Technology is brilliant, without a question. It progresses faster and faster without us even noticing. A few years ago shooting a short film, taking good photos or simply making a holiday video was something limited to those few people who had enough money for such luxuries. The audiovisual world has always been fairly sectarian, an artistic universe accessible only to certain elites who could cover the high cost of cinema and television.
Nowadays even the most bitter of us has a DSLR camera and a mobile phone which records in HD. It’s been called audiovisual democratisation. Possibilities to create for everyone. Amateur cameras that are increasingly less amateur and more professional, that do more and more things on the automatic mode and are each time more affordable.
But regardless of the quality of the camera, the final result depends on who is behind the lens. A guy with a camera is no more a filmmaker than a guy with a guitar is a musician. No matter how much technology develops, it’ll always be the talent that determines everything.
At the moment the audiovisual industry -of everyday life, not that of Hollywood- demands cheap productions. There are brands, agencies and clients who fall for the idea that nowadays anybody can make a good film or advertisement. The result? Productions that are worth what they cost: very little.
It’s true that watching videos on Vimeo one can learn a couple of basic things about filming, storytelling or audiovisual narrative. But let’s not lose our perspective, these are basics. However good the camera, nobody can do the job as well as somebody who’s dedicated their entire life to telling stories on the screen.
