Up until the 1990s, quality filmmaking was reserved only for those who could afford the enormous expense of emulsion film. Color negatives of a 35mm film will set you back about $400 - $600 per roll. At that rate, color negatives for a 90-minute feature will easily cost you $15,000 (but probably a lot more).
Today, the majority of Hollywood films are still shot on film cameras but that majority is shrinking quickly. Many film advocates blame corporate Hollywood for the digital revolution, again disregarding the needs of the artist in favor of lower production costs. However, A.O. Scott of the New York Times makes a great point in his article: "If there is a top-down capitalist imperative governing the shift to digital exhibition in theaters, there is at the same time a bottom-up tendency driving the emergence of digital filmmaking."
The digital revolution is exploding at every level of filmmaking and photography, all thanks to Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras, or DSLRs. We've all seen them. That big, heavy Canon you couldn't believe your friend was able to afford. What most people don't know is that they also record amazing HD video at a quarter of the price of high-definition camcorders. Now, digital may not be up to par with the quality of film just yet but give it one more decade and our eyes won't be able to tell the difference. At that point, film will be dead and buried forever.
What does this mean? Well, for starters, I don't have give up on my dreams. For only $1,300 I can get all of the camera equipment I need to make very professional video. Justin Beiber can film himself, virtually for free, and make himself a superstar. Event videography is becoming more inexpensive. The number of independent production companies is skyrocketing. It means that, for the first time in history, the average consumer can achieve near-Hollwyood image quality. YouTube execs, just sit back and bask in the glory.
Advancements in technology are not only affecting the camera department, either. Last week, for only $150 I purchased PluralEyes, a program that takes multiple video and audio tracks (e.g. three cameras and an external microphone) and syncs them all up with the click of a button. This saves me 15 - 20 hours of work and you $300 off your next invoice. At $170, Twixtor takes footage shot at a lower frame rate (24 - 60 frames-per-second) and renders a smooth slow-motion effect as if the footage was originally shot at 1000 frames-per-second. That'll save you $500 or more for not having to rent a high-speed camera. The wedding video that most production companies charge $3,000 - $5,000 for can now be done for as little as $1,500 as long as we take the time and energy to properly utilize new technologies.
This phenomenon is not at all exclusive to the media industry. Obviously. Low-budget startups in almost any industry are becoming possible thanks to the rapid growth of technology that we're experiencing. In the twenty-first century it's imperative that we keep up with developments in technology and understand how they can benefit us and our business. Those that don't will inevitably be left in the dust.
"At technology’s rate-of-change today, we will achieve an amount of progress equivalent to that of the whole 20th century in 14 years."
-Ray Kurzweil
