Some people believe that film is the only right medium for movies, and everything else is superior.

Others believe that even HDV is a waste of time and you should just use a good DV camera, because it will eventually end up on a DVD at best, or a VCD, which is a quarter of the resolution of DV. That you should focus on story and direction. I think I fall into this category because a recent project of mine fell apart when the producer insisted that I should pay to rent a HDV camera (and deck) instead of using my 3CCD DV cam & accessories.

But the majority seem to prefer HDV, though they don't take full advantage of it. Which camp are you in?

If you get a commissioned project and you want your name to be counted among those who have short on film medium, then by all means do film.

we basically still shoot DV here 'cos editing and broadcastb access in naija are still analog and digital, not HDV largely.

For me, it is the content that matter, especially if what you are doing is a commercial project. Remeber that Amazing grace was short on 35mm and it was an artistic as well as commercial failure, home and abroad. It could not even get international distribution after being peddled around film festivals and being shown in remote corners!!

Content! content!1 Content!!!

Get the content right and the format will be secondary.

Peace

I agree with you that content is king but if a great movie, wonderfully scripted and directed isnt well executed, it still turns out crap. I would say if you have the budget of film, then u have no excuse. by the way there are several digital film cameras, of which the Arri D20 seems to be topping the chart. There is also the Viper filmstream and the Panasonic varicam. All these cameras record digitally and when properly handled, will look like film. and their cost of operation is just a fraction of film. As the topic goes, I would say HDV and DV fall into the same category.

Now Thank you all, E je kin dasi,

Now HDV and Dv cameras so to say by so directors and some stupid cameramen have turn out to be the best way of having a serious recording in nigeria. Now Please be attentive! I have take my time to discovered that majority of our directors didn't know anything about editing while some of our cameramen too didn't know much about editing. take that or leave that! I happens to be a silent cinematographer of which I know the both of what you guys are discussing, Now, I take my time to work with a so called Home Video Director Happy Yinka Davies (He happen to be a collegue), and we had some discussion regarding HDV and DV of which I later finds out by myself that He too didn't know that until the time he started working with Soundcity now (that is when he was given a mac laptop that edits with Final Cut Pro HD). It was then he too realise that he has been director his best of nonsence. Meanwhile, I had have aruge that with him long time ago that it wasjust because our people do not know the importance of the equipment they are using. Now take a very look at the way they use HD camera, those cameramen will always use DV format on the HD system for your capturing instead of HDV format. Can you now see what have been causing the problem. I was once told by one of these Producers that there's no much HDV editing studio around and I ask the person that why can't you build one for yourself, it won't cost you much? and He replied, that if he has to do that he will be spending up to 1.5m and I told He's not a serious type I go out with. I told someone that the HDV fromat and DV format have not yet take their stand the way they should. I learnt something that majority of the american music videos we do watch, are been shot on MD and PD series of cameras, but what is wrong with Nigerians, it seems to me that majority of them did not know how to make use of the equipment they have. Mindyou, there are so many application programmes that will Edit and capture your videos with any format you want. Have you try DV gate? and what about Adobe Premier CS3, all these edit in HDV format, infact you can change from DV format to HDV format with DV gate, I think that is what is used for. But now tell me, Isn't it the person that has not yet have a good studio will edit in HDV or DV format? I once take a look at one man system specification for his editing studio. His name is Enny Sam at Ipaja Road Funmilayo B/Stop Agege, and I discovered that the computer is not even up to the standard of mine. Just Imagine, I learnt he he has 64MB for his AGP and instead of 512MB, can you now see the cause of what is happening? His computer is Pentium III instead of PIV, he edits with TV tunner card, instead of AVID liquid pro or Matrox, can we now see the problem now. And at the end of the day, these people will comes out with scrap. I think that is one of the reason why I don't even watch naija home movies, because I believe that they are all scraps. And just because most of them will not record in the right format and edit in the right format.

If you really want to have a professional Audio and Video Editing then I believe this is what I do for living. I have a recording studio of which I'm up to the standard. So that is why I used to tell them to always have correct equipment in order for them to be able to produce the best. If I'm to be giving awards people will only discovered that I will be giving the awards to those jobs that do not sell well but have good picture qaulities. I wonder the reason why our musical video is always tight than our so called naija movies. So you see what I mean?

So feel free to give me a call 2348035324914, 23418906836 or mail me tundepianist@yahoo.com

Iretunde is the name once again thanks.

the discussion of what format to shoot your project on has been trashed b4 on other sites for example www.dvinfo.net and www.studiodaily.com, the dv and hdv cameras are not really that different, hdv gives you a slightly higher resolution which means sharper pictures but it doesn't mean a better looking picture. composing your shot, lighting, scripting and your actors goes a long way in making your project better, i've seen things shot on handycams that looked awesome after editing. i think content matters the most, medium second, yeah i would love to shoot on film but not that badly. and no software or hardware can upgrade material shot on dv to hdv it's simply impossible. do your job right, equipment is never a replacement for talent.

@iretunde
Pls do not come on the internet to condemn our industry professionals if you arent much better of. First of all, I ont take any premiere editor seriously. Now you talk abou DV gate? Man, you should step up your game.
@mozart,
you seem to know more about this topic. Kudos
As for DV vs HDV there is noooooo difference in acquisition apart from the extra pixels you get with HDV.
@ all Nairalanders
Mode of acquisition is not as important as the content. You could shoot in DV with your PD 150 and do a proper grading session and improve the colours and texture of the video. If you need to go international, you could get some more money and blow it up to film. Another tip is to use the film adapters on your video camera to achieve a similar DOF (depth of field) as that of film eg Redrock and Sgpro.
Also like mozart said, ensure you pay proper attention to your lighting and composition. Always use softer lighting for your interiors (Kinoflos)
That will be all for now.

I don't really understand this "HDV and DV are the same thing" vibe.

First of all HDV is 6 times the resolution of DV, and on a high definition TV or computer monitor the difference is clear. The difference in resolution is more than the difference between DVD and VCD resolution, so what are you saying?

Some video cameras support HDV, while others (such as mine) don't support HDV. Obviously I would need to buy or rent a new camcorder if I want to use HDV, and I will need a more powerful editing workstation to handle the editing. So how can you say no difference?

Have you ever compared projected HDV and projected DV on a cinema projector? And there was no difference?

As for DV vs HDV there is noooooo difference in acquisition apart from the extra pixels you get with HDV.

This is like saying "there is no difference between white and black except that one is lighter than the other". It is a pointless waste of words. And in fact, there are other differences such as the limitations of the interframe compression of HDV when you're shooting sports or other high motion content, leading to blockiness in your video.

Thank you Seun. That all just I have to tell them too. Our People na waoooooooooo. I think I've experience the same thing in Audio when someone was telling me about tone generator and synthesizer softwares, of which the person have not tried it out. But eventually I proved him wrong and up to this present moment my production is x10 better than theirs. So If we are to talk of HDV and DV, sorry there are a lots and lots of difference. So you have to prove the theory first before you say that there's no difference. And more so, How many nairalanders are the real professionals? if you are, let's talk for real.

PLEASE GUYS, THIS SHOULDN'T BE A SLANDERING SPOT!

Hello Fellow Filmmakers,
I am an InterActive Video Editor. I have been practising music, 3Dgraphics, interactive multimedia & video|filmmaking since 1994.
Naturally, I [b]dont [/b]reply to topics such as this & my reason is simple:
It eventually turns out you're talking with laymen.
but just as with the nigerian politics space, if u dont do it cos of ur 'dignity'
riffraffs will do it & rule you.

Please, let us try to be as decent as possible on fora such as this.
If you dont know what to say, ASK! I am not going to comment on the topic because my reply has been covered already
but please guys, this shouldnt be a battlefield. Plus, lets try avoid mention of names.

I have worked on all video editing apps in & out of the market (plus some that're not released for commercial usage)
yet i will never, ever say i wont take a certain editor seriously because he uses a certain app. its quite unfair.

Happy Editing guys.

What a way to revive the topic. @folu#bawa How is it going? I suppose you are freelance. Can we meet? There are some things I want to discuss.

A Google Search for Nollywood: From Analogy To Digital led me to this important topic that is very important till date with the advancement in digital cinema and streaming video services like Amazon, Disney+, Netflix and WeTV.