Worlds apart. (viewpoint DV).(Industry Overview)

For the last few years, the video world has been characterized by two important trends: the rise of the DV video format and the movement toward high-definition broadcast. Both are enormously exciting and offer those involved in the video and broadcast industries lots of advantages and opportunities. At the same time, however, the two developments sometimes conflict with one another, making it difficult to set priorities and plan equipment purchases.

One person who has felt the uncomfortable pull of these opposing trends is Tim Mangini, the production manager of Frontline Outpost, an online editing facility owned by WBGH-TV in Boston that is primarily dedicated to the online editing of all Frontline and Frontline World documentaries. For the last several years, Mangini has worked hard to bring down the cost of producing Frontline by transitioning his postproduction facilities from analog to digital editing systems. At the same time, he has encouraged the independent producers who shoot many of the Frontline documentaries to transition from film to video.

Initially, he says, the independent producers resisted making the change, feeling that the quality of an image produced with film was worth the extra cost. Eventually, however, many of the documentarians did start making the transition to video as they came to respect the image quality that video could produce and as they came to realize just how much further they could stretch their budget using a video format.

Today, according to Mangini, virtually all the producers he works with are using video, although some are working with Betacam analog video cameras that they've owned for years, while others have already made the transition all the way to digital video. Particularly notable has been the increased use of small handheld DV cameras. In addition to their extraordinarily low cost (under $5000), these small DV cameras give producers access to people and events they couldn't reach with shoulder-mount film or video cameras. While the sight of a bigger camera can intimidate a potential subject, a small DV camera often lets a video crew blend in with the tourists, making it possible for them to get shots they'd never get with a shoulder rig.

Higher Goals

But even as Mangini was working to promote the use of DV, PBS was conducting an effort of its own to increase its use of HD video. The eventual goal for PBS, says Mangini, is to broadcast 100 percent of its prime-time lineup in HD. As part of that effort, the network is moving inexorably toward the day when it will require that all source material be shot in HD format.

"This provides an obvious dichotomy," says Mangini. "I've finally gotten people to embrace the video format and we're finally getting our budgets in line, but now we are being told `OK you have to produce in HD. You can't use that thing called DV that everybody's so hot about.'"