Cinema has been an expensive adventure. Long back, people grumbled that the art of letter writing waned as the cost of writing decreased coupled with the expanse of telegraph. We have moved far from that reality and realise that the art of story-telling never got cheap – it moved from papyrus to iPad. The content emanating from the creator’s mind sustains enigma in similar fashion. Coming back to cinema, the first democratic attempt toward freedom of voice (or rather voice and picture) came with the popularity of the handycam. These video cameras fulfilled the middle-class dream of capturing the birthday celebrations or the occasional outings in wilderness. The devices are user-friendly and like all, you will want it to be shared with friends and families. Lenses or editing is not priority, its more important that your brother in Los Angeles relishes the mukhe-bhaat of your son in Kolkata on YouTube. It bridges the gap, it mends minds, and, more importantly, it connects.
But there are many, like me, who also want to shoot a film. The biggest hindrance for us is budget. You can always ask friends to act in your film at minimal cost but what you can’t reduce is the cost towards equipment. To address this, leading camera makers ~ Canon and Nikon ~ have come up with HD video recording features in their professional DSLRs. Yes, and more importantly, the results are promising. The recent released Stanley Ka Dabba and the subway scenes in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan are glorious exponents of feature films fully shot in HD professional DSLRs. Unless you are a practitioner, it’s difficult to make out that this film is not the conventional 35mm one. So who cares?
The advantage of these DSLRs is mostly the full-frame camera sensors and the ability to reproduce an unbelievably shallow Depth of Field – both which magnifies its fragrance. To acknowledge this new phenomenon, film festivals in the USA, Canada and in parts of Europe have started having cinema shot only on DSLR cameras! The cinema-quality images in low light conditions have bolstered the hopes of this low-cost alternative. So much so that the highly performing Red Camera is taking a slight back-seat for its price which is eight-10 times that of these DSLRs.
Balancing the manual focus while shooting (particularly when there is a lot of high moving subjects) and upscaling in the traditional editing softwares (Final Cut Pro for example) are having known issues. But these are never hindrance to this digital revolution. An interesting set of articles and blogs is being hosted by the magical Dear Cinema website (you can read here: dearcinema.com/category/dslr-filmmaking). But the take-away is all positive. Now, there have been waves in the history of cinema where smaller independent groups of individuals have tried to break away from the shackles imposed by the consumer world. Films made with a guerilla approach had been reasonably successful. But they have always remained on the edge. What makes this movement so unique is the fact that these Canon 7Ds or Nikon D7000s are actually figuring in the equipment list of Hollywood / Bollywood / South Indian and Bengali film makers all alike. Even purely commercial ventures look upto them for reduced cost without sacrificing quality.
With time the hope is that these DSLRs will become more mature to obey the cinematographer’s wish. The traditional professional video cameras need to deal with customization to prove their cost and the fight will continue. This tussle is healthy. And as the manufacturers fight it out, let us sit down and work on our own scripts.
The time is ripe that we take up our film project armed with the latest ruler – the DSLRs. Till then, happy clicking
(Orig published in The Statesman on 17th June 2011 - http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=373458:cinema-using-dslr&catid=47:marquee&from_page=search)
But there are many, like me, who also want to shoot a film. The biggest hindrance for us is budget. You can always ask friends to act in your film at minimal cost but what you can’t reduce is the cost towards equipment. To address this, leading camera makers ~ Canon and Nikon ~ have come up with HD video recording features in their professional DSLRs. Yes, and more importantly, the results are promising. The recent released Stanley Ka Dabba and the subway scenes in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan are glorious exponents of feature films fully shot in HD professional DSLRs. Unless you are a practitioner, it’s difficult to make out that this film is not the conventional 35mm one. So who cares?
The advantage of these DSLRs is mostly the full-frame camera sensors and the ability to reproduce an unbelievably shallow Depth of Field – both which magnifies its fragrance. To acknowledge this new phenomenon, film festivals in the USA, Canada and in parts of Europe have started having cinema shot only on DSLR cameras! The cinema-quality images in low light conditions have bolstered the hopes of this low-cost alternative. So much so that the highly performing Red Camera is taking a slight back-seat for its price which is eight-10 times that of these DSLRs.
Balancing the manual focus while shooting (particularly when there is a lot of high moving subjects) and upscaling in the traditional editing softwares (Final Cut Pro for example) are having known issues. But these are never hindrance to this digital revolution. An interesting set of articles and blogs is being hosted by the magical Dear Cinema website (you can read here: dearcinema.com/category/dslr-filmmaking). But the take-away is all positive. Now, there have been waves in the history of cinema where smaller independent groups of individuals have tried to break away from the shackles imposed by the consumer world. Films made with a guerilla approach had been reasonably successful. But they have always remained on the edge. What makes this movement so unique is the fact that these Canon 7Ds or Nikon D7000s are actually figuring in the equipment list of Hollywood / Bollywood / South Indian and Bengali film makers all alike. Even purely commercial ventures look upto them for reduced cost without sacrificing quality.
With time the hope is that these DSLRs will become more mature to obey the cinematographer’s wish. The traditional professional video cameras need to deal with customization to prove their cost and the fight will continue. This tussle is healthy. And as the manufacturers fight it out, let us sit down and work on our own scripts.
The time is ripe that we take up our film project armed with the latest ruler – the DSLRs. Till then, happy clicking
(Orig published in The Statesman on 17th June 2011 - http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=373458:cinema-using-dslr&catid=47:marquee&from_page=search)
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