I wanted to direct your attention to a great post by Paul Zadie (he’s on Twitter at @paulzadie.)
It’s titled What a Nice Camera. It Must Make Good Stories.
Nice Way to Put It
I was immediately grabbed by the headline, as it seemed Zadie was getting at a pet-peeve I have with a lot of aspiring producers and filmmakers these days.
His post didn’t let me down. In it, Zadie points out than many filmmakers are flocking to the new breed of Digital SLR’s that actually shoot video. They provide a beautiful picture and shallow depth of field for a relatively low price.
However, just like buying a set of paints and a canvas doesn’t make someone a master artist, buying one of these cameras won’t make someone an award-winning filmmaker.
In fact, many “films” shot on these cameras and posted recently are nothing more than pretty pictures strung together with some music underneath. Nice to look at. But gorgeous, filmic imagery doesn’t make up for story…ever.
Tempted by Technology
The temptation to fall in love with technology and forget about story is nothing new. Think about all the blockbusters you’ve seen over the years that, despite amazing explosions and incredible CG, are just lousy.
Somewhere along the line, someone was more concerned with whiz bang technology than with story. As George Lucas said himself, “a special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.”
The Latest Special Effect
Shallow depth of field (a shooting technique in which only the main subject is in focus, and the foreground and background blur out in a pleasing way) is just a new “special effect” for a lot of indy filmmakers. It’s a bell and whistle they didn’t have access to before. Now that they do, many are spending more time crafting shallow DOF than crafting story.
Perya: A Great Short Film
Now, a real filmmaker has crafted an enchanting short documentary with the Canon 7D
, a piece called Perya. It’s a beautiful, rich piece about carnival workers. Perya has great characters, a beginning, middle and end, and yes, beautiful imagery. It enhances the story, instead of fighting it, or overshadowing it all together.
Yet, as Zadie points out, many comments on the piece come from folks enamored with the camera and not the story…as if the camera is what made it a great short movie.
Bob Nicolas made a great movie. Not his camera. Thanks Paul Zadie for reminding us all that story is king, and a camera is only as good as the filmmaker using it.
“Perya” – a Canon 7D Short from Bob Nicolas on Vimeo.