Digital Acting
An interesting article about how choosing to shoot a movie digitally effects (affects? I never can remember) the acting process. I’ve never been on an actual “film” shoot, personally. All of the projects I’ve worked on have been on that thar newfangled digital stuff. I can say, however, that not having to worry about $2.50/minute stock running through the camera relieves some of the time pressure on set. And it’s nice to be able to redo a take for some small reason, or get a safety take. I think it makes directors more willing to fix stuff at the recording stage (door slam off camera, airplane, cellphone ring, etc) rather than say they’ll “fix it in the mix”. Argh. That’s always LOTS harder/more time consuming/more expensive than doing it right at the shooting stage.
I’m posting a project right now that we shot a month or so ago. I was the sound recordist on set and tried hard to get clean sound in the middle of downtown Austin by busy streets. It was frustrating at the time waiting for the lull in traffic in order to get as quiet a shot as possible, but it’s paying dividends now. There’s only one shot that will need some sort of major surgery/fix/workaround. Every other shot (there are about 35) is relatively clean. Thanks to a patient and understanding director, my job is much easier now, and the project will ultimately be better.