Studio Monthly‘s contributing writer Jim Feeley has a great article in this month’s issue on the growing obsession with different formats and how, in the end, the format is relatively unimportant.
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We waste too much time talking about acquisition formats. How DVCPRO HD compares to HDV and HDCAM. The benefits and drawbacks of 1080p, 1080i and 720p. The supremacy (or idolatry) of 24fps. The quintessence of 4K. None of that really matters. Recording formats are too removed from subject matter to make a big difference in the quality of a story. This goes for corporate, docs, broadcast, indie and Hollywood work.

Which brings me to my confusion over the RED fever so many seem to have contracted. The excitement seems to stem from the prospect that now regular videographers (with at least $40K to spend) can purchase a cinema quality camera and be set to make the next great movie. But my question to the future RED owners is: What are you going to shoot with this that you couldn’t shoot before? Was there a story idea you’ve had percolating but waited because it could only be told in 4K? Furthermore, is the cost of the camera, plus the savings of tapeless aquisition, really going to make a dent in any budget? The reality is, as Frank Capria first noted on his blog, “since catering costs more than camera rental for so many features, a lower cost camera will not change the industry or its output significantly.”

Don’t get me wrong, I think the RED camera will be great and deliver on all of the lofty promises. There are too many smart people behind this thing. Perhaps more significantly, the introduction of the RED camera will continue to democratize acquisition, especially as it may force other companies to lower prices on their cameras downstream of 4K. That is a good thing.

But if you don’t have a script, none of it matters and whether you shoot 4K or the Fisher-Price PXL2000, it’s all going to look the same when compressed on YouTube.