By George Petersen

ONCE UPON A TIME, WAY BACK IN THE 1970s, I was part of the independent filmmaker’s scene. I used to live, breathe and exist for the whole concept of the filmic art, working on my films, crewing on other people’s productions and (at least partially) supporting myself teaching at local schools. At the time, the availability of low-cost 16mm and Super-8 cameras allowed anyone with a vision and a modest budget to cinematically express their feelings. Suddenly, short art films were the rage and campus screenings, film festivals and local cinema societies all offered at least some outlets for independent filmmakers.

Compared to the bulky, low-res video equipment available at the time, film offered a means of generating broadcast quality color images—even using a simple spring-wound 16mm Bolex camera. Meanwhile, better gear, such as Arriflex and Eclair cameras, were available at affordable rental rates in the major markets and many a budget producer did weekend shoots, where a complete camera package could be picked up on Friday night and returned Monday morning—all for a one-day “Saturday” rental fee. The main drawback was that sync sound was a complex process, requiring a team approach—or at least a second person to run the Nagra and hold the fishpole boom.

After the shoot, the independent then had to weave a tangled web of lab work—ordering edit workprints from the original film, resolving the 1/4-inch location audio tapes to sprocketed mag film, editing the separate picture and sound rolls, preparing multiple rolls of mag for the audio mix and finally conforming the original picture footage into checkerboarded A/B (or A/B/C…) reels for release printing. The process wasn’t exactly easy—on the sound or picture side. Compared to those Neolithic days, DAW-based audio post-production is a breeze–you still need talent, but the process is whole lot easier now.

Today, low-cost HD format DV camcorders provide better than broadcast quality video and digital audio recording in easy-to-use, compact packages. Combined with desktop Mac/PC editing software digital video production has transformed the independent video scene in the same way that ADATs and DA-88s revolutionized digital audio 15 years ago.

DV offers a high degree of instant gratification—where a simple point-and-shoot approach can yield a remarkable image. That’s not to say that everything’s easy: Just because an image shows up without lighting doesn’t mean a shot is well-lit and just because sound is picked up doesn’t mean you’ll get a useable track from an on-camera mic that picks up LOTS of room tone. But for those who are willing to take the extra step of learning some of the basics (yeah, I know, that’s the boring part), the DV medium can yield remarkable results–you just have to work at it a little. And if you actually know something about audio, so much the better.

The tools are cheap and plentiful. For a ridiculously small investment, you could have all the tools required to create great looking/sounding projects—shorts or features. You do need a great script, and the world is filled with great stories to tell. Is the revolution really limited to YouTube clips of people riding bicycles into swimming pools or cats that play the piano? Not that there’s anything wrong with funny little snips, but where’s the revolution? Sure, there are people taking advantage of the technology to do serious work, but with all this technology available, the movement should be pandemonium and not a trickle.

BRING ON THE REVOLUTION!

When not working on Mix stuff, George Petersen records and performs with the SF Bay Area-based rock band ARIEL. Check ‘em out at www.jenpet.com.

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