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Author Topic: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?  (Read 8004 times)

Christopher Sanderson

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On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« on: January 03, 2011, 02:21:49 pm »

What is fascinating to watch from my perspective having spent 25 years in film production/post and now 10 years working with Michael, Jeff & others in digital photography, is the 'language' or metaphor of the two worlds of film and stills converging within digital video production with video capable DSLRs and digital post.

Digital san 'speak' either language - it is simply a matter of UI design. So metaphors of film post-production have been drawn and the UI designed to often mimic Film Post at the Pro end. That makes sense if the users are pro cinematographers/editors.

But at the Consumer/Pro-sumer end, the language and metaphor of Combocams comes from stills and the darkroom.

Personally, I like the digital photography paradigm of Raw conversion > output (mostly from my experience with Lightroom/Camera Raw and Capture One). My guess is that the language, UI and metaphor of stills may remain simply because there are likely as many folk coming into video via stills as from within the film production end. So when we are all colour-correcting (grading) RAW video, I hope that it is as simple (?) as the LR or C1 interface.

fredjeang

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Re: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2011, 04:29:37 pm »

But when you think about it, watching the Laforet movie in available light with the 1D mk4, what is coming is a real revolution.
Those cameras will be each time more like a direct transmitor betweeen the eyes and the scene.

To shoot such a night sequence 10 years ago, you would have needed to recreate those sensations, a all team of cine and highly specialized light technicians.

That really makes you think.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2011, 05:21:41 pm by fredjeang »
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RFPhotography

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Re: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2011, 03:17:33 pm »

So when we are all colour-correcting (grading) RAW video, I hope that it is as simple (?) as the LR or C1 interface.


And when do you expect that will be......?  ;D

But yes, I agree on the lexicon.  It took me a little while to realise that grading and colour correcting were the same task.
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Christopher Sanderson

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Re: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2011, 04:25:38 pm »

And when do you expect that will be......?  ;D
Well, probably for many of us within two years. One can do that very successfully now with RED. So my guess is it won't actually be too long.

feppe

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Re: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2011, 04:51:34 pm »

It can be fascinating, but it can also be detrimental to getting the message across in inexperienced hands. For me the most aggravating result of convergence is the unnecessarily shallow DOF in motion footage shot by many former still shooters. Paper-thin DOF works well with stills when we have all the time we want to take in an image, but the image (and message) is lost when similar DOF is applied in a fleeting motion shot. It does have it's place as a special effect used sparingly, of course.

Another is that many still photographers are very poor at telling a story with moving visuals. Just the technique for different ways to pan, zoom, use DOF (see above), grade, etc. are not picked up overnight - and using those successfully to convey a feeling takes even more trial and error.

While I'm strongly in the camp that feels we are right at the beginning of a literal* explosion of democratization and creativity in motion, there will be even more utter garbage than in the past. Fortunately there are diamonds in the rough.

* used in the metaphorical sense

RFPhotography

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Re: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2011, 06:17:19 pm »

Well, probably for many of us within two years. One can do that very successfully now with RED. So my guess is it won't actually be too long.

And for the rest of us schmucks?  ;)
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Christopher Sanderson

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Re: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2011, 01:39:28 pm »

Well I suspect that the currently available 422 output via SDI or HDMI at a high bitrate will become more and more usable with currently (& shortly available hello Apple/FCP?) software as computers get more powerful, bandwidth greater and storage cheaper. The software is already here, the output of 422 is here, It is simply not all neatly available out of a standard box.

lowep

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Re: On convergence: metaphors from stills or film/video?
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2011, 11:18:10 am »

apart from providing convenience, convergence is also a new way for technology companies to get us to spend more on their products without paying too much attention to what is lost in the process - at least until they can provide one unit that can do everything and more than can be done with separate units that has not happened yet. I am thinking here for example about large sensors and professional quality onboard audio. Not to forget the rich legacy of metaphors for seeing and understanding the world provided by the traditions of film and photography. Maybe to conquer the world and make history (or big bucks) it is helpful to be forgetful.
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