Innovation

"Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship.  The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth." -  Peter F. Drucker

Digital Filmmaking

Movie making is currently on the verge of dramatic change.  For generations Hollywood has exposed film to light, incurring expenses from the logistics surrounding handling film stock.  But now companies like Red,  Birger Engineering, and Apple are making products that will allow the technically savvy filmmaker to produce a better product at a competitive price.  The future of movie making is digital, and for the early adopters the future is here.

Cost

The assumption that most people would have would be that digital capture is 'cheaper'; it isn't.  The absolute price floor for a digital feature is higher than the price floor for a "Shot on 35" feature.  The reason to do digital is to get a better product; to get better acting.

In the low budget film arena a producer works up a budget to see how much film he or she can afford to buy and take through the production and post production processes.  Once that film is purchased the director has to shoot within the confines of that established shooting ratio.  In the $400K range a producer may swing a 8:1 shooting ratio, meaning the director has 8 chances to get the scene as perfect as possible, from every desired angle.  Often times the director will choose to move to the next scene even though the actor's performance wasn't what it could have been. 

Because disk space is inexpensive, shooting digital allows a production to function like a big budget shoot; where the budget is in time, not feet of film.  This allows the director a lot more latitude to work with the actors to get the desired results, which makes for better acting and a better product.  The Hobby Stop will be a two camera shoot, which allows twice the footage per shot at different angles, something a low budget film shoot would never do.

Workflow

Workflow is defined as all the steps required to go from actors working under lights to images being shown on a festival screen.  The main workflow elements for The Hobby Stop movie include:

•  Shooting with a Red One to CF memory cards and hard disk

•  Collecting & reviewing on an on-site Apple Mac Pro

•  Transfer to a UNIX fileserver for storage and backup

•  Editing with several MAC Pro workstations running Final Cut Pro, Shake, Avid MC, and Adobe

•  Master to 4K TIFF

•  Convert to DPX for film out

•  Down Rez for DVD 

Result

Whenever a new technology is utilized the logical question is how does it compare to the established technology.  Currently, most Hollywood productions shoot 35MM film, scan it in at 2K, Edit in 2K, and film out at 2K.  The Red One is a full frame camera that can shoot at a maximum of 4K (four times the size of 2K). This allows a more detailed image to be taken through the post production process which can still be scaled down for a less expensive 2K filmout.

Some Hollywood innovators have already adopted the red one, and some of these theatrical releases can be found here.