Thank You Brent,
I think it's funny (not ha ha, but ironic) that as far as digital has come, it's still complicated, delicate and costly.
Try a line item on an estimate for two $100 cables that burn out per project. That probably won't go over well.
Or line item a day of just DIT prep, of three computers, calibrating monitors, cleaning sensors, charging all of those batteries, testing all of those connectors etc.
That doesn't include the standard prep day(s) of testing cameras, in our case still and motion, all lenses for sharpness, all grip, generators, loading trucks, once again , etc., etc.
I've mentioned this before but when we started shooting digital (many moons ago) and were trying to figure out color spaces, profiles of monitors, cameras, software and printers.
It was about midnight and our studio manager Chris was standing in front of his desk, two pucks around his neck, wires everywhere, two different monitors, printer chugging away for guide prints.
On his desk was 50 to 60 rolls of 120 film we were shipping out and wearily he pointed at the film and said "you know, in a few years we'll look back at that film and say wow I remember the days when each frame only costs a dollar fifty."
I don't have a clue how much we have spent since then, but dozens of computers later, 20 minimum cameras later, I'd probably fall over if I broke it down in a comparable digital to film cost/time investment.
The upside is with digital we can shoot this quickly with practical lights and additional lighting. I even used one of our vehicles for the background rim light.
I posted this in the motion section, but it's an interesting tale of what it takes for a wonderful film dp, John Seale does on a project like "Fury Road". Years of testing by his predecessor, years of prep by him, just to make the switch to digital.
In stills we don't have the years of prep luxury but it's a great listen.
The video won't embed here, but press the watch button to open another window. It's very interesting.
All the best.
BC
