Bit rate - the new camera currency

Started by Roman, June 02, 2013, 04:09:02 AM

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Roman

When I was growing up as a kid, it was (comparatively) expensive for the average family to take photos...

People used to only take some pictures unless they were really sure that it would be worthwhile.
The average kid probably had maybe enough photos of them to barely fill an album, from birth to their 21st.

If you were at a beach, you'd only think about taking a photo of a sunset if there was a supermodel mud wrestling party going on, with dolphins jumping out of the water, and some biplanes having a dogfight over the ocean.

Now with no cost associated, you might see someone upload 500 completely rubbish photos of a party they went to, or 100 photos of a bland beach on an overcast day.

The removal of any cost has also removed the minimum quality requirement.

In some ways, the removal of 'cost' has affected video too - I can chuck 5-10 $10 8gb SD cards into a bag, some spare batteries and just film the hell out of anything in H264, because I can.
24fps, 30fps, 60fps, whatever I want for whatever reason (or not)

With the raw video, one thing that I think is really great... is that it's reintroduced a form of currency/cost back into the equation in a similar way that there was for film.

24fps isnt for the sake of artistic mimicry of a film camera - there's a very real reason in both on site shooting and post processing to stick with 24fps. If you want/need to go to 30fps or stretch to 60, you'll need a reasonable justification to offset the downsides of doing so, and will have put thought into why it's wanted/needed - same as if you were paying for each frame of film to be processed.

Since I've been playing around with raw video on 50D (where I've only got one 16gb memory card, and cant delete things on site) I've learnt to be a bit more frugal with which shots I am planning to take, on account of the above limitations.

I've noticed that I've put a little more thought into how a shot has been composed, because I really didnt want to waste what little space I had haha.

In the same way that Italians came up with a bunch of brilliant food because they only had tomatoes and pasta to work with - I'm looking forward to how the new found limitations of the medium of raw video helps shape the creative process into new directions.

There's always been a chip on peoples shoulder about trying to make things look 'filmic' (I hate this word) however now I hope things will branch away from this mindset with the new found creative control over the look and feel of shots which are now possible. There have been some reallly stellar looking test videos, I'm looking forward to seeing some raw video implemented into projects as it matures.

noisyboy

Quote from: Roman on June 02, 2013, 04:09:02 AM
I've noticed that I've put a little more thought into how a shot has been composed, because I really didnt want to waste what little space I had haha.

I'm totally with you on that point. I actually kind of enjoy it. It's forcing me to shoot better and it's actually showing results :)

N/A

Definitely know what you mean. I have a small side business for videography, audio production/recording, and photography to an extent. Technology has made this field ENORMOUSLY competitive. Any little thing that can set us apart is a blessing. Raw video (even on our lowly 600D) is something to be excited about in this aspect.
7D. 600D. Rokinon 35 cine. Sigma 30 1.4
Audio and video recording/production, Random Photography
Want to help with the latest development but don't know how to compile?

ItsMeLenny

Quote from: Roman on June 02, 2013, 04:09:02 AM
24fps isnt for the sake of artistic mimicry of a film camera

Also note though, that your 24fps is actually 23.976fps, which is compatible with NTSC standards, you can double and weave or what not to get back to 30fps (which is actually 29.97fps).
In PAL however, it's not quite possible to get either 23.976 or 24 back to 25 without speeding up the video. Which is what they do for film on PAL release, some DVD releases shift the audio back down but there's usually a full semitone change in sound. A film that goes for 1 hour 5 minutes will only go for 1 hour on PAL DVD, which is why people here always say "it seemed to go for longer in the cinema".