Digital video technology applications and overview

DV Technology

The Revolution Will Be Fought in Pixels

The Social Impact of DV Technology in Filmmaking

Since the advent of film, the medium has been constantly growing and evolving, every day seeming to be the start of a whole new era of film technology. Each passing trend in film-making leaves an impression on the entire future of film. While favorite techniques and technologies are passed with a slightly mournful reminiscence, the advantages and new abilities brought forth with every step on the film-making timeline are welcomed and celebrated... usually. A new technology has invaded film-making that is so revolutionary it has literally started a revolution in the industry. Digital Video, or DV, has advanced to the point where most movie-goers cannot say if the film was shot on traditional film or using a digital camera, and this has major social implications for artists who are a part of the industry, as well as for those who are most certainly not. The new generation of filmmakers are quickly embracing DV technology, and celebrating it for bringing democracy into the world of film. However, there remains a good deal of resistance from certain elitist members of the film community, and while there is some validity to the concerns expressed by those dedicated to the preservation of "film-only" filming, every negative aspect of the DV invasion seems to be outweighed drastically by the potential for the overall artistic greater good.

Making movies costs money. Actually, it costs a lot of money, and it always has. Overwhelming budgets have forced many independent films to be grounded before completion, and prevented many more from ever being started. One film-thinker asks the question, "When one considers calling oneself a filmmaker, what are the requisites? Can an aspiring vision be enough? Or does the writing of a treatment, a script or even the completion of a film delegate the title?" (Motlag) The answers to these questions today are changing from those that would have held ground only a short time ago, for the ability to actually create a film has been opened to just about everyone. Finding financial backers and begging production companies for support is no longer an issue with DV in the picture. Whether the vision is for television, mainstream theaters, indie festivals, or Internet distribution, digital video can be the answer to the first and foremost production problems.

According to the president of the production company Next Wave Films, "It used to be everybody is writing a script in LA, now it is everybody is shooting a digital feature." (Rebort) Many filmmakers have had the vision to create their art, but not the desire or ability to make the deals necessary to get grants and funding for expensive equipment and production costs. Now, artists do not have these same obstacles in the way, and the films made with the amazingly low-budget DV have already found a widespread and loyal audience in many genres, from festivals to Hollywood. Ranging from less than $1,000 to around $6,000 each, digital video cameras that can produce quality films in varying styles are easily obtained by a single filmmaker, regardless of whether or not he is able to find a financial backer for the project. For very little investment, a one-chip DV camera that fits in the palm of one's hand can be used for portable, unobtrusive filming. For a little more, a three-chip DV camera that processes the red, green, and blue constituents of the light separately for higher quality light and color may be able to fool many lay movie-watchers. Either end of the DV cost spectrum does well in low-light conditions. In addition to the initial camera investment being immensely less than purchasing traditional film cameras, the tape itself is cheap. Traditional film stock and processing costs hundreds of dollars for every hour of filming, while Mini-DV tape costs only dollars per hour. (Rebort) When working with extremely expensive film, most indie projects cannot afford to experiment with scenes or take shots over and over until they are perfect because of the high cost; many times actors had only one or two chances to get it all perfect. With Mini-DV tape, filmmakers can afford to experiment, shoot hours and hours of footage to choose the best portions, and easily rewind and check the footage already gotten in an instant. On a really tight budget, DV tape can be recorded over with little loss of quality if a scene needs to be redone. Digital video crews are smaller, and because the director himself probably owns the camera he is using, it removes so many headaches from production. In post-production, the difference is not even comparable. Editing traditional film required an editing studio, very expensive specialized equipment, and a lot of money. Today, digital video is edited on computers. No, not million-dollar computer entities owned by production studios, but the same home computers that many people use for web surfing or photo editing. An Apple Macintosh G4 tower is more advanced and capable of editing video than the high-end Hollywood production companies' machines from not that long ago. This is not to say that digital video is perfect, there are certainly some areas where the quality is not as high as traditional film. For example, color depth is greatly reduced in comparison, and this is particularly noticeable when the DV is blown up to 35 mm film for use in movie theaters. There may be hundreds of colors vs. millions of colors, but that is an issue that can be worked around and adapted to fit the nature of the work. It is important also to keep in mind the rate at which this technology continues to advance, and it can be expected that the day when DV has equaled or surpassed the color depth of traditional film is not far away.