I work in the production world, have for 15 years now. When I started media acquisition was making the transfer from linear (tape and film) to the digital (1's and 0's on some sort of data device) over the years of seeing the digital side of the production world grow I've come to have a real love hate relationship with it and I don't think many people who started working in this field within the last 5 or 6 years really understand or appreciate the differences or benefits of non-linear media when compared to digital.

For digital there are really many benefits, not the least of which is cost and time. Shooting on digital is frankly cheaper and easier than shooting on film. You pick up the camera, load your tape/card/disc and shoot. No developing, no figuring out grain sensitivity, no converting negative to a work print. You basically, for the most part, see what you get right in the view finder and, more importantly, can instantly play it back. This is great, allows you to be more creative and less technical. Unfortunately it also allows anyone who feels like shooting to do so and call themselves a professional, entirely different rant.

Now, for the past 8 or so years there's been a move to go completely digital and move away from tape completely. Many HD formats still are recorded to some sort of digital tape, which means that there is a degree of compression that has to be done to the signal to get it onto the tape. Its that whole getting a lot of water through a smaller hose analogy. The way a signal is written to tape is far different than how it is written as a raw data file. So, naturally, everyone wants that raw material to work with to get to their end product, not that the average or even above average person would notice a difference. But, the quality is there and if you see tape based and data based side by side, odds are you will notice some differences during motion and in the contrast quality of the image.

This gets me to the essence of my rant. There are many fine cameras out there that shoot in a native digital format. Panasonics P2 and Sonys XDCam. If your shooting something for yourself to be edited in house, these are really great products and deliver really great images. But, if your going to be a freelancer, well now you run into a problem. Yes, you can boast about how great the gear is you have and the quality of the image. But, what do you do about delivery? Do you give your client one of your $1200 P2 Cards or $500 XD Data disc? I suppose you could if you charged them for it, but most likely they'll balk and hire someone else who shoots on tape. Do you buy a hard drive and load it all onto that drive for delivery? That's an option and it does cost about as much as tape stock would cost. Just make sure you tell your client up front. Then, what format do you deliver? Do you know that there are about 4 standard video wrappers out there with around 5 or 6 codecs? Some of these wrapers and codecs are proprietary. Which means if the client doesn't have an Avid or has an older Avid or is using Final Cut they could be in trouble.

This is a scenerio where tape is so much easier. Shoot, send it to the client, done.

Another issue is archival. I've been asking a lot of younger shooters and producers how they archive their raw material. Most simply stare at me and ask why? We have a master? Well, that doesn't always float when, as a production company, our client comes back a year or two later and asks to upgrade something. With tape, you label it, put it into a data base, and stick it on a shelf. What do you do with 100's of Gigs or even Terrabytes, in our case 3 Petabytes or digital media? Well, you have to buy a server and a storage unit and then maintain it. $$$$$

I am definitely not suggesting that we go back to a linear world. I cut my teeth learning to edit on flat bed film editing systems, although fun, I was 17 and found the whole thing new and exciting. Being older and having edited digitally now for the past 15 years, I'll never go back. Digital post is essential and receiving the data that just loads up within seconds is great. Its those times when you need to archive it, encode it, import it, and then receive a box of Blurays discs from the freelance camera guy with a file structure that looks like the first time you open the data folder in a mod having never modded before and the client is calling you asking when their product will be ready that you just wish they shot the dang thing on tape.

Sorry for the rant, just came up, this acted as both a vent session and an informative piece perhaps for those starting out or thinking of going into the production world. Every week there's something new out there and someone wants to use their shiny new toy. But you have to see what is right for the project and client and not just assume what you deliver on the latest and greatest gadget is necessary going to be received with cheers and excitement.