HD Ruining Film? Good grief!

Hello Industrious Film People,

And anyone else reading this...

I'm on a search to purchase my own video camera, which is a completely daunting process. There's a lot of filth out there, and almost needless to say I'm one of those 'fussy' types that doesn't want to be seen using an HD camera. 16mm just has so much more style, and works better with the ladies. Retro.

Apart from expecting a large windfall, shooting on film for "sh*ts and giggles" is an unrealistic and expensive hobby. For me anyway. I'm in great awe and respect for people who have the courage to invest so much into small film projects, and know they will unlikely receive any financial return. And so I'm stuck with the harsh reality that I will have to be a digital boy, with a digital video camera, shooting on digital video.

Cassettes. I will have to shoot on cassettes. For me, and many others, they are a cheaper alternative. And they're kinda cool. You can't hold a piece of digital information like you can a miniDV tape. It's nice. Here's my film, on this little tape. A throwback to film, which truly exposes the hard work involved by revealing every frame, one after the other.
So I'm keen on tape, HDV. The flash memory concerns me because it seems to involve a lot of data-storing, and I'm attempting to edit on a not-so-big notebook. On a not-so-real copy of adobe Premiere Pro. Yeah that's right, premiere pro. It's become good, you should try it.

Big brands come to mind: Sony and Canon. Competitors in a racy world of digital video. Both are using CMOS sensors, which worried many for a long while, but the progressive scanning style has improved vastly, so I'm not too concerned about it. I am concerned about a few things though: motion clarity, low-light conditions, and colour. I love colour and movement, and with each camera producing a different image tone, I need to find one that produces in a style that I relate to. A particular canon model is jumping at me, the HV40.

The HV40 has an impressive ancestry, with its grandad the groundbreaking HV20, and the well-renowned HV30.
Dare I say it, the gap between the quality of 'consumer' and 'prosumer' cameras is being crossed. It is now very possible to shoot a high quality movie on a low-budget camera. Possible a way of picking up the industry before the big reveal of the Red SCARLETT, a camera that will bring the Red ONE capabilities to the semi-professional.

Imagine, a world where I can create a zombie attack on my Wellington flat with such intense reality that it defies all logic and people believe it's real and start to become protective of their families and over-aggressive in public. Where streets are closed and vigilante groups roam the silent city in search of the 'Zombs', carrying flaming torches and waving pitchforks in the air. Oh HD, you excite me.

Sweet monkey sandwich, what am I saying? Film is an art that requires respect and discipline and all purists know that the future of this industry relies on celluloid, not cheap digital technology that allow just anyone to pick up a camera and film himself doing stupid things. The two formats are very seperate.

But it will take me years and years of saving and begging to be able to use film! Oh bother, what a pickle!

Help?
Where should my alliances lie?
What should I shoot on?
Leave a comment.

x Thomas