It's Not the Gear, Man!

In any city or town where there is filmmaking or television activity you are going to find them. You know the type. The kind who is obsessed with the gear, whether it be what they currently own or what they would like to get.

For those at TV stations or at video production companies the focus is going to be on the latest Grass Valley switcher or the latest and most advanced visual effects unit. For others with loads of bucks to blow, it may be the latest and greatest Arriflex motion picture camera or the last word in Varicams or CineAlta's. For independent filmmakers, the former attention devoted to Panasonic DVX-100's in all their varieties may have switched to REDs or Panasonic HVX-200s. And the story is the same: they all think that the gear they use is going to make what they produce better.

All of this gear obsession reminds me of when I was in college learning photography. At that time the camera brands everyone was lusting after were Nikons and Hasselblads. Did the photographers with these prized cameras take better pictures? Not necessarily. A lesson I learned at the time was that it wasn't necessarily the camera that made a good picture possible but rather the person behind the camera. Sure, better equipment might make it easier to take that good picture. But without someone with creativity, skill, and imagination behind the camera, the picture was likely to be nothing special. I found out then that a genius with a cheap camera could run circles around the typical well-heeled amateur ("amateur" that is, in the bad sense of the word) with the most expensive camera in the world.

There are many motion pictures from the past that we treasure now. Some from as far back as the silent era are still admired today. If we compare the gear that was used to make those films as well as the film stock available back then to what we have now, what they had to work with is downright primitive. But those pictures still capture our imaginations today.

It was the storytelling behind the films that really made them great. The people behind the camera really knew how to light scenes so that magic could come out from the screen. The lower resolutions and graininess of the film stocks didn't diminish the movies but in some strange way enhanced the experience. I believe it might have been David Lynch who commented that the extreme sharpness and clarity of today's cameras actually diminish the movie going experience because it becomes too real in a way. It becomes more difficult to submerge yourself in a story because it is less like a dream. If you think about it most dreams are not like being awake. There is something different about how a dream is experienced.

There have been many expensive films made with the best cameras available in the world that have sunk without a trace. Despite the advanced gear, it turned out that they weren't very good films to begin with. There have also been examples of films made with very inexpensive gear that have somehow captured our imaginations enough to make them undisputed hits. Two within recent memory (these from the horror genre) have been "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity". With both of these films the producers turned a supposed disadvantage (home video type camcorders with their less than picture quality) into an advantage by using it as a story element.

It is also possible that, with well executed lighting, that even inexpensive cameras can look better than you would normally expect. This leaves open the possibility of more ambitious films. Of course an inexpensive camcorder is never going to look as good as a high-end CineAlta camera or something from Panavision, but it can look respectable with skillful lighting of the scene. And the lighting gear doesn't always have to be expensive professional lights. With a very good understanding of how lighting works, it is possible to substitute inexpensive lights and build home-made lighting accessories to create the look you are going for. The only major difference between your cheap light kit and the the professional variety being it will not likely be as sturdy and the lights will likely not be able to pump out as much light. With careful selection of the shots to be used, however, this problem can be overcome. One factor going for you is that today's camcorders are more light sensitive.

So, if you are a filmmaker, why not consider pushing your equipment further and paying more attention to making good movies than perpectually waiting for that miracle gear to come over the horizon to somehow magically make make you a better filmmaker?