C O N V E R G E N C E

C O N V E R G E N C E

I recently worked on another simultaneous video and stills shoot. Seems like there's been more and more of this lately. It was a branded content piece for Vice Magazine's online video network, VBS.tv. What was so cool about this job was that the 2 digital workflows in place - one for the two HVX200 video cameras and the other for the two Canon 1Ds Mark II still cameras were REMARKABLY similar. We had a laptop station set up for video and a separate one working for stills with a tech handling each. We lit the shots for video and when the director would call for stills, the Mark II would fly in and he would just use a tethered flash when he needed a little extra kick. In working closely with the stills tech, we were able to create a very similar palette and digital "grain structure" for both media. In the end, the images were remarkably well matched though the stills were obviously of vastly superior quality. This really got me thinking about where this business is going and the possibilities that new technology, like the upcoming RED Digital Stills and Motion Camera, will afford. Shoots like this could become the norm for commercial applications in the coming years. You kill 2 birds with one stone and in the end, it's all just digital imaging. So much of the theory and practice applies to both media. If this trend takes off, it will be interesting to see what happens when videographers are forced to become photographers and photographers become videographers.