With the introduction of video capabilities into DSLRs we’ve witnessed a revolution on what being a photographer meant. Yes, every single photographer on assignment is now using a high end DSLR to shoot video and is bragging about it on their respective blog, but what I can’t really see is a collection of demo reels that are technically perfect, that show practitioners exploring the limits of their gadgets, that in essence show nothing more than technical ability to work with the gadget. These ‘movies’ don’t have soul. Something is missing. What I haven’t yet seen is a good film made by those same photographers. Compare the photographer-director films with one made by a proper director (ex. like the 5D House) and you’ll see/feel the diferences.
The very notion that just because a photographer has a camera with video capabilities in their hands, makes him a great director is so strange to me that I feel I’m probably blind or something.
Sure, photographers see things in different ways of most common people do. They have to master a set of techniques to make great photos, they must know light, use it, they know composition, color, etc… And all that helps in the production of better movies, something that ordinary people wouldn’t have as background.
But photography doesn’t give them other things. How to direct actors? What about the notion of raccord? What about editing? All those things (and more) can’t be obtained just by being a photographer (even if a successful one) for 20 years in the business.
Yes, in the arts many times we have many artists that can express their messages in a multitude of formats and mediums, but what the Video DSLR industry is managing is selling gear to wedding photographers with the illusion that they’ll become some kind of Spielberg if they have the best gear in the world.
Artists can express themselves in many mediums, but putting a viollin on the hands of van Gogh wouldn’t make him a great musician and certainly you wouldn’t remember him in that way.