Click
here if you would like to Contribute or send a feedback.
Click
here to go to the main page of Kannada Movie Reviews (Kannada).
Click
here to go to the main page of Kannada Movie Reviews (English).
Click here to
go to the main page of Digital Cinema (DC)
The Digital Film Revolution is driven by the invention of
consumer video cameras and inexpensive digital non-linear
editing systems that rival and match professional standards.
Digital filmmaking is swiftly revolutionizing film and television.
To the digital documentary filmmaker or journalist, digital
technology gives a more intimate and unparalleled access to
their subjects allowing for a more character driven form of
storytelling. For narrative filmmakers, the digital format
allows the filmmaker to work with small budgets in small crews
on locations, often with multiple cameras, allowing for a
more immediate and spontaneous kind of film and television.
Digital technology is allowing film and television to grow
into a truer art form than ever before as more and more storytellers
have access to the tools of filmmaking.
Non-Linear editing ROCKS! Somewhere in a smallroom in a small
town there's an up & coming big movie director just waiting
to be seen or his talents. He shot his film with a consumer
MiniDV camera, and we guarantee you it's one of the best films
you will ever see in life!
Digital technology is edging into the celluloid frontier -
and just may change the movie biz entirely.
Digital photography isn’t the future of Hollywood, according
to director Robert Rodriguez. “It’s already here,” says Rodriguez,
who shot Spy Kids 2 and Once upon a Time in Mexico using high-definition
video cameras. He swears he’s done with film. “It would be
like going back to the Dark Ages,” he says.
Rodriguez, George Lucas, Stephen Soderbergh, and a few other
prominent directors have scrapped the 35mm film cameras that
Hollywood has relied upon for decades. Instead, they’re using
all-digital sony video cameras not unlike the camcorders used
to capture birthday parties and graduations. Advantages include
instant screening of takes using high-definition monitors
on the set, no film processing costs, longer takes (digital
cartridges hold an hour of tape, film reels just 10 minutes)
and — crucial for special effects nuts like Rodriguez and
Lucas, whose Star Wars: Episode II The Attack of the Clones
was the first all-digital major film released — electronic
images that feed directly into digital editing systems.
Speed is the biggest edge. Rodriguez spent only seven weeks
shooting Once Upon a Time in Mexico, a Johnny Depp-centered
sequel to his famously low-budget directorial debut, El Mariachi.
When a director can instantly see what the camera captured,
shooting requires fewer takes — and much less time. “It’s
like movie-making with the lights on,” Rodriguez says. “You
can finally see what you’re shooting.”
But there’s another potential payoff for the entire film industry:
the possibility of shooting digitally, editing digitally,
and distributing digitally to theaters. Audiences could see
digital originals, and the big studios could cut up to $1
billion in annual distribution costs.
Today, most films are shot on 35mm film, converted to a digital
format for editing, and then back to film. That process, plus
the making of hundreds or thousands of copies for distribution
to theaters, is expensive, time-consuming, troublesome, and
reduces the quality of the images on theater screens.
Converting 35,000 U.S. cinemas to digital distribution will
cost several billion dollars, however, says John Fithian,
president of the National Association of Theatre Owners. Theaters
want studios to foot the bill, but no plan for that is expected
before March 2004. Still, he says, “On the projection end,
we believe it isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”
On the production end, some directors are likely to convert
to digital shooting slowly, if they convert at all, and some
experts disagree about the quality of digital video. UCLA
film school professor William McDonald says electronic images
still aren’t as good as chemical ones. “The digital cameras
that are being used now are getting very close,” he says.
“But there are still limitations.” Action movies with lots
of special effects may quickly embrace digital photography,
McDonald predicts, but most movies will be shot on 35mm for
years to come.
For Rodriguez, there’s no if, no when, and no doubt. He’s
already planning to shoot Spy Kids 3D: Game Over digitally
and raving that extra-long takes and instant feedback improved
even the acting in his newest film. “Wait till you see Johnny
Depp in this movie,” he says. “It’s the best he’s ever been.”
harishmattur@yahoo.com
Click here if you would like to Contribute or send a
feedback.
Click
here to go to the main page of Kannada Movie Reviews
(Kannada).
Click
here to go to the main page of Kannada Movie Reviews
(English).
Click
here to go to the main page of Digital Cinema (DC)
|
