House pisses me off

[Rob Ruffo]

I don't get it? Is that DOP blind? Can he not see how soft these )&%# DSLRs look in HD!?

This angers me. Just yesterday an agency art director said she wanted us to use a 5D because it was "the cool, in approach". So aliasing is in style now? Is moire what all the hip DJs, Russian models and Berlin performance artists are into? Yeah, cool kids hate true high resolution - that's so last year.

Now this House thing makes winning arguments harder. I need to win these arguments, because I cannot rent out a Red kit for free to productions as I might my 5D. (I have baseplates that cost more than my 5D, which I bought because I love it as a STILLS camera). I also HATE that awful aliased low res over-compressed look the 5D gives me. It's no fun to shoot crap.

My feeling is that House DOP got paid big time by Canon. Otherwise it makes no sense, no sense at all.

Here's my theory of the whole phenomenon. There are lots and lots of amateurs out there. They know almost nothing about cinematography, have no real eye, etc. To them, the 5D looks "movie-like". This band of morons is a HUGE market to sell accessories to like follow-focuses made from RC car gears. Now we have a motivated group to promote the idea that its a great solution: all the mugs who sell cheap-crap accessories at high prices.

The other motivated group are the no-budget-no-connections filmmakers themselves. It's very appealing for them to think that their tool is "almost as good as 35mm film", the preposterous claim that is the subtext of the Zacuto shoot-out recently. They will scream and shout and jump all about if you try to tell them that is not true, because if that is not true it means that their pipe-dream of shooting a movie for $700 and having it look as good as Hollywood feature is not realistic (it's not realistic for a number of other reasons as well, but no room to go into those here). They don't want to hear that, especially since most of them deep down, know it's true. More motivated sellers of the 5D lie.

Then of course, we have Canon. Video shooters, even wedding guys, have deeper pockets than photo guys. L Glass, compared to dedicated video lenses, is essentially free. What an awesome market for Canon. Thus the third pillar of the trifecta of 5D Lie Salesmen.

This lie is more easily sold because most of what we see from that camera we see hyper-compressed on the web, at a highly blurred 720p or lower, with all the shots that didn't (can't) work - like bricks in focus, high-contrast wrinkles, beards, etc. etc. edited out. No one stops to think that a resolved 550p or so, as streaming web video is commonly capable of, is as good as the footage will EVER look, unlike footage from other real film and video cams, which would look FAR BETTER on HD cable or blu-ray.

There are so many salesmen that a fellow DOP was sitting with me the other night and said "Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way. Maybe aliasing and low resolution are no big deal." No. It's important we realize that successfully brainwashing people with a statement does not make it true.

The fact is, the 5D hurts the business in many ways. It is a great student camera, like my old Bolex was, but I think it is destructive to our trade if we say we can shoot a major network show on a modern-day Bolex.

We need to more aggressively and shamelessly say that good tools and of course good talent are not cheap, and that standards must always remain high in all ways. Otherwise pro and amateur will be blended together as one low standard, and film schools may as well close.

[Christian Munoz D]

All that we have yet to learn and discover - from an individual or collective viewpoint and shifting over time. You cannot learn what you already 'know' - although you may have to unlearn some things, and you cannot discover something you've already found - although you may occasionally rediscover something you've misplaced or forgotten.

Edit: Marlys Witte's definition of "Ignorance"

[Rob Ruffo]

Originally Posted by Christian Munoz D

All that we have yet to learn and discover - from an individual or collective viewpoint and shifting over time. You cannot learn what you already 'know' - although you may have to unlearn some things, and you cannot discover something you've already found - although you may occasionally rediscover something you've misplaced or forgotten.

??????????????

[Brad Webb]

Maybe the DP wants a challenge. Maybe he wants to see how good he is, and make the 5D look awesome. Next weeks episode he'll shoot in HDV, then the season finale will be shot on VHS with in camera editing!

[Rob Ruffo]

Originally Posted by Brad Webb

Maybe the DP wants a challenge. Maybe he wants to see how good he is, and make the 5D look awesome. Next weeks episode he'll shoot in HDV, then the season finale will be shot on VHS with in camera editing!

That's funny.

[Christian Munoz D]

Originally Posted by Rob Ruffo

??????????????

Marlys Witte's definition of "Ignorance"

The best word to describe all people using these highly compressed “formats”.

[David Rasberry]

The fact is, the 5D hurts the business in many ways. It is a great student camera, like my old Bolex was, but I think it is destructive to our trade if we say we can shoot a major network show on a modern-day Bolex.

A Bolex is far superior to a 5D for image quality and as a practical production camera.

[OptiTek]

Welcome to the brave new world of cinematography!!!

[Brad Webb]

On the bright side (always look on the bright side of life)...

...if the episode looks like donkey ass and has all kinds of aliasing issues, the codec fails apart in post, this could just be the deathblow for the 5D as a serious pro format. Then no studio would dare touch a vDSLR again.

[Christian Munoz D]

Originally Posted by OptiTek

Welcome to the brave new world of cinematography!!!

Brave?????

Anyways, here there is a aproved list of cameras for HD productions from NatGeo. This list is from March 2009. Will be interesting to see the same list after the 2010 update.
Anyone have a list of a different network?

16.0 NGC Approved List of HD Primary Shooting Cameras
For 1080i Productions: (Minimum of 2 million pixels)
�� Thompson Phantom v12
�� Red Camera
�� Sony HDW-F900R / F950
�� Sony F23
�� Sony HDW790 / 730S
�� Sony PDW700 (1920 x 1080 @ 50 Mb/s)
�� Sony HDC-1500
�� Panasonic AJ-HPX3000 (shoots 1080 only)
�� Panasonic AJ-HDX900
For 720p Productions: (Minimum of 1 million pixels)
�� Panasonic Varicam AJ -HDC27FP
�� Panasonic Varicam AJ-HDX900

NGC Approved List of HD Secondary Shooting Cameras
* Note – Secondary cameras are to be used for tight or confined spaces or situations that pose a hazard to your full sized production camera. Use of footage
captured with these cameras must not exceed 20% of the overall production. Any percentage over this amount must be approved by EP’s and Network
Operations.
�� Sony EX1 & EX3 – (1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 - HQ Mode @ 35 MB/s)
�� Panasonic AG-HPX500 – both 1080i and 720p
�� Panasonic AJ-HPX2000 – both 1080i and 720p

Non-Approved HD Cameras:
�� Sony HVRZ1U / Sony HVRV1U / Sony HVRZ7U
�� Anything built on the HDV platform