[MacDV] Re: DV vs. Film

[Dennis A. Amith [kndy]]

> > I want to produce an independent Film and I am wondering if anyone out
> > there has shot on miniDV? Does anyone here have real field experience
> > and can you tell me how DV compares in quality to 16MM and 35MM Film?
> >
> > Chris

Hiya,

There are fairly good articles on the web and also on print regarding DV vs.
Film.  A magazine that tends to cover the DV vs. film quite a bit is
moviemaker.  An article that was really good was by Gregory Hudson for
MovieMaker issue 43 titled "The Digital Myth" where they take on the
following topics:

*  Does DV represent a revolutionary improvement over previous video
cameras?
*  Does DV require fewer crew members?
*  Does DV require less lighting?
*  Is DV faster?
*  Does using DV require little or no training?

What the article came down to though is to make a good movie without film
but using DV...Can serious, thoughtful, artful cinema be created on a DV
camera?  His answer was "Sure it can - and it has... but not without
significant skill, extreme effort, substantial compromise and at a
considerable expense. "

Going to another magazine - RES.  I was curious about the movie "The
Anniversary Party" by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cummings which was
created on DV. In RES magazine, vol. 4, no. 3, Alan Cummings said,
"Sometimes digital video is quite unforgiving. It gets very close, but it
feels different because people don't look as pretty as they would on film
and we think that means that people are much more open and real.  But that
doesn't affect the performance at all - that's just the quality of DV."

"The decision to use digital video was a very practical one that had to do
with speed - we had only 19 days to shoot the film and with digital video,
you can move faster.  It was a convenience, really.  We tried as hard as we
could to disguise the fact that we shot on DV in the finished film - it's
still an intensely ugly medium."

Oh, I was curious also for the Project Greenlight first contest, how many
people would submit work via DV or film.  The DVD is cool because it comes
with a lot of the submissions for the contests on the special features
section.

Anyway, I look at things more as a cost issue.  Film does look beautiful and
if the money is there, you can work with film but if you don't have the
money to burn, gotta do whatcha gotta do...and for me...DV is the way.  But
in my dreams...I would love to use those really expensive DV cameras or
whatever George Lucas is using right now...hehe...

daa