Q) What is the minimum size crew necessary to achieve professional video production results on a film or video shoot.

A) The answer to this question is always conditional on the complexity of and production values attached to the project.

Electronic Field Production or EFP is the type of shooting that can be successfully achieved by one person. Often referred to as "news gathering" or "B-roll" acquisition, footage is acquired on-location using "run-and-gun" techniques. Here audio recording is generally just the ambient sound occurring naturally. Therefore the on-camera microphone is used. The available light of the scene is usually all that is necessary. The videographer is responsible for the entire outcome of the endeavor..

Regarding film-style production where a controlled shoot is necessary involving staging, acting and sync sound, a crew of several people becomes mandatory. The director supervises the camera crew and actors and approves all important decisions related to the shoot. The director of photography (DP) concerns themself mainly with the quality and aesthetic of the visual imagery and hence oversees video or film camera operation. At least one lighting technician, also sometimes called a gaffer or grip, will manage the critical job of lighting the scene (or set) to achieve the director's intended visual outcome. The sound person or audio recordist takes responsibility for getting effective coverage of the actor(s) spoken lines and any sound effects being generated on the set.

 

Q) Is there a difference between video lighting and lighting for a film shoot?

A) As relates to current digital cinema and video camera technology, there is no denying the necessity to do effective lighting. All of these cameras react similarly to creative lighting and grip practices. The stylistic design of the particular film production or video production may dictate a unique approach.

Lighting for film often calls for a very subjective technique where the effective use of light and shadow are maximized in order to set a mood. Since film-style direction and production assumes replaying any given scene multiple times from several different angles, the lighting equipment can be readjusted between takes to optimize what the camera sees. The outcome of this film lighting style is the appearence of depth and an almost 3D effect.

Television style production is done with multiple cameras each positioned at different angles and each covering the action as it happens. Therefore the set or scene gets it's video lighting treatment just once. The need to average the look of the lighting from all angles results in a much flatter, perhaps more 2D appearence to the overall final product.

 

Q) Isn't actual raw footage shooting with celluloid based 16mm and 35mm film becoming obsolete?

A) It's quite safe to say that in the past 6 years the image capture technology of the digital cinema camera or high definition video camera has progressed to the point of rivaling the characteristics of 16mm and 35mm motion picture film formats.

The integration of the Sony CineAlta HDCam into LucasFilm's Star Wars Episodes II & III footage acquisition heralded the begining of the end of the celluloid production era. The RED Digital Cinema camera, the RED One is capable of super high definition resolutions including 2K and 4K and is proving to be the definitive technology for the new motion film production techniques.