DV Good
I think this is a really interesting question.
If I look at film history, new movements and new voices have always emerged as a result of shifts in technology, which bring production costs down and put film making into the hands of new people.
A good example of this, are the light weight 16 mm film cameras developed for war reports, during WW II. This then allowed, non studio, location film making to develop and brought about Italian Social Realism, which in turn influenced English Social realism in the 1960s.
We are currently in a similar position. New, cheap, portable technology is bringing down production costs. Computer power now means that editing suites are increasing in power and decreasing in price.
This will change things. New styles and voices will emerge.
Whether this will also bring about a lot of bad, lazy work as well, I guess the answer to that is probably, yes. However, that work will fade away into obscurity. Those people who believe that anyone can make a film, will discover that it's not the technology, but the ability to create compelling drama that makes good films.
Having done a lot of work on various professional DV formats, the other thing I have become more aware of, is that video requires very high levels of technical competence to compete with film as a creative medium. It requires very delicate lighting and creative understanding of colour temperature. On most video formats the colours are over saturated and because it handles low light well, it makes for real problems getting sufficient/creative use of depth of field, unless you are on the long end of the lens.
There will always be lazy film makers, who think that everything can get fixed in post. Don't worry about good composition, I'll re-frame it in post. Don't worry about good exposure or colour balance, I'll fix it in post etc. However, I don't think those people will emerge as the new voices of this time. There are many technical challenges to working with these new DV formats. rather than de-skilling people, I think that it will force people to develop new skills.
This is a great time to be an emerging film maker.[/i]