Film, 2k, 4k HD? The future of digital film made clear

With new Digital Film cameras flooding the market how do filmmakers decide which is right for their project? Why do some established Directors and Cinematographers still refuse to shoot on anything but film?

Join the debate about working with digital formats at Beyond HD – a two day film and TV conference on 26th and 27th Feb 2010 being held at Ravensbourne funded by the Skillset Film Fund, as part of the UK Film Skills Strategy A Bigger Future 2

Neil Peplow, Skillset’s Director of Film explains why Skillset is supporting the conference: “Beyond HD is an excellent and timely response to one of the most pressing skills needs that has emerged for the UK film industry in recent years.”

Award winning cinematographer Gavin Finney BSC (Hogfather, Going Postal, The Flying Scotsman, Keeping Mum, These Foolish Things, St Trinian’s) is excited about the opportunities that new digital formats present for the UK Film Industry and has found new working practices that allow him to preserve the vision to the audience.

“The exciting thing about HD is that its given us a massive new palette, indeed the concept of shooting in HD has begun to move on to data capture at even higher resolutions. HD will be just one of many standards, from cinema to the Net to the iPad, that can be delivered from one high-resolution data stream. We can choose from a range of hundreds of cameras of all sizes and abilities, it adds tremendously to our grammar, it’s an amazing opportunity, it’s great I love it!” Gavin Finney BSC

Why do some filmmakers, despite the benefits of working digitally, still choose to shoot on film? Traditionally it has been the range of latitude and exposure that film offers, but digital film cameras have closed the gap. Some filmmakers worry about the stability of the new tapeless workflows.

One of the big fears when shooting Digital is the security of your data rushes. Everyone has experienced a computer crash or file corruption, and dreads this happening on set. There is something very comforting about having your film physically “in the can” instead of being stored in a series of zero’s and one’s.

Directors like award winning director and producer Bruce Webb still feel more comfortable working with film “I like to shoot on film as it is already High Definition and has been developed over 100 years” Bruce Webb, WHATEVER PICTURES (Director: The be all and end all, Co-Producer: Copying Beethoven, Haven and Death at a Funeral).

The issues around working digitally will be debated at Beyond HD – a two day film and TV conference on 26th and 27th Feb 2010 being held at Ravensbourne, funded by the Skillset Film Fund, as part of the UK Film Skills Strategy A Bigger Future 2.

“At Beyond HD you will go beyond just a technical discussion of HD, 2K and 4K resolutions in digital film. You will hear from leading industry professionals how they go Beyond HD in creative terms. How can we explore these formats creatively in the 21st century as we did with film in the 20th ?” James Uren, Chair, Beyond HD.

Beyond HD will host seminars, panels and hands-on workshops run by industry professionals including award winning DP Gavin Finney BSC, Director and Producer Bruce Webb, Head of Post at Lypsinc Kevin Phelan and Cinematographer Tim Palmer. There are also contributors such as The Foundry who will introduce their new product STORM which assists RED Digital Camera workflows.

“It is essential that all industry professionals keep up-to-date, not just technically but operationally as well. This very practically based two days of learning will enable you to find out more about what is going on with HD as well as look through a window onto the future. Aided by funds from the Skillset Film Skills Fund, the Guild of British Camera Technicians is collaborating with Ravensbourne to deliver small group workshops and interactive discussions which inform and educate.

Keep learning – and stay one step ahead.” GBCT Board.

Beyond HD is being supported by Skillset Film Fund, GBCT, BKSTS, The London School of Media Makeup, and sponsors include RedGiant and AJA.

www.rave.ac.uk/beyondhd