(continued...) Some Things Never Change As a growing number of established film cinematographers complete their first projects in digital, fears are subsiding that digital negates a lifetime of hard-earned expertise shooting film. Lighting is still lighting. Lenses are lenses. Shot design and composition haven't changed. Allen Daviau, a five-time Academy Award nominee says, "The people who say film is dead are wrong and so are the people who say digital is evil. This has been coming a long time. I have a book entitled Electronic Motion Pictures. It was published in 1955." Lubezki concurs. "It's a tool that should live parallel to film. The two are completely different media." And Steven Douglas Smith adds, "It's another tool. I'll be shooting film as long as it's available. But I've got to be aware of digital." By maintaining the long-treasured 24-frames per second capture rate, digital 24P complements 35mm film with expedited transfer between the two media. This will continue to broaden creative choices, making it easy for productions like Ali to choose both media. Post-production The cost advantages, if any, of digital postproduction depend largely on what you need to do and where you need to go. For example, if the production includes heavy effects sequences, if you're performing a digital online edit or considering digital release formats, then the savings tilt toward digital. Digital can also mean lower color correction time and costs–especially if different film stocks would have been required in the same shoot. Many productions shoot slow and fast stocks for daylight and nighttime, for example, which then need to be matched in postproduction. Some high-end digital cameras have built-in high-speed and slow-speed capabilities. For example, the Sony HDW-F900 digital 24P camcorder can range from 150 ASA to 1200 ASA with low "grain" (electronic noise). "So-called 'color correction' is really a misnomer," says Fritz Roland of Roland House. "Often what's done in the field is much cheaper to do in digital post." He says a talented operator can turn day into night, achieve "magic hour," gel hot windows, cool an overexposed sky, add or remove diffusion and even add or remove light in selective parts of the picture. If a digital production is intended for digital release or digital broadcasting, the savings can be substantial. However, as Sweet DP Allen Daviau says, "There's a worldwide network of 35mm film projectors that will take a long, long time to change." So you may need to balance potential digital savings against the need to blow up digital productions for theatrical release on film–a process that alone can cost for example, $500 per minute (Arri laser recorder; silent, timed print). In the experience of Ellen Kuras, who shot "Bamboozled," using DV required added care and expense in the digital-to-film process. And John Bailey adds that "The Anniversary Party" was restricted to relatively exotic (for Los Angeles) PAL-format postproduction equipment. The project also required more than the usual color correction after the transfer to film. Cash Flow Capers For independent filmmakers, perhaps the biggest economic advantage to digital is not how much productions cost but rather when those costs are incurred. By nearly eliminating a big upfront cost, digital helps producers manage their cash flow. You can shoot digital, edit digital and project the edited digital master when you shop the feature around to potential distributors. Only after you secure a distributor do you need to spend the money for transfer to 35mm film. The Bottom Line Shooting with digital cinematography doesn't reinvent the cost structure of filmed entertainment. You still need actors, sets, lighting and crew. You still must house and feed them on location. However, digital does eliminate 97% (or more) of the cost of film stock, developing and dailies. And digital can lower camera rental costs. Different producers are putting these savings to use in two significant ways. -- To lower the overall cost of production as producers specifically sought with "Warm Blooded Killers," "Sweet," "Ten Tiny Love Stories," "Nicolas" and "Swimming Upstream." -- To get more coverage as in the multi-camera techniques that Spike Lee and Ellen Kuras used to create "Bamboozled," or to achieve a new intimacy with the talent (permitted by smaller, more mobile cameras and longer recording times). In addition, producers are seizing on digital as the ideal acquisition medium for digital effects-heavy productions, such as "When Dinosaurs Roamed America" and "Star Wars: Episode II." And finally, even big-budget productions such as Michael Mann's "Ali" are turning to digital for creative possibilities not easily available with film. After 100 years of film, creativity and cost remain in contention on almost every production. Still an infant technology, digital cinematography is already proving a powerful tool in managing this creativity/cost tradeoff. The future promises even more attractive performance as cinematographers, directors and technologists continue to nurture the digital infant. If you have any questions on how this information relates to your project, call us at (888) 247-3456