Must we...

Bill Pierce

Bill Pierce

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My grandchildren, vacationing in Europe, emailed back, not stills, but movies.

As the photo world that I grew up in, news photography, moves from paper to the Web, more and more mini movies are displayed where stills used to be. Perhaps more important, more and more young photographers are choosing a professional life in motion pictures rather than still pictures.

Old dudes, the world is changing. Must we learn to hold down the shutter button for longer lengths of time?
 
My MM does NOT have a video button :D
and I'm not planning to get any camera that does have one :cool:.

And I thought Barnack just used the bulk movie film material ...
 
Maybe it depends on what you’re photographing? No doubt I’m shooting more video than I did in the past, but mainly of things in motion, e.g. rapids, waterfalls, boating, etc. But for portraits, street photography, etc., I shoot stills 100% (most on film too).

Jim B.
 
My son makes training videos for the company he works for, he uses the Canon 5 D. Luckily he isn't interested in sending them to me. All my cameras but the Leica have video capability but I have yet to use it for anything but a check when I first got them. I have one that does panoramic shots that works pretty good but for some reason I don't even do that, though I like panoramas. I'm with Bill, us old folks are hard to re-train.
 
Well look at many old movies and compare the narrative structure with many new movies. What's the difference? To me, the older movies are much better -- better at telling stories, better at developing characters, and there is an organic almost sensual feel to the images that is lacking in many films today. So, there's nothing wrong with movies -- probably the people with the most dynamic talent have always and will always gravitate to movies over stills. Now if OP is referring to earning a living in photography (cough not likely cough) -- then yes, one must also do motion -- and then you have in many cases to be competent with sound and also not mind sitting on your can editing for long periods of time. Of course there are exceptions. Just saw the Dawn of the Apes movie and thought it was awful, boring, cliche, predictable, awful acting, CGI -- but my 22 year old son liked it. Whatever.
 
I am pretty sure I am getting better at taking videos. My grandchildren were laughing so hard they couldn't catch their breath when I showed them my last try.

That is good...right? :eek:
 
The question shouldn't be "Must we?" as that already pronounces judgement. The better question to me is "Do you want to?" ... individually, personally.

For me the answer is yes: movies have a rich legacy and are (or can be) even higher levels of abstraction than stills while continuing to draw viewers in ways that stills do not. They are emotive and magical. What they aren't is easy to create, even with all the magic available today. And as such they represent a challenge of vision,time, and effort.

I'd love to make movies, and am just itching to have the time.

G
 
I always find it strange that when people do things, often other people feel the need to do the same.

Personally, I just can't be bothered to watch any movie on YouTube or whatever over 30 seconds long. Movie trailers are the exception, but then of course, they are created by people whose life's work is to create motion pictures.
 
If you can tell a story in one frame why do we need 30/second? How long can the ADD generation focus on any one topic. One frame if it's a good one.
 
x-ray said:
If you can tell a story in one frame why do we need 30/second? How long can the ADD generation focus on any one topic. One frame if it's a good one.
Click to expand...

With all due respect to the OP, I think you are observing the convergence of our ADD culture and our narcissistic culture. Everyone loves to show off, and casual movies do that better than casual photos. Those of us with more extensive editing inclinations just take a series of little clips and stitch them together into a longer one set to music!

I will agree that the six-second Vine clips to 30 second YouTube clips seem to be just about the right length for conversational sharing!
 
the correlative question is film or digital...
for social media I guess digital video clips are okay...

But what subjects in addition to the grand/children or the dog?

I have done some short panorama shots, but a still also works.
What I question is social media that plays the videos as you scroll...

Casey
 
I enjoy family movies but it can get expensive to hang a bunch of those on the living room wall ...
 
NY_Dan said:
Well look at many old movies and compare the narrative structure with many new movies. What's the difference? To me, the older movies are much better -- better at telling stories, better at developing characters, and there is an organic almost sensual feel to the images that is lacking in many films today..
Click to expand...


let me disagree here. the old movies looks better to you as you are from the older generation ( nothing personal here ) they'r telling stories closer to your time, characters etc. The world is changing and films are changing too. If you ask a young boy/girl to watch the 60's 70's classics, they will probably stop it at the 15-20 min. That doesn't make something good or bad, it's just not their thing :)
 
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