True Filmmaking

bensmerglia said:
Here's my theory to filmmaking: The video does not make the film. The film does not make the film. The people who come in every day and without question do their best to make a story realized: the directors, writers, producers, actors, musicians, editors, lighting, cinematographers, art department, production assistants, even the grips and craft services, make the film. The medium simply records and displays the amount of effort everyone truly put in.
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a very beautiful way to conclude what has been a most engrossing debate to see. Ben, I feel, reminds us of the all important human factor. However one must not forget that without the 'medium' there would be no empirical evidence of any work whatsoever. Conversely one cannot fail to realise that without the work behind the 'medium' than there would be no actual evidence once more.
It is rather a marriage of the two - the medium and the human factor. However, what rings true is that the medium was also made by people - those in the long production lines, those designers, engineers
to quote Ben 'people who come in every day and without question do their best'.
He is truly right. Well played Ben, great conclusion it all.
Oh, i've just ruined it all........................
 
Nique,
Thank you very much for your comments. I feel I should clarify something

However one must not forget that without the 'medium' there would be no empirical evidence of any work whatsoever.
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When I said 'the medium simply record and displays the amount of effort everyone truly put in' I didn't mean we should forget the medium altogether; obviously there needs to be a medium in order for it to be a film. I just meant that it doesn't matter what the medium is, it serves the same purpose, to output the effort- if there was a lot of effort and the movie is good- the type of medium it is shouldn't matter.

Again, I appreciate your comments and I'm glad you agree! :)
 
Sorry I missed all the action on this one whilst I was away. Going to have my say anyway.

It's kind of pedantic to think that the term "filmmaker" is linked to working on a particular format. Language just doesn't work that way, the usages of words evolve through time until their original meaning is lost and the word becomes merely symbolic. For instance, the word "toady" is commonly used in England to mean a henchman or creep, but the word originates from Tudor quack medicine sellers who would plant a friend in the audience who they would miraculously cure, after the shill had put a live and poisonous toad in his mouth. These days someone can be a toady without there being an actual toad, ergo, you can now be a filmmaker without ever having shot a single foot of celluloid.

I suggest the idiots in the other forum should spend a little less time on the net and a little more time reading modern linguistic theory, Jacque Derrida would be a good start, in the original French. :lol:
 
I have a great magnet that from the E3 convention that Kodak gave out and it said, "Film Rules, Video Drools!" And i can not agree more!
 
Each medium has its own posetives and negetives...

Film is a medium that is hands on, its takes skill to load the film, to make sure you are not wasting the film, to develop the film... etc.... and so film becomes a work of passion, But film is also expensive... very expensive and the quality that it provides is quickly (and i know i am going to get some angry looks from this) getting equaled by digital. but that doesnt matter because it is the work and hear that goes into crafting that film into something amazing that really matters.

Digital on the other hand is something that is cheap, reuseable and perfect for adding special effects in post production. And so if you have an idea for a flick the tiume it takes to get it from an idea in your head to a fully edited peice of art is about half that of film.... And so it allows anyone to be a filmmaker, even if you do not have much in the way of funds.

And so there is no real argument in this... both mediums are equal in different ways, it goes the same for digital photography, people say it is going to over take film but that is not true... people are not going to stop using their dark rooms, do you realise the cost of renovations!!!
 
Walter_Smidge said:
Each medium has its own posetives and negetives...

Film is a medium that is hands on, its takes skill to load the film, to make sure you are not wasting the film, to develop the film... etc.... and so film becomes a work of passion, But film is also expensive... very expensive and the quality that it provides is quickly (and i know i am going to get some angry looks from this) getting equaled by digital. but that doesnt matter because it is the work and hear that goes into crafting that film into something amazing that really matters.

Digital on the other hand is something that is cheap, reuseable and perfect for adding special effects in post production. And so if you have an idea for a flick the tiume it takes to get it from an idea in your head to a fully edited peice of art is about half that of film.... And so it allows anyone to be a filmmaker, even if you do not have much in the way of funds.

And so there is no real argument in this... both mediums are equal in different ways, it goes the same for digital photography, people say it is going to over take film but that is not true... people are not going to stop using their dark rooms, do you realise the cost of renovations!!!
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Good argument, and :welcome:
 
:welcome: I think you're really going to fit in round here, nicely balanced argument.

I have a great magnet that from the E3 convention that Kodak gave out and it said, "Film Rules, Video Drools!"
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"Shouldn't that be film spools, video comes in neat cassettes."

Presumably kodak are giving out magnets in the hope that it will degauss any video tape it comes near. :lol:
 
Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day, I think Kodak should jump on the video train..
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The only problem with that is that the video tape industry has maybe only ten more years of mainstream trading left in it. (It their own fault for not standardising formats)
The new generation digital cameras are all being designed with hard drives, so that file transfers of data will replace digitising in. This is going to kill tape and also put more pressure on film as a medium. You are talking about removing days of digitising from the post production process. With the development of an electronic flagging system, whereby you mark via the camera the takes you want for the edit, you should also be able to hook the hard drive up to the editing suite and just dump your selected shots straight into editing bins. Which will effectively take log sheets out of the picture too.

With a quantum leap in digital picture quality every eighteen months (HD is just the start), faster computers, ever more sophisticated computer based effects packages and unlimited storage space it's only a matter of time until the whole film/digital debate is a matter of history.

More importantly with software breakthroughs like Bit Torrent allowing low bandwidth data streaming, making video image distribution possible via broadband as it exists now, we are looking at a completely different world opening up for independent filmmakers.

In the end the footage a film is shoot on is irrelevant, it's what happens at the other end of the process that is really changing our world for us.

Exciting isn't it :yes:
 
However on the other hand it means that even more people are going to be able to make films and so we will see more talent emerge as nothing is holding people back..
 
However on the other hand it means that even more people are going to be able to make films and so we will see more talent emerge as nothing is holding people back..
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I think time will tell on this one. The real question is whether the new technologies will open up new sources of revenue for independent filmmakers and therefore promote new talent or whether via technical fixes and use of the courts the main distributors will retain control of distribution.

I think it is this aspect that I'm most interested in, we are one of those periods in history when a smart entrepreneur can potentially lever open a Bill Gates size crevice in an existing industry. The film/TV industry is in for an interesting ten years.
 
clive said:
The only problem with that is that the video tape industry has maybe only ten more years of mainstream trading left in it. (It their own fault for not standardising formats)
The new generation digital cameras are all being designed with hard drives, so that file transfers of data will replace digitising in.
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Well... Kodak used to produce cameras too.. maybe they should come out with the next best video camera with a ginormous Kodak brand hard drive. ;)
 
Did you know that they have now made DVD disks that can hold a terabyte? That means i could have my whole collection on 1 dvd, now that would be awesome!
 
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