Big Productions
by Chelvendra Sathieaanandha
HD hasn’t really changed the type of films with the big budget. I’m not trying to discount the big Hollywood filmmakers here – a handful of them have made a semi-permanent dive into shooting on HD – for example, Lucas (Star Wars) and Rodrigeuz (Sin City). However, George Lucas was already making the type of films he is making now, almost thirty years ago. And although Sin City was a very unique looking film, it showed how ridiculously close to film, HD can look.
So HD definitely can be used to mimic film, and it seems the larger budget films are doing just that. For example, Lucas mixed up the use of film and digital in Starwars Episode 1[1], and not many people picked it. But, what is changing here is the process of filmmaking, where digital effects are potentially easier and the recorded image can be seen almost in real-time and editing can start on the same day of the shoot[2].
The emergence in a new style and the “type” of films created will more so be seen on the low-end, not-so-film-quality-capable cameras, that are available to the smaller productions.
[1] Magid, Ron. “Exploring a New Universe: George Lucas discusses his ongoing effort to shape the future of digital cinema.” The American Cinematographer. September 2002. http://www.theasc.com/magazine/sep02/exploring/index.html, viewed on May 12th.
[2] “Digital cinematography,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cinematography#Culture, viewed May 2006.