Another piece of good news for indy VJs
It is significant that just two weeks after this great video was shot and edited using the new iPhone 4, the BBC changed its production guidelines for independent producers to include the Canon XF300, which is the first 1/3 chip allowed in HD shows.
As Alister Chapman on XDCam-User explains:
“This is a little bit surprising, not because the Canon’s are not up to the job, but because this flies in the face of the BBC’s own guidelines that state that cameras must have 1/2″ sensors. The BBC have been using XDCAM EX1’s and EX3’s for a couple of years, more recently with NanoFlashes to bring the bit rate up to the BBC’s 50mb/s guidelines, yet the EX1 or EX3 have never been listed on the front page as approved.”
And RosenblumTV’s Michael Rosenblum says:
“And this is not for news. This is for all programming – documentary, drama, comedy and so on.
“The BBC is and always has been the technical standard bearer for quality television and in opening the door to the Canon XF they are sending a clear message that it is their intention to support lower budget productions and clearly more ‘independent’ production companies.
“Some might call this a ‘lowering of standards’, or perhaps it’s just an indication that the technology has gotten that much better.
“In either case, it clearly paves the way for more people to get into the independent television production business.”
For me, it shows the gradual lowering of production costs we’re seeing both in the traditional media cost-chain, and in the freelancing multimedia world where one-woman/man-band operations have to balance quality with really low costs.
The lowering of the barriers to entry on both ends of the scale can only be a good thing for new talent wanting to come into the digital film-making and news production world, be it TV, online video or multimedia storytelling.
Category: Featured, journalism, media, video
