Digital filmmaking is finally coming into prominence in the film 
industry. What once was considered to be cheap and amateur is now 
quickly spinning things into the avant-garde category of 
filmmaking. November was  shot on the Panasonic DVX-100 camera 
which has the 24P feature. This simply means that instead of 
shoot at 30 frames per second, it has a feature that shoots 24 
frames per second creating the same look as film. When you 
compare the footage of a digital camera with the 16mm footage, 
you barely see a difference and this is to the expert eye. The 
average moviegoer would probably even choose the digitally shot 
material over the film because it is cleaner and has less grain.

November was shot on the slim budget of 150k but it received a 
nation wide release because of its main attraction being Courtney 
Cox, the beloved actress from Friends. Although audiences have 
heard about its low-budget, they don’t seem to care much as long 
as it has a involving enough story. November uses the digital 
look to its advantage considering that it has a gritty and 
abstract storyline involving a murder and lots of flashbacks.

The Blair Witch Project was made on a budget of 25k and its 
documentary style of shooting also allowed the use of the video 
camera (some of the scenes were shot in super 16).

Open Water was also shot with the Panasonic camera but it was 
later digitized by the studios to look crisper once projected 
onto the big screen. This film brought in more than 30 million 
dollars and it also utilized digital quality to not only cut down 
on the production expenses but also give the content a feel of 
"reality."

Many industry professionals are still quite skeptical about the 
amount of money said to have been spent on this production. "If 
you take the Panasonic Camera… it’ll end up costing you at the 
very most 6k with all the attached equipment. Which means that 
they had to spend a total of 490k dollars to shoot a movie in the 
middle of the ocean with a couple of sharks here and there," says 
Brian Kaufman of Woodland Hills.

George Lucas greatly publicized his love for High-Definition 
cameras with which he shot all of the Star Wars Prequels 
including the latest Revenge of the Sith. HD Cameras are more 
expensive to come by. An average cost is approximately 100k 
dollars and this is not taking into account the digital transfer 
that is made afterwards for projection.

Other films that were shot on HD were Michael Mann’s Collateral 
and Shervin Youssefian’s Machiavelli Hangman and 
they both enjoyed great success with audiences who couldn’t tell 
that they were not shot on 35mm cameras.

So there you have it, what might have seemed impossible just a 
few years ago is becoming more widely used and accepted as the 
standard of filmmaking. Hopefully as the times progress and 
technologies expand, everyone will have a chance to use the same 
tools to tell their own stories which will – many believe – mark 
the most fruitful era in the history of cinema. 

Constanza Zambon is a movie reviewer.  
Machiavelli Hangman
http://www.hangmanmovie.com