One saying often said in the Film Industry is that, if you want to go it alone in creativity (versus collaboration), then “buy yourself a paint set.”  Whether we like it or not, that cheap paint set is becoming all it takes to make a movie.  Or at least almost.  I attended three events this last year about emerging technology which demonstrate that the creative threshold is continually dropping for the filmmaker.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) hosts the DGA Digital Day to exhibit and discuss new technologies and techniques.  About five years ago, two companies presented new 3D technology.  Two years later, six companies presented their wares.   A tech surprise was the Panasonic AG-3DA1 Production System, which put a 3D camera system within reach of many small companies.  Another tech wave is the expansive use of Canon Digital Still cameras into the professional production arena because they can record full Hi-Def.  Major TV show episodes embraced the technology. The small DSLR’s can be purchased for less than $2,000 and outfitted with a variety of professional gear, including Follow Focus and matteboxes.  The Canon EOS 5D is leading the way.

Scott Billups, author of the essential “Digital Moviemaking 3.0,”  broke down complex digital concepts into accessible analogies like boxes of crayons.  Simple, but understandable.  The filmmaker must understand the limits of his technology. Great cinematographers like Greg Toland, James Wong Howe (who Billups worked with), Gordon Willis, and Vittorio Storaro worked in a photochemical process.  They were first photographers, framers, and interpreters of the dramatic moment.  No more. Today’s digital cinematographer must weigh formats, methods, and other emerging innovations for image capture of the dramatic moment into its final workflow for post-production and distribution.  The workflow discussion dovetailed into a panel discussing web series.  The creator of  “The Bannen Way” (available on Netflix) said that their strategy was to produce three-minute webisodes to be compiled into a thirty-minute series and, ultimately, a marketable DVD full-length DVD.

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Want to relive season five of Paris Hilton’s reality show The Simple Life? No problem, it’s on DVD. The complete first season of Jane Curtin’s sitcom Kate & Allie? It’s just a click away on Amazon.com. Oliver Stone’s surreal 1993 miniseries Wild Palms? Get it on Netflix. Virtually any miniseries or TV show you can think of, from any season, no matter how insipid, forgettable, or obscure, is readily available and continues to earn profits (often inexplicably). 

But you will look in vain for a DVD of the extraordinary and controversial Disney/ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11. 

Disney President and CEO Robert Iger

A $30+ million project that aired without sponsors on two September nights in 2006, The Path to 9/11 dramatized the historical thread that connected the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Islamic attacks on American interests throughout the ‘90s, and the terrorism of that fateful morning in 2001. 

Prior to its premiere, the producers at ABC were so proud of the impending project that they had high hopes of airing Path every 9/11 anniversary and showing it in schools across this country as an engaging educational tool – until an accusation of “conservative bias” (horrors!) on the part of the filmmakers quickly spun into liberal hysteria that the project was actually a “well-honed propaganda operation” on the part of a secretive, right-wing network-within-a-network.  (more…)