What’s this? How could Jon Fauer be writing a book on video?

I shoot film for a living. Along the way, I have written a few books on cinematography and how to use professional motion picture cameras. So, imagine my surprise at being asked to write a book on digital video.

Most of my previous film books began by accident, as a self-help series of notes on how to use equipment that costs more than most houses, but comes with less instructional enlightenment than the average VCR. Digital video camcorders are certainly cheaper than houses and most film cameras. However, their instruction manuals are often just as baffling, and just as easy to lose.

"Shooting Digital Video" is something of a chronicle of my own indoctrination into the exciting, new format of DV. I hope it will be useful not only for beginners using it for the first time, but also for die-hard film fanatics like myself who would like to know what digital video is all about, how we can use it, how it compares with film, and where it’s going to take us.

This book is a more deliberate attempt, instigated by the intrepid Marie Lee, editor of Focal Press, to reach a more diverse audience than just the ranks of professional cinematographers and their assistants, to include the whole panoply of potential shooters from amateurs to students, home users, prosumers, video professionals and even cinematographers like me who are making the first wobbly steps into terra incognita.

I began shooting DV for fun when it first came out and my daughter first began walking and talking. DV and daughter have both been evolving at a rapid rate, and now we are using DV on some of our jobs.

Almost all of our commercial, feature and television film work has been shot on 35mm motion picture film. I began in the corporate and documentary world, went on to do movies, television and most recently, have been directing and shooting commercials. Along this journey, we have used mostly 35mm motion picture cameras, but also 16mm, video, and lately, DV. I usually wound up buying the latest cameras, only to find out that there were better instruction books on how to fly the space shuttle. User-friendly manuals were rare, and rarely traveled with the intended equipment. I became an accidental tourist in the world of writing manuals, starting with a few of notes scribbled for camera assistants who would be working with my equipment. The notes soon grew into six textbooks on cinematography and, most recently, this book.

Movies have traditionally been shot on 35mm motion picture film, which has the same width and square sprockets as the film in your still camera, although the picture area is slightly smaller. This size was determined over a hundred years ago, when Thomas Edison first asked George Eastman to supply film for his prototype Kinetoscope. The result became a worldwide standard, and emerged to define the prominent art form of the twentieth century.

Recently, a new standard has emerged with such vigor that it can only be called revolutionary. Welcome to DV. It already appears to be an art form defining the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Digital video has become a universal medium. It is shared equally by both amateurs and professionals, film students and independent feature crews. It is used by new parents to record baby’s first steps at home and by news crews to broadcast first speeches of new presidents in far-off lands.

This book is for anyone planning to use a DV, DVCAM or mini DV video camera: student, amateur, consumer, prosumer, or professional.

The book took shape after four different people asked me the same question: what kind of video camera to buy.

Let’s pretend that you have just returned to civilization from a 5 year expedition tracking and filming the rare red rhinoceros with your workhorse 16mm camera. While you were away, a revolution happened in the world of moving pictures. The highly technical, complex process with which you acquired images, edited and distributed them was transformed by a digital video format called DV, and popularized by the computer.

What makes DV so special and so exciting is that it is truly the first moving picture format that is really easy to use. A mini DV cassette is less than 1/12 the size of a standard VHS tape, and records up to an hour of material. The DV standard was the result of a consortium of 50 companies (including Sony, Matsushita, Philips, Thomson, Toshiba, Hitachi, JVC, Sanyo, Sharp and Mitsubishi).

Easy in--easy out. VHS and Hi-8 Video Cassettes were just as easy to use. But not so easy to get out. You usually edited the tape on a linear tape-to-tape system, and the quality got so degraded each time it was copied that by the time you went down a couple of generations, it looked like it was shot through Scotch Tape. The other alternative was a non-linear editing system requiring you to digitize the picture (convert it from analog to digital) with expensive hardware.

DV is already compressed (5:1). It is a digital signal. You just plug a Firewire cable into your computer, click a couple of buttons, and the entire digital stream is copied to the hard drive in real time. No loss of quality. Distribution can be as simple as uploading a file to the web, for all to see.

Digital video’s universal appeal is its use of the computer and cheap editing software. Not since the personal computer replaced typewriters has there been such a democratization of a creative process. DV editing software will become as widely used as word processing software, with similar paradigms of cut and paste.

Five years ago, a high-end AVID or Media 100 computerized editing system cost anywhere from $20 to $100 thousand dollars, requiring special circuit boards to convert analog NTSC or PAL video signals into digital files, which were compressed into manageable sizes. Recent offerings of editing software, while admittedly not as powerful, come free with various new computers, or can be downloaded from the web, while popular packages like Final Cut Pro can be bought for $990.

DV is a 1/4" digital video format, originally designed for the consumer market. Like many previous tape formats, the consumer version has been adapted for professional use by speeding up the tape along with some other refinements. The slightly faster, slightly more professional version of consumer mini DV is called DVCAM by Sony and DVCPRO by Panasonic.

The term "DV" is sometimes a bit vague and too all-encompassing. It is often used to label anything digital, whether consumer, prosumer, or professional. DV is not DigiBeta, nor is it Quicktime, MPEG, HDTV or any of the other video formats stored as bits of zeroes and ones.

Fifty different video formats have come and gone in the past 30 years: 2", 1", 3/4", Beta, VHS, S-VHS, D1, D2, 8, Hi-8, and so on. A cynic once wondered whether the manufacturers decided to come out with a new format every 3 years just to pay for their R&D. There is no doubt that DV will evolve into another format, probably supplanted by a recordable DVD or other random access storage device.

As with many new technologies, this one is accompanied by hype and evangelical proclamations heralding this latest format as the end of film. We have heard this for over thirty years now. Don’t scrap your film cameras yet. Remember that every advance in video over the last 30 years has been met by an astounding leap in film technology: reduced grain, increased sharpness, speed, latitude, contrast, color. Film has been around for over a hundred years. As the sage said, all you need to see film is a lens and a light. It is a universal medium, future-proof and archival. I don't think DV is the killer-app to kill off film. However, I do see DV as the killer-app to popularize visual expression in ways we haven't even dreamed of yet.

Digital video is not the end of film. It’s an exciting part of the evolution of image capture and exhibition. We all know the same thing happened to words just a few years earlier. Writing or typing was a linear process. Major changes meant retyping the page. A non-linear approach was to cut the page up and re-paste the paragraphs--but someone still had to retype it. Computer programs changed all that with simple shortcuts for cutting, copying and pasting.

At first, there was much regret that all this would lead to a proliferation of unprofessional writing. Critics were quick to counter that few things are more democratic than a ballpoint pen, nor is any other technology easier to master. Yet the invention of the ballpoint pen did not spell the demise of great writing, nor will digital video be the end of great filmmaking.

Although video tape had been around for half a century, and consumer video gave us VHS, Video8 and Hi8, the force that has led to billions of dollars of sales of a new format was not only the format itself, but the computer and the wires that connected computers to cameras.

Shooting DV with style is as elusive as pounding out the next great novel on your laptop. Just as there are books and courses on how to improve your writing skills, here is a book on how to improve your DV filmmaking skills, with emphasis on how to shoot it well, and with style.

Just as motion picture camera companies love to name their cameras and accessories with indecipherable acronyms (WLCC or FITZAC), video manufacturers must have an entire staff of copywriters who dream up weird names for otherwise self-explanatory functions. InfoLithium is a battery that can display its status. SuperSteadyShot is image stabilization. Stamina Power Management System is just an extra-large battery. Therefore, I have tried to weed out all weird names and trademarked obfuscations, and call things by what they really are. My apologies to the copywriters.

Since these are litigious times, the inevitable disclaimer must be made. Some of the recommendations, specifications, modifications, accessories and procedures described in this book may not be accurate, nor have they necessarily been tested or approved by the manufacturers. As such, following my advice may void the warranty on the camera, the service contract, or the rental house agreement. It worked for me, but there always lurks the potential for misprints and errors.

When I was a kid, my best friend, Jim Pfeiffer, and I built amateur radios from plans in Popular Electronics magazine. Turning the home-made device on for the first time was often a spectacular event. Sometimes sparks would fly and the room would fill with acrid smoke from molten components. Inevitably, we would read about the mistake or typo in the next month’s issue of the magazine, where they apologized for showing a resistor instead of a capacitor, or the accidental line in the schematic that depicted soldering a plus to a minus wire.

The kids have grown up. Jim Pfeiffer became an English teacher, screenwriter, producer, cameraman, video production company owner, high-tech consultant and dot-com executive. But I still remember him as partner in sparking electronic projects, which, along with all his other qualifications, should make him ideally qualified and compassionate as proofreader and editor of this book—a veritable burn-prevention, quality-control unit.

However, typos and errors still may lurk within these pages. Shooting tests is recommended whenever there is ever any doubt. Although we have made every attempt to check the facts and techniques described in this text, there still is the possibility of error, for which we apologize, but are not responsible or liable. Please let us know for future editions or update notices by going to www.fauer.tv and contacting us.

There is a video facility in New York with a twelve-foot long display case tracing the history of video tape and technology. Starting at the left, you begin with 2" video tape. A little plaque below notes the date invented and the company involved. As you walk along, you pass 1", 3/4" Umatic, Betamax, VHS, S-VHS, 3/4" SP, D1, D2, BetaSP, Video8, 3/4" Umatic SP, Hi8, DigiBeta, mini DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, HD, Digital8, and so on. It is remarkable that as each of the 50 different formats was introduced, the time between each innovation became shorter.

The future of technology is not easy to predict. If it were, the world's richest man would have anticipated the Internet earlier, Betamax would be the standard instead of VHS, and arguably, 95% of the world would be using Macs instead of PC's. TV was supposed to put film out of business, and VCRs were supposed to be the end of theatres.

Who would have predicted 100 years ago, when film was viewed as a flickering, postage-stamp size image on a Kinetoscope, that 100 years later we would still be viewing a flickering, postage-stamp image—but this time delivered to us at home, on the Internet, and very often shot on digital video?

How do I see the future of imaging technology? Resolution independent, on-demand delivery of any film ever made, piped directly anywhere in the world, wirelessly. Home-viewing on large, hybrid, flat-panel computer/TV displays. Portable viewing on small pop-out screens.

One thing is certain. The mini DV we’re shooting on today will be replaced within a couple of years by a smaller, lighter, faster and probably cheaper format that renders even better image quality.

I would guess that within a year or two we’ll have consumer and prosumer mini DV and mini DVCAM with HD resolution. We are already seeing DVCPRO HD in professional cameras. The tape will run faster, so you’ll change cassettes more often. The improved resolution will make 35mm blowup and electronic projection even more compelling. These cameras will also probably output to standard NTSC and PAL, known as "down-converting."

On the professional level, we’ll see 1 inch high-resolution single chips in cameras within a year, offering the advantage of using ANY high quality 35mm motion picture camera lens without beam splitters. In two years, the resolution of camera imaging chips should be up to 2,040 horizontal lines. In four years, resolution should be doubled to 4,000 lines: the holy grail known as "4K" that approaches current film resolution.

Although video technology has not quite kept apace of Moore’s law of computers, which speculates that processor speed doubles every 18 months, along with reduction in size and price, I think the ever-growing consumer demand will accelerate research and development of interesting innovations. Gordon Moore just retired, but digital video technology has really just begun.

In five to six years, the chips will have expanded light sensitivity, offering an exposure and contrast range similar to the 11 to 13 stop latitude of most contemporary negative color film stocks.

Of course, film technology advances in the same rapid steps. For the last twenty years, every time we heard that video was going to render film obsolete, along came a faster film stock, or films with exciting new characteristics or better film to tape telecine machines.

As digital video evolves, with higher resolutions, it will be ever more demanding of storage space. Currently, one single frame of 35mm motion picture film requires almost 35 Megabytes of uncompressed space when scanned from film to digital. A single frame of DV is currently about 900Kb. So, instead of recording on a moving tape, in a few years we’ll be recording on DVD, disk or some form of cheap flash memory instead of tape. It will offer instant random access and higher storage potential than tape.

But wait. Stop the presses. The future is gaining faster than we’re predicting. I wrote the previous paragraph two months ago. Today, Hitachi has just announced a mini camcorder that records 1.9 Mega-pixel still images and 720k video onto an 8 cm (3 1/8") diameter DVD-RAM disc that is rewritable up to 100,000 times. For some reason, they neglected to include a FireWire connection. That will surely show up in the next model. Sort of like the weather in Wyoming. If you don’t like it, wait a few minutes.

Most film historians agree that George Eastman and Thomas Edison met in 1889 to discuss the specifications of film for Edison’s Kinetoscope. George Eastman is said to have asked "how wide?" Thomas Edison held up his thumb and forefinger. George Eastman took a ruler out of his pocket and measured the distance. It was 35 millimeters wide (1 3/8 inches), exactly half the width of the film Eastman was making for his original Kodak still camera. The film was made by slitting the roll of still film down the center, and splicing the two ends together to yield a length of motion picture film about 50 feet. It had four rectangular perforations on each side of each frame—almost the same dimensions and specifications still in use today.

Format wars are not a new phenomenon. In 1922, Pathé of France introduced the first amateur format motion picture camera: 9.5mm. A year later, Kodak came out with 16mm film and cameras. The Pathé 9.5mm format is virtually unknown in the United States. But every few years, someone "rediscovers" it as the latest great new film size. It has almost as much picture as 16mm in a gauge half the width. The reason it never gained widespread popularity was probably the marketing muscle of Kodak, not to mention the fear of a sprocket tooth, positioned in the midst of the image area, poking out your precious picture. Even today, there are passionate 9.5mm film clubs in France, the UK and US.

Eastman (by then Eastman Kodak) released the first amateur motion picture film, along with cameras to use the new 16mm format, in 1923. The Kodak Cine Special camera and other 16mm cameras were used by a few amateurs, but mostly by documentary and industrial filmmakers, who loved the new format for its speed, light weight and ease of use. Schools bought 16mm projectors for educational films and for analyzing football games.

Super16 uses the same size film as regular 16mm, with perforations along one edge instead of two. The aspect ratio is 1.66 instead of 1.33:1 (4:3).

In fact, Super16 has become so popular, that most 16mm sold today is single-perf.

Very few cameras have sprockets on both sides, with the exception of a few high-speed Photosonics and other specialty cameras.

In 1932, Kodak slit its 16mm film in half, lengthwise, and came out with 8mm. It had twice as many perforations, which were also smaller. Suddenly, film was accessible to almost everyone. Its low cost and ease of use gave 8mm equipment an entry into many American homes. Its small image size required large magnification by a projector, which of course, magnified the film’s grain. It was mainly relegated to home movie use until the late 1950’s, when improvements in technology gave it a boost as an avant-garde medium. Grain suddenly was good.

In 1965, to get a slightly larger image size and boost sales, Kodak made the perforations smaller, so the picture could be larger, and loaded the film into plastic cartridges for easier handling. Super8 was born.

Film brought universal ideas to the largest audience in history, and became a common bond. The history of film in the last century is a chronicle of a craft that became the most popular and powerful art form in history, and influenced the globalization of nations, corporations and ideas.

It was a century of nation building--for better or worse. It was a century in which ideas could be presented to ever larger numbers of people in ever shorter spans of time. Never before had so many sat together to watch the same moving images, to share the same common bonds. Universal themes and emotions could be shared across the boundaries of nations, language, and social structure. The record of that evolution is on film.

Over one hundred years ago, the first cinematographers set off to film the world around them. Early locations were the Panama Canal, Egypt, New York, Paris, Berlin, London. One of the first shots of the first cinematographer at work shows a Lumière cameraman cranking away on the Champs Elysée.

Their footage was the beginning of an art form that would introduce universal ideas to the largest audience in history. One of the first film critics said: "Someone went somewhere and saw something and brought it back for us to look at."

The beauty of motion picture camera design is its intrinsic simplicity, which has endured as a worldwide standard for over 100 years. A little pin enters a little hole in a roll of film, pulls it down, and exposes it to light. Perfs and teeth, gears and cranks. Gleaming brass, mahogany and optical elements.

Famous names: Lumière, Eclair, Biograph, Bioscop, Moy, Prestwich, Williamson, Debrie, Urban, Pathé, Ernemann, Cinématographes, Kinarri, Demeny-Gaumont, Arriflex. You can still see these cameras at George Eastman House, American Society of Cinematographers, Museum of the Moving Image, London Science Museum, Barnes Museum of Cinematography in Cornwall, and Deutsches Museum.

One of the first sports films was shot by Billy Bitzer in 1902: footage of NY Athletic Club games. The first commercial was probably one done in 1898, showing a man with a placard advertising Dewars Scotch Whiskey. One of the earliest special effects films was by Méliès, showing a woman swimming in a fish tank (courtesy of double printing.) In 1898, the Edison Company filmed a Native American dance in the American Southwest.

For over a century, motion pictures endured patent wars, rivalries, intrigues, photo-chemical weathering and digital competition. There has been increasing competition to originate on videotape or digital media. But then we are reminded of the persistent vision of the 50 video formats that have come and vanished in just the last two decades. As a film historian pointed out, "the elegance of film is that in 20 or 50 or 100 years, all you will need to recover the recorded imagery is a light and a lens."

Nature is not always renewable, and neither are cultural resources. Both need protection. Audiences, studios, and even governments are finally becoming aware and involved in film preservation. We are learning that the best preservation medium for film seems to be film. Ironically, the matrix holding the image is subject to scratches and tears from the simple act of viewing. That’s where digital re-mastering becomes important, along with digital "printing" back to film.

Film can take abundant advantage of new optical, digital and technical innovations such as scanning, digital manipulation, non-linear editing and laser printing. As a universal standard, future-proof and hardware-independent, it can be used anywhere in the world (or universe—as long as there is a light and a lens), on any screen, any television, digital or analog, on tape, disc, computer, CD, DVD, laser, the Internet or formats yet to be devised.

Film endures, entertains, and educates. It is a record of our past, preserved for present and future generations. But, film is only as enduring as its custodians will allow. We laughingly say that the projectionist has final cut, and the colorist is the gaffer. In the wrong hands, film can be as fragile as an endangered rainforest, at the mercy of a splicer's blade or a studio's simple need for more shelf space. Many of Hollywood's great collections were destroyed in the 1950s to make room for parking lots and condos.

The next century approaches with prospects of new and different applications for motion imaging. Just as movies evolved from single-use peep shows to large theatrical presentations, we once again see a return to individual viewing on television, computer, and personal digital devices. Globalization may once again revert to fragmentation, as demonstrated by multiplex theatres, multi-channel television, special interest cable networks, and instant Internet delivery.

The two formats share many ideas. Film cameras are now sprouting on-board video monitors. DV cameras are using optical image stabilization systems dating back to the Dynalens, invented in the 1970s.

DV is now at the point in history where film was in 1923, when Eastman and Pathé devised a cheaper, smaller format to bring an expensive and exclusive professional format to a much wider audience.

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