Yes, I said it. DSLR crazyness. It has gotten a bit out of hand with the DSLR crazy and all the non-camera, non-film people who are suddenly film camera people or are shooting films. Look, because you a camera, don’t assume you are a camera person. I own a still camera and I don’t call myself a photographer. I have come across far too many people that haven’t shot a lick of film and are suddenly filmmakers because they turned the dial on their 7D and filmed their cat chasing a laser pointer. First off, you don’t need $1700 worth of equipment to make that film, and C) it’s about a story not hitting record.
I admittedly got into a brief online argument with someone who was going to make the first iPhone G4 film. So what! Look, in the time it took you to type that, someone has already filmed their kid licking the dog and uploaded it to YouTube. So you got beat on that finish line. Again, so what! If all you care about is being the first guy to make a film on a G4 then you are part of a larger world of people who don’t have a story that they care about. You are just dropping the hammer on your camera and assuming the world is about to bestow awards on you. Their not.
A film is a story. You are telling a story in the images, the dialog, the sounds, and colors (or lack of). There is tone, pulse, mood, and so many aspects to a film that make it successful that have nothing to do with the camera. A good camera has good capture, yes, but so much has been done by people that didn’t have new technology and they made something amazing. All I am saying is, don’t get caught up in this DSLR crap any more. It is getting silly, as the following pictures will show:
If you don’t know it yet, the show Portlandia is now available on HULU. If you don’t know it yet, Portlandia is a sketch style comedy show on IFC about the quirky little world of Portland, Oregon. If you don’t know that quirky little world of Portland, Oregon, you may not get the joke and think that we are a hipster mecca or 90′s rejected 25 year old retirees. That would be the joke. It is on HULU nearly a week sooner than its release to the world on TV. Not sure why that is, but if you want to see the joke that you probably won’t get unless you live here, go watch it. If you get the joke because you live here, you probably aren’t laughing at it any more.
One the First Contact front, I was fortunate enough to meet Peter Nelson and Sally Roy, a husband and wife team of cinematographer and producer, respectively. Sally helps to produce the Bill Moyer programs and has worked with him years, while Peter has worked on many documentaries and films behind the camera. I have to say, I was please to spend time with them and am hopeful of many good things to come from talking with them.
Off to script writing.
Yes it’s true the camera doesn’t make the story good; however give a great storyteller great gear and I assure you they will give you an even better product.
I totally agree that if given good equipment. Good crews, good gear, good locations, good story, good production, good director. It is a sweet dance, and one breakdown can cause the whole thing to suffer. I just feel that there is a lean toward the gear making things suddenly really great when the story suffers.
Recently, there was a short made based on a video game. It has been making the nerdy viral rounds. Myself and a friend watched it, and when it was done he said “THAT WAS AMAZING! It was so good, dude, I can’t believe it.” And I said “What was good about it?” He responded with “The explosions were amazing, and the gun fights were really sweet. That camera angles really made it all play out well, and it was shot on a DSLR. See how awesome those things are?” I asked “What was the story about?” He blinked, thought about it and said “I don’t know.” Then he laughed and said “Yeah, good point.”
There are some guys that did a video with cardboard guns, paintball suits, and even a cardboard tank. They proved that with no dialog, and some cardboard props, you can make any explosion, any gun battle, any action sequence pull off well because DSLRs are cheap and over the counter explosions have changed the special effects realm of filming. But can you tell a story?
If someone knows the gear that Portlandia is using, I would be more than grateful! It looks like they are using an external recorder with a 70-200 lens and a wide angle adapter. What do you guys think?