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overnight but you do now have access to it. “Of course if you can afford to have someone else grade your footage you should do this, it depends on what level you are at,” he says. “It’s like using a Steadicam; you always need to have an operator. But I like the idea of those tools being available to those who otherwise wouldn’t have access to them. The other side of this consumerisation of equipment where everyone has a 4K camera in their phone could also beckon an overall erosion of quality. “I overlap art and technology, I still shoot commercials and movies but it has pushed me to look at a broader scene, as in what the future of content is. Now that the tech companies are starting to make these big content plays, how do their products start influencing how we consume content and where we see it? From mobile to streaming to immersive, I see the AR/VR and mixed reality world as a big piece of the future and ultimately I think it kind of broadens the rectangle that we’ve come to appreciate as ‘quality cinema’. It’s been about how to keep the high level quality, the nuanced version of storytelling in this new space. In this new space we all have to be generalists as I’ve now moved in to strategising as well as shooting. “I’m ‘all-in’ that the future is something that is very different from what we have now. I cringe when I hear someone say VR is the future as VR is such a narrow slither of where we’re going. I think the future is a hybrid version of interactive content. “I think all those pieces fit together in to a bigger puzzle of how we consume content and that’s what I’m interested in, ensuring what we’ve done with cinematography, how we’ve been able to tell stories
touching technology in that kind of a way. “There’s always visual effects components in commercials and movies where we needed to be able to shoot 360˚ plates,” he says, “and we looked at what was out there. We had used GoPros in car commercials but needed something higher in resolution. We ended up designing and building this camera with people like CODEX – it was important that it was Raw and uncompressed so we built this 18-camera, 32K array that we have used a lot. The last four years I’ve led a double life of shooting traditional stuff and trying to bring the best of that into this new emerging space. “Anyone who is doing something really impressive is doing it so experimentally and on a shoestring that you don’t have the resources to do anything really triple A.” But let’s step back from what is out of reach to many at the moment and see how we got where we are now. As a creative and technology loving person, you’re always looking for new ways to tell stories, new visual ways of articulating something. What’s happened over the last five years is the kind of consumerisation of products where you have the Blackmagics and Canon 5Ds, great products offering incredible results for a really low cost. That has changed the relationship between technology and entertainment because what used to be only available at the super-high, super- expensive end is now almost more accessible at the lower end. Andrew Shulkind is not suggesting that cheap technology means you can become a colourist CHEAP TECHNOLOGY, CHEAPER CONTENT?
in nuanced and creative ways is something that stays in the long term future of where this is all going.” AN ASPIRING TALE You can see this is a watershed moment because there are two really important things that are happening. On one hand technology is driving entertainment more than ever; you have this very cost effective toolkit to work from with incredibly sensitive sensors and new LED lights. Things are cheaper than ever before but you are still able to use the experience and creativity that you’ve always been able to: just at a lower cost. The second thing, especially in the US, is you’re really seeing the studio system crumble like never before. You have the growth of these OTT streaming networks that allow you to watch everything on the networks and to watch all the Netflix and Amazon stuff which is starting to drive the business in a different way. It’s more localised in terms of content. Andrew sees how tent pole movies are hampered even before they’re released. “People are starting to see that making a massive $500 million Marvel movie isn’t the future. You’re making a piece of content that’s so broadly acceptable that no one really wants to watch it. It’s like creating a market for people that dislike those movies. Companies like Netflix don’t care. I shot this series called Jessica Jones two years ago; of course they’re interested in quality and interested in having this premium brand but they don’t care if it’s a huge broad piece or not. They are still getting the $10 a month.” Ultimately the promise is a lot more content to shoot as everyone wants to own their own. There will also be crossover opportunities as the VFX industry further merges with general production for games and drama. This may be a good time to assess where you want to take your well-earned skillset.
THE FUTURE IS SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT FROM WHAT WE HAVE NOW
ABOVE Sony PlayStation 4’s God of War features a massive amount of cinematic technique.
LEFT Andrew Shulkind shot Season One of
Netflix’s Jessica Jones . “It didn’t need to have broad appeal.”
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