Escapist

Tony Wilson has probably forgotten more about cameras and lenses than any of us will ever know. Do yourself a favor and take a minute to really grapple with what he's saying. Of course he has a sense of humor too.

Try grappling everything he is saying. this is wonderful.

http://www.eoshd.com/comments/user/14314-tony-wilson/

a shop we donte need nose analogue shops dis is the intranet generacion innit

canon shops for losers shops for old peeple 2 get dere milk and sliced bread.

 

what der fat geezer at black magic gives like the red fella is bee leafs

obama hopium of a betta world just around der corner.

 

lovely jubbly vapour rare looks so real on der computer screen you can almost smell it and touch it.

jpeg porn for der kids.

 

red and black magic say dat this canon thing is not real and if it is will explode any second.

i beleefs dem

 

as scotty said in dat new shit star wars filum captin der system it cannot take der data pressure shes gonna fuckin blow.

you stick to yer  buy it now  shops 

we will take der hopium and beleefs vapour ware is der future and beyond.

wtf?

Camera's aren't all specs, but to see no improvement in a decade is criminal. 

I was hoping someone would fill in the gap. To be fair though, I've rarely seen a PC rig over $3,000 or even $2,000 meant for games.

There are plenty of independents using RED.  Either rental or purchase, whether that was made alone or by pooling resources with one or more fellow filmmakers.  A minimal Scarlet kit is ~$14K and change and I've seen PC gamer rigs that cost this much in both magazines and online.  

 

"Independent filmmaker" is a term that covers a wide gamut of people and budgets.  From the 48hr folks all the way to Sophia Copolla, Kevin Smith and Steven Soderberg and from what you've got in your pockets up to millions.  This isn't a new phenomenon at all it's just that never before has so much power and control been accessible and in the hands of so many.

 

The indie movement peaked into the common vernacular by the early 1990s and a new wave of filmmaker who turned the term into a culture as much as it was a simple, factual, socio-economic description.  They were maybe the first to politicize their business but there were plenty of success stories and precedents set for a burgeoning phenomenon reaching back into the 1970s, the main catalyst for the eras incredible explosion of creativity being the collapse of the "Studio System".

Without a doubt, see the film "Side by Side" to give you some inspiration for the last few decades. It's pretty basic but it covers the transition from film to digital. And indeed, digital is a big part of the independent movement due to affordability and ease of use. You will have to do research into before the DSLR movement (might wanna ask the DVXusers forum). But for DSLR this is what I know:

Canon

As for DSLRs, it started with the 5D Mark II when Canon added a video function. Vincent Laforet released a short piece called "Reverie" that was supposedly the first to make it popular. People say it is because of the shallow depth of field that made it popular. But it was a number of things combined that made it an attractive package- a small form factor, price, accessibility, hybrid between stills/video, and interchangeable lenses.

Canon Community

Since then, one of the major contributors to independent filmmakers is the group Magic Lantern. They hacked the Canon camera's firmware to give features (peaking, zebras, custom ISOs, etc.) that normally are in video cameras only. You also have picture profile creators, the unsung heroes that have made the cameras sensors respond much better. See Cinestyle picture style, Visioncolor picture style, Cinema picture style, FLAAT, Marvel picture style, etc.

Panasonic Community

Then there's a group that hacked the Panasonic GH2, another well liked camera for pretty much the same reasons as the 5D Mark II except cheaper. This hack made the camera's bit rate very high, and it was exceptionally good quality for the price at that time.

Equipment manufacturers

You can't just have a cheap camera and save money. Filmmaking equipment is notoriously expensive. A number of American, Chinese, and even Indian manufacturers have created low budget alternatives. Kickstarter people have funded such projects too - see the $50 follow focus by Hondo Garage. 

Social Media

YouTube is known for showing a lot of DIY equipment and tutorials for filmmaking. Vimeo is obvious - its a platform that allows people to distribute their material in an artistic space immediately and not wait for approval of distribution. Facebook/Twitter have lots of communities, but I can't name anything special that is different in this industry.

Software developers

Just as an example, Technicolor Cinestyle Assist released a $99 grading program. At that price, you can guess who they are targeting. There's a ton of plugins as well that are pretty cheap. Other than that, NLE /editing software is expensive.

ARRI

I don't think ARRI does anything here.

RED

RED once promised 3K resolution for $3K, which was never fulfilled. Their cameras are still too expensive for independent filmmakers.

Blackmagic

Blackmagic, normally a camera accessory/software company, soon became a camera maker to fulfill this gap that RED left open. They released the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, 2.5K for $3K. They also added RAW capability, and what is basically considered the most beautiful image for the price (with compromise for other things).

I admire Blackmagic for what they are doing, but it's not a camera for everyone. I foresee 4K, especially if dealing with uncompressed RAW, as being somewhat of an armchair revolution for the majority of the population. I came from DSLRs and for a while people have been asking for RAW and high bitrates. Now we have them and we aren't even sure what we got ourselves into. Uncompressed RAW workflow is not something to take lightly in respects to both hardware requirements and space requirements. Prores is a middle line that is probably more reasonable for people. Still, it takes more space.

If you're starting from nothing, the Blackmagic 4K for $4k suddenly becomes a lot more. The PC or mac you will need to work in Davinci, to transcode the files, etc. The hard drives for working in real time, then the hard drives for storage. This doesn't even account for the SSDs you need to buy for the camera in which you will need backups on hand if you do client work. Then you have all the gear required to rig up.

So basically, I don't see 4K being cheap. Even with a PC.