Tuesday, April 22, 2008

"This Movie Ain't Gonna Shoot Itself (revisited)" part 002.

Part Two: Big Decision #1

All you really need to shoot a movie is a camera and something put in front of the camera. I would say you need light, too, but that's not the case with some of these "night vision" cameras that are available these days (see the Paris Hilton sex tape for an example of this technology in action). The script to Hide and Creep pretty much dictated what we'd put in front of the camera. It was up to co-producer Chuck Hartsell and me to decide what kind of camera to use.*

Film Is dead

I hate to get all controversial in my second column for the 'Shoot, but you can't get far into making an indie feature without considering the "film or video?" question. Make that the "film or video?" argument. If you follow the movie business at all, you've probably heard different pundits offer their opinion on the matter. It often seems that old school guys like Spielberg and critic Roger Ebert love film, while all the young guns are pro-video. Well, I'm a relatively young shooter, and I prefer film. Also, if film is dead, what's inside all those bright yellow Kodak boxes in my fridge?

Film -- it's not just for breakfast anymore.


I think video has its place, too. In fact, Chuck and I originally considered shooting Hide and Creep on video and having our actors improvise most of the scenes. All that improv would have meant a ton of takes, and all those takes, using film, would have meant more raw filmstock and more film processing. It'd mean more tape on a video shoot, but tape costs significantly less than raw stock and processing.

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