[Frameworks] Digital -- was Re: 16mm camera repair & parts

[edwin m]

mike figgis (from these parts) who is famous for preaching the virtues of digital, wrote extensively about the importance of learning on film equipment. he argued that the laziness (which isn't essential, but just always seems to come about) when stock isn't a problem can virtually wipe out any cost benefit of digital. so you might only have to pay for hard drives, but then you have to pay extra edit assistants to sit through the hundred hours of re-takes that you only shot because it was free. 

i shot a film the other month and had a crew (!! - this doesn't happen often). apart from a couple of camera crew, many of them had never worked with film before, despite being professional crew with many years' experience. they were all insanely excited about it, and the weirdest thing was, not one person made a single mistake in the entire four-day shoot. and they all seemed sure that had never happened before - normally you try to stay quiet, find focus or not wander into frame, but it's not much of an issue. 

i'm not saying any format or working method is better (though obviously i have personal preferences). but in terms of learning, i think it's widely understood by everyone from film artists to industrial employers, and virtually all undergrad students, that there's a serious benefit to having worked on film

edwin



> Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:32:54 -0700
> From: ryder.white at gmail.com
> To: frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] Digital -- was Re: 16mm camera repair & parts
> 
> True. It's an unfair slander of an incredible (for the price) camera.
> And it's not really to my point, either, but rather an example based
> on one man's experience. Perhaps it's just a difference in teaching
> styles, but those I've known whose education originated on film have
> been generally more hesitant to roll gobs of unusable footage, no
> matter what format they ultimately end up using.
> 
> RW
> 
> On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 7:22 AM, David Tetzlaff <djtet53 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I can't tell you how many "media professionals" I've worked with who press the record button on the 7D
> >> and then proceed to tweak lighting or chose a different frame. Meanwhile, cast and crew are standing around twiddling their thumbs, anticipating a decision but without any real hope of experiencing one. I pity the editors who wade through these wasted gigabytes.
> >
> > Well, this isn't the 7D's fault. It's kind of lame to expect a camera to enforce on a maker things they should know how to do regardless. If you're dumping massive amounts of sludge on the schmo whop has to log your footage (even if you're our own schmo) you're a media bozo, regardless of your professional/amateur status.
> >
> >
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