Writer Darren Laken and I meet once a week to discuss the story of the movie. We are writing for the horror/fantasy genre. I will be directing and producing the film, and I'm extremely excited to be getting full creative control. We have had around ten meetings thus far and we have the story pretty much outlined. The job now is to write the "treatment".
The learning curve to making a movie is huge if you've never done it before. The learning curve is as huge as you want it to be really. I've joined various independent communities and I continue to read up on tips.
One of the most difficult decisions for me so far has been which format the movie should be shot in. When the idea was sparked it was pretty clear I wanted to shoot at 1080p in DSLR. Having been to a DSLR film festival in Colorado I was so impressed with the quality that the format offered. It is also affordable, kind of perfect for a first time director on a tight budget. This decision was made a couple of months ago, but since then I have read various articles on the internet about how DSLR film is dead. For a few days I floundered around the internet trying to find answers, I was panicking I'll admit.
I am not an authority on the subject, but as far as I can make out "DSLR film is dead" is an exaggeration from the point of view of marketeers and snobs. When DSLR film exploded onto the scene about two years ago as a viable and quality format, it was due to the large sensors (full frame) DSLR cameras came with. With the ability to use the affordable stills lenses and their larger range of f-stops, the format became a huge hit. The only downside was the audio input. To capture professional sounding audio, a film maker would have to purchase an external field mixer and/or external recorder of some sort.
The term "DSLR film is dead" started appearing when companies such as Sony and Panasonic released their next generation video cameras, with equally large sensors. These cameras seem to be mid-priced, about the same as a top end DSLR camera. As far as I can see, DSLR is not dead at all. Sure, it no longer dominates the independent movie market, but for a photographer who already has a collection of lenses it makes sense to stick with it. The quality of DSLR is extremely high and versatile. For my personal project, I have chosen to continue with DSLR unperturbed... and the sound quality issue? Well, I always was going to buy a field mixer/external sound recorder anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment