Short or Short Changed – Today’s Video – Part One
Heard the story of one who saved everything – even pieces of string too short to be of any use? That person we can be sure was never an editor! Editors must cut stuff out. Sometimes excising large trivialities and at other times desperately seeking just the right sliver to insert; a true editor must value content. You got to have the right footage first! Useful footage.
Call it cinema, film, a movie, or the name derived from the technology used: video has changed a lot, and will continue to change in the next few years. Let us understand the forces at play and how technology, cost, and convenience, all are affecting the scenes you will see in your event video.
There have been a lot of interesting and exciting things happening in this video revolution of the last few years. Going from VHS to DVD it turns out was not such a big deal. It did not have much effect on the image or more importantly the content. The story was still the story. It was told in the same way.
But today the story as we will remember it, could be missing much of the rest of the story…and this may not be what you might wish for later. This is the first of several articles on how video is changing along with how what we might expect it be is different today as well. The points I will be making are not so obvious. This is definitely not a situation of more merely being more. Rather I am questioning the specifics of content that is collected.
Back in the days before video, film was used. Get out your projectors, or have your old films dubbed onto modern DVDs/ older VHS tape, and watch those filmed events. Scenes were short. The whole wedding movie was short. What does it say to us now when we watch loved ones we miss, or try to recall how we felt or what we might remember in our distant memory? Does that film convey to us the person and personality we knew, or remember? Or is it mostly a collection of stereotypical snippets rather than substance?
HD blimp camera
Look at event videographers today and you will see them holding a camera out in front of them, or with some kind of bracket assembly that keeps the camera attached in front of the shoulder. Ten years ago, this was not the case. 20 years ago, most cameras were actually on the shoulder. This is not a small detail. Where the camera sits, makes a huge difference in what your video will look like because it affects how the video is shot. From there it is up to the cameraman and the studio’s vision of what the product should be.
Originally video cameras were designed for photographers or those with cinematic skill. They were designed to benefit from and to allow use of such skills. Whether or not the operator actually had skills was another matter. The fact is that probably not one in a hundred weddings were shot back in the days of film, with a great deal of film making skill. Most were shot using cheap hand held devices, not the massive machines like those used for the real movies then. And they were shot with little camera handling skill, because the devices were very limited and stiff to operate. It took all one’s skill just to keep the thing steady, and mostly involved choosing short scenes that told the action concisely, using very little film.
Today’s video cameras look and behave differently from what old pros have come to know. These camera balance differently, have their controls in different places and cannot be operated the same way as an on the shoulder design originally created for skilled operation. You might think that these new designs are a positive thing because technology often advances to solve problems and improve systems. But with insight into what is really needed to produce a meaningful video of an unrehearsed, live and spontaneous event, such ergonomics is actually making it much more difficult to get meaningful video.
True ENG HD video camera for skilled on shoulder camera handling
After speaking to countless videographers I can say that the more one truly knows about what skilled camera handling means, the more one misses the older style cameras. It is not that those cameras can’t be had. Surely they do exist, and in some ways are more incredible than ever. But they are very expensive in comparison to the many new options. Furthermore, they are massively heavy compared to the light and slight modern miracles. They are big, bulky, and look very serious. With camera sensor’s ever increasing sensitivity to light, improvements to image quality, and changes in storage technology, these big cameras costing fifteen to a hundred thousand dollars each, can quickly lose their value, before an event videographer ever pays them off. Five to seven grand used to get a pretty decent over the shoulder camera that could be used for many years. This is not really the case right now.
There are some cameras in the under ten grand range that look like they fill the bill, but they are dark and muddy. High definition cameras need more light than the old standard definition. Studio or sports events can be bright – simchas often are not, where no video is worth the heat, glare, and danger of bright lights that if nothing else are ugly and uncomfortable. The event industry is simply not large enough to drive the demand for these high end cameras in a way that makes them viable and cost effective.
This is why today events are shot with video cameras, that look and handle so very differently. Most videographers use cameras in the $1500 to $6500 range. They can produce a terrific image. Some cameras we will learn produce the most amazing video image ever: crystal like, eye popping clarity that is a beauty to behold. The problem can be one of content: what is being recorded.
Originally video was considered the realm of film makers and photographers. Cameras were designed to benefit from the cameraman’s filmic vision. And the whole idea of camera handling skill was a serious goal from day one with the camera. Today many cameramen simply point their magic electronic bundle in an approximate direction of the action, and look confidently at the image on their monitor. No clue to what they are missing… both literally and figuratively, they fiddle with some controls here and there… often on different sides of their camera, which often is a compilation of gadgets and gizmos meant to compensate for the core camera’s un-ergonomic design. Their fiddling is essential to get a good looking image but is not how one actually tracks meaningful action in real time to get the important shots.
Short videos are very popular for many reasons. Who wants to watch a long boring one? Who has the time? How much of all that is really needed? How much is redundant? My best clients have always agreed with me that less is more… that brevity is the source of wit… how you need not see the same people dancing around seven times, when one or two will do. So yes, I agree that short can be very powerful, very meaningful, and in fact often better, if that short content is exactly the right content. But will it be, or will it be more of a disappointment years later when short is no longer a novelty?
When you view it later, will you truly see the people you knew and remember? Will you see their poignant expressions? Will you say “yes!” that is him, referring to your parents and grandparents?
When you first get it everything can look beautiful. Beautiful scenes and beautiful faces. Exciting sweeping Hollywood camera movements, sweet soft focus glamour shots and dramatic exciting quick clips. Sure it can seem impressive. But look deeper and perhaps you will find that Those videos which look so interesting at first, have not in fact truly captured the essence of the people, or the real emotion of most of the many specific moments.
Why do I say this and how is it possible to be so captivating at first and so disappointing later? The answer lies in content and in the inherent limitation in today’s cameras, and the lack of sophistication, knowledge and skill amongst todays’ camera operators.
Next I will discuss the various camera formats most often used today – what they do well as well as their limitations and liabilities. I will explain this year’s rage the HDSLR, and the blimp type camcorders that were popular previously.
(To be continued)