How Film Schools Teach HD Cinematography

[laurent.a]

It's a question for technical students more than directing ones...

I would like to know from you students how your teachers train you to HD cinematography.

Do you have technical courses about the different formats? What cameras do you work with? Do you learn how to get into the menus and different parameters? Are you taught about the tests that should be made before shooting... or do you use these cameras like nearly any other one and only focus and learn about lighting and framing?

I think the tool is worth knowing it well and it's becoming clear that a new job has appeared on HD films, like a new assistant to the DOP, helping him to configure the machine with vectorscope, monitor and so, assisting him to get the image he wants and keeping the material in state, matching the lenses colorimetry, etc. while the focus puller is still doing his work on the stage.

How is the job called where you are? Video assistant? Video engineer? Digital technician?

In France, people like Philippe Ros call his assistant François Paturel "opérateur vision" as we call the video engineer on multicameras " ingénieur de la vision "

Are you taught this job?

 

[Elhanan Matos]

There are a few workshops out there. I participated in the Santa Fe HD workshop, we went through all of the menus of the F900 and of the Varicam, and we played with the Viper a bit. We also went through everything you would need to know about monitors, test equipment, routers, timecode, etc...

Here in LA the job is currently called "Digital Imaging Technician"

 

[laurent.a]

Good. I am more interested even into knowing what happens in regular courses.

I've seen that "DIT" seems to be quite consensual on the net.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

It depends on the goals of the film school in terms of how far they want to train students in the details of HD technology; I can see a basic grounding in video technology to be far more useful for a student; the specifics of HD cameras and shooting approaches can be learned in a workshop or by spending some time with the camera.

When I shot "Jackpot", one of the first 24P HDCAM features, my background was in 35mm shooting and a little ENG Sony Betacam stuff (which helped.) I basically had a weekend to learn how to use the HD camera.

This isn't rocket science. While the engineering side CAN be rocket science, the question is how much do you want to train students to be engineers. Do film students have to be able to process their own film stock? Grind their own lenses? There are obviously limits to the technological depth in which you have to teach a basic film student. Depends too on the school, which is why I mentioned goals. Some schools do not have the money to teach such advanced courses.

I've shot seven HD features so far, one more next month, and have yet to use a DIT or engineer on set, or use a vectorscope or waveform monitor, etc. There has to be a compelling reason to make an HD shoot more complex; otherwise, keep things simple. Maybe someday when I get some time, I'll actually attend one of those HD seminars...

You also have to remember that many film schools in the US are not as advanced or as hard as some in Europe (like Poland's Lodz film school) in terms of how much students have to learn. My cinematography teacher at CalArts, Kris Malkiewicz, said that at Lodz, he had to take courses in optics, physics, and chemistry as part of his cinematography training.

As more film schools get HD cameras, there will be practical courses on using the HD camera of course.