Digital Cinematography

Digital Cinematography

For over a century motion picture have entertained the masses, allowing people to view life taking place on a large screen. For the majority of this time these movies were shot using the same film found in photographic cameras. Technology always seems to take over and the film industry seems poised to be the next target. With digital picture acquisition getting better everyday, movies are beginning to be shot completely digital. There are a number of plusses and minuses of shooting digitally but digital cinematography will soon replace film in most productions.

The emergence of digital or "electronic" cinematography, began in the late 1980's. Sony came up with an idea for a HDTV camera but there was little interest in this concept. Most all television shows and commercials are shot using some form of digital video tape, but now films are leaning in the same direction. Low budget filmmakers have been utilizing the MiniDV format for years with it's quality being considerably greater than other prior formats. In May 2002 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones became the first major motion picture release to be done digitally. This film was shot using 24 frame-per-second high-definition video utilizing a Sony CineAlta camera. Typical video cameras operate at 29.97 fps, but these higher quality digital cameras being released are capable of operating at 24 fps, the same way traditional film cameras work.

Digital cinematography operates on the same principals as digital photography. These cameras go about capturing images by the use of light sensors. These sensors are commonly referred to as CMOS and CCD, with CCD sensors being the most common. These sensors typically come in one of two arrays allowing for flexibility while shooting. Most cameras used for digital cinematography are equipped with one sensor that operates in a similar manner to a film frame. These large sensors allow the user to outfit these higher quality digital cameras with the same lenses that are used with 35mm film. The digital cameras that are used more for broadcast typically carry a three sensor array. A prism is used to split the color spectrum and each sensor is responsible for a different color. This increases the quality of the color reproduction, but these cameras cannot be outfitted with traditional film lenses.

With film the actual images are stored on each individual film frame. Digital images can be stored in two different fashions.