John Paines wrote:It might make a difference ("a better movie"), in the very narrow sense of keeping a subject in focus which, ironically, is much more more difficult on a FF camera. In the days of 1/4" sensors, at least everything in no-budget productions was in focus....
But of course you're right on the larger point. Nothing but money or genius will make a movie better, and without money I wouldn't bet on genius.
Yes, that's the part about "the way you present it", I could argue the same for resolution, dynamic range, color fidelity, a newly designed sensor from the ground up, and more. Keeping a subject in focus isn't any different than any of those things (to me).
All of it is a part of the presentation.
joe12south wrote:Kholi Hicks wrote:I mean nothing will help you make a better movie by that measure. You could still be shooting happily on a 720p/1080i camera, or not owning a camera at all if making a better movie was the concern. You'd be out raising millions or acquiring adequate contacts to make a better movie with better actors, better locations, etc. Moving from whatever you have now to an A7 whatever won’t have any effect on the core of any you want to tell, just how you present it.
That's myopic to the extreme.
As Eugenia put very well in a previous post - from real world experience - if you're wearing many hats on set, removing one concern frees-up mental/creative bandwidth for more important things.
It's "myopic" if you've never actually shot a feature film and tried to sell it before, it's "myopic" if you've never tried to step through the door of a studio system. Anyone who has knows better.
I wear many hats, always. It's how I got to where I am, I understand the ROOT of what you're saying, but you're pointing out any given little component of a camera system and referring to it as less useful than another.
AF is more important than Ks.
Well, to you... but...
If you're shooting ultra-low-budget and blow focus on a shot but don't realize it until you get into post, you probably have no opportunity to reshoot it. And while no-one will ever give two shits about the "color science" behind your movie...they will notice soft shots.
I may not blow the same shot if I shot a profile / wide at 12K and had the ability to create two profile mediums and other cut aways from the same master (Hands, feet, objects) etc. If I were smart I would actually plan every single setup around this so that I can always use it in a bind, and if it served tone, I would do this and this only to cover entire scenes with zero budget behind them, minimizing the need for lighting, storage, and crew.
Now 12K just saved me time and money on a no budget shoot, and saved my life in post because the single was a little too out of focus to salvage.
Being able to tap on actor A's face and know that for that shot, they will be in focus, is a valuable filmmaking tool. Being able to tap back and forth between actors and smoothly rack between them is even better. That's here, now, and yes, it can help me make better movies in a way more resolution or more dynamic range or more whatever can't.
But, I just basically disproved this in a single example. A better movie / presentation can come from adequate coverage, which 12K can give you. A better presentation can come from getting the shot in near darkness that you couldn't get with a camera that weren't as good in lowlight.
A better presentation can be the reproduction of a certain green color that you feel your audience will see as iconic, and needing to capture it as purely as possible.
You're trying to say one set of features is absolutely more valuable that the ones YOU don't need. It's wrong. None of them are more valuable. The entire point of choosing a camera is the same as choosing any other instrument: you're picking a set of trade-offs for your budget that YOU can live with, that make YOU feel comfortable when you go to create.
From my POV, I see the 12K cam and everything it brings as a pretty insanely useful tool at an insane price, that would help me, someone who knows the pains of shooting an entire feature or short as DP, director, producer, gaffer, focus puller (AC), DIT, all of these hats in one (and I'll do it again because I find it fun). That's pretty understandable.
You see the A7's Autofocus as your life saving, peace-of-mind feature that you're willing to give up on whatever tradeoffs that camera has. That's pretty understandable.
Not one single aspect of a camera is more important than the other, or more universally useful than the other OUTSIDE of the camera being able to turn on and operate.