HD Evening

Roger Kahane and Michel Sibra, co-presidents of 25 Images, were the masters of ceremonies. TV directors are increasingly being pushed to shoot HD. This pressure comes doubtless from the coming HD broadcast of the major TV networks. The 25 Images Group therefore wanted to gather, along with its members, cinematographers, editors, colorists, and script supervisors so as to collect information about this new technology, its advantages, its inconveniences, its constraints.<br /<
What came out of this discussion ? First, that all directors of photography don’t have the same opinion on the issue, which seemed to surprise some directors. Secondly, that high definition broadcast doesn’t necessarily imply shooting HD, but that Super 16 is still a very good, if not the best, solution.

The confusion between the format for shooting and that used for broadcast is presently, and unfortunately sustained by certain pressure groups, who see it to their advantage.
The 25 Images Group’s initiative to gather creative collaborators to speak about a very topical problem is to be applauded ; it shows this association’s spirit of openness and collaboration and offers an example to be followed. It pushes us to not stay in our corner, but to open up the debate whenever the need arises. This is the case, for example, for the AFC Image Charter.

A film is always the result of a collective labor in the service of an idea (a script) and of a world (that of the director) and its success depends a lot on the quality of the relationships between the different members of the creative team. For me, this also holds true of all the initiatives that may come from different associations, with the goal of reflecting upon the future of creation and improving the quality of films, and their « production » in a new digital world whose rules are still imprecise : the more of us working in a spirit of partnership and common reflection, the better the chance of succeeding, the more we will be able to resist the economic forces that are driving to impose upon us rules and norms that have more to with profit than artistic creation.

(Translated from French by Benjamin Bergery)