ten years to realize this: the gear doesn’t make the film.

The French had HD back in the late 40’s, Japan had a working HD standard in the late 70’s.  Ten years later, Japan’s HD projects and potential started invading the national consciousness. Ten years after that, American broadcasters began incorporating it into their infrastructures and the FCC set a deadline for complete standard conversion.

But for the next ten years, the future of media was found in low definition. Blair Witch was shot on hi8 and 16mm, 28 Days Later was shot on PAL DV. But, your post and distribution considerations must be considered. Youtube, porn, comedy central, funny or die, college humor, ifilm, vimeo… The majority of web content is still acquired on standard definition cameras and distributed at even less quality resolution. For a popup or banner video, it can be argued that it still doesn’t serve much point to be shooting in a resolution higher than 240×360. Why burden the budget of your project with HD when your distribution will be DVD? Even if you could output to Blu-ray, most of the monitors sold are less than 47″. Your consumer audience won’t be able to tell the difference. You’ll get engineers in fist fights taking the Pepsi challenge (no pause, no slo-mo allowed.) Well lit, well exposed, well composed; you won’t be able to tell the difference between VHS, 35mm, HD, or RED (granted, it’s limited to just a talking head interview with a diffusion element and pro-mist.)

Thus, the two issues that dominate market logistics that exceed image quality: content, and on-demand. The immediate, non-linear service, the questions answered now, the punchline delivered immediately. Is it funny, dramatic, informative, compelling? No? Then you can’t get me to watch it, no matter how many pixels you stab me in the eye with. Do I have to wait for it?  Then screw you, my DVR’s full and waiting for me. (Since you still have to trade off the option of immediacy for image quality if you’re wanting extended content, that brings me to the most interesting point: the two minute barrier. Audiences sitting at a desk will not pay attention to you for more than two minutes. If you’re a movie trailer starring Tom Cruise or Megan Fox, sure. If you’re a Christmas greeting from a grandchild, sure, grandma will endure for several more minutes.  Efficiency of time is of utmost importance in your program. Get to the point. Start busting heads. Move that thing, Honey. You want me to call, don’t you?) Sure, vimeo, netflix, and apple are breaking the bandwidth/quality ratio barrier. But, you still have to wait for it, especially long format. It looks good, comparably, but, I can still see them cheating in the compression: motion stutters and blurs, mosquitoes, pixelation, low bit depth contrast ratio. Once we get fibre optic saturation of the market (the capacity rests at over 100 gB ps, but averages 10 to 40), or the new RF frequencies redistributed, then a good looking home theatre environment won’t be seamless. Thus, extended definition, it’s only truly applicable to your production if you have theatrical distribution. Ha!

Thirteen years ago I wasted the monetary equivalent of a fully loaded economy car on a Hi8 A-B roll editing system (with two 3-chip cameras.) That was the year that DV was released. I learned my lesson. Sure, just like HD, a format similar to the RED will be everywhere within two years. The old adage will have been proven again: talent over technology. Its not the batter, its the baker.

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