HD For Indies

When the DV format came out, there was a huge wave of excitement in the independent filmmaking community. Instead of having to rent an expensive BetaSP camera, indies could just buy an XL-1 or VX1000 and shoot their productions at their own schedule. Instant feedback, the ability to use available light, inexpensive DV editing stations all made for a very affordable and expedient process.

BUT....

when it came time to sell it as a movie, there were two large stumbling blocks:

1.) THE QUALITY

DV doesn't look as good as film. One can argue the semantics of the viability of a new medium to death, but from both the technical and casual observer's standpoint, DV doesn't do well in an auditorium. There can be field issues (we'll cover it later), the colors are smeary and vague, and the biggest sin is the general lack of detail and sharpness. I suspect there has been a hesitancy on the part of many of the people that buy films for distribution that something shot on video just doesn't have the "movie" feel to it, that it'll feel cheap when viewed on the big screen. I'm aware of only a smattering of films that have made it to the big screeen that were shot in large part with DV. Some documentaries have gotten away with it because the subject matter was so compelling, and shooting docs on film is horrifically expensive. Personally, I've only seen one film that I can recall that was a normal, narrative film that wasn't "experimental" or a documentary, or a portion of another film (28 Days Layer, Timecode). It was Pieces of April, a lovely little film shot on DV because that was the only way the writer/director could get it done. But films like that are the exceptions, not the usual business case. I believe shooting on DV creates a barrier to the distributability of a movie.

2.) THE COST OF FILM TRANSFER

After saving all this money producing on DV, then there is the relatively staggering cost of transferring DV to film. $30K to $60K are the numbers the last time I checked (and I'll be checking again soon). The top notch places like SwissFX produce some of the nicest work...but cost the most. In order for the independent filmmaker to show their work in a festival, they had to pop for the cost of a film print, which right there could keep their movie from moving forward towards the possibility of it being seen and possibly picked up by a distributor.

SO HOW DOES HD HELP THIS?

1.) THE QUALITY

Well shot HD, such as on the high end HDCAM cameras, is gorgeous and detailed, with rich colors and tack sharp detail. YES, it looks different from film. But when converted to film and projected in a theater, it looks "good." People don't question the quality, the feel, the look, they are just watching a movie. The quality is there (if it's done right), and I think that as more movies are shot on HD they'll be able to not face the quality question - it looks good, the audiences will feel OK to pay $8 each to see it, end of argument.

2.) THE COST OF VIEWING (instead of projecting film at a festival)

Transferring from HD is a technically simpler process than transferring from DV. I haven't checked prices recently (don't worry, I will soon), but before too long it should be a more commoditizable process. It's less technically daunting, so hopefully more facilities will start offering it as service and drive the price down further.

Plus, if you had to, you can show it to someone on an HDTV on a D-VHS deck. These decks were $2000 when they came out a few years ago, but I was out at Fry's Electronics a week or two ago and they told me they were expecting to have $300 to $400 record/playback decks available in the next few weeks. Converting HD to HDV requires some third party software, but the ability to show your work in high resolution for $1000 worth of reuseable hardware and software is a very, very nice thing.

But more important than that in the short term, more and more film festivals are projecting digitally, allowing for these movies to be shown WITHOUT having to be transferred to film first, AND they already are at a high resolution so they look good when projected.

I'm going to be very interested to see if any independent filmmakers can pull off a deal where they only have an HD version of the film when the deal is signed, and the distribution company either advances the cost of the film transfer out of the moviemaker's compensation, or the distribution company picks up the cost of the film transfer outright as part of the deal (plus then there is never any question about who owns the film print as the deal moves forward).

But I think HD based films will be viable for wide distribution of mainstream films and audiences, if the footage is prepared correctly, won't notice or care. And thus hopefully the people who buy your movie won't care either.