Sunday, September 4, 2011

DSLR filmmaking: fad or the future of cinema? | Fotorater - Robert Francis Taylor

Canon EOS 600D

The rise of DSLRs has caught the attention of professional filmmakers – but are they a game-changer or a distraction for those who strive for success in the film industry?

If you had spoken to professional cinematographers and filmmakers five years ago and told them that the next breakthrough for guerilla filmmaking was to come from a stills camera, they would have thought you were mad. Flash-forward to the present day, and that is exactly what has happened.

The advent of filmmaking with DSLRs has sprung up and surprised many people with its relatively low-cost but high-end results, giving practically anybody the chance to create eye-catching cinema.

The reason DSLRs have attracted so much attention is because of the sheer quality that they can deliver, despite not coming with the huge price-tag of a traditional film camera. It's no surprise that cinephiles and industry professionals are starting to sit up and take notice, with this mode of filmmaking even capturing the attention of Darren Aronofsky, who used a Canon 7D and Canon 1D Mk IV to film particular sections of his award-winning film, Black Swan.

Canon EOS 7D

It's not just because of  the quality footage that DSLRs can deliver, but also down to the practicality of these tiny cameras. Traditional films would have to be shot and then processed before any editing could be done. This was a very lengthy and expensive process that has been made cheaper and quicker with a digital workflow that digital filmmaking brings with it. It's these advantages that allowed the season seven finale of US TV show House to be shot entirely in only 10 days with a Canon 5D Mk II (pictured). Having shot various projects myself using various cameras, I can attest to the super-practical nature of these cameras.

Canon 5D Mk II

Similar to the introduction of the home-video camera to the masses in the 1980s, the DSLR revolution has allowed non-filmmakers access to high-end equipment. Coupled with the rise of YouTube, budding film-makers now have a product and a means of distribution that was unprecedented. But is this a good thing?

At one end of the spectrum are those with little technical or storytelling ability, who upload countless numbers of dreadful videos that saturate the number of online films with genuine talent behind them. And then there are those at the other end who now find themselves in an ever more competitive market where visual aesthetics are not something to fall back on, but are regarded as being necessary.

The ability, or lack thereof, to capture any decent quality of sound with these cameras is also a huge issue. Pioneers of the DSLR movement like Philip Bloom spend a great deal of their time investigating and reviewing the best ways of enhancing DSLR filmmaking, but these workarounds are not entirely cheap and this is where the future of DSLR shooting starts to get interesting with Canon and Sony developing improvements.

Although I've expressed some qualms with the open access that these cameras have given to the market, the drawbacks might put many amateurs off. After the initial cost of the camera and then a decent lens, there are dozens of add-ons and extras that only serious filmmakers will consider buying. The focus now, more than ever, will be on great storytelling. You can shoot hilarious videos of your friends messing about with a shallow depth-of-field, but once people realise that your 'story' is just as shallow, they'll soon log off. With new camera models from Canon and Sony being developed, the future of DSLR filmmaking is looking very bright for the next generation of storytellers.

DSLR filmmaking: fad or the future of cinema? | Fotorater - Robert Francis Taylor

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