There is a remarkable consistency in the body of his work. This was the result of his contrarian theory of film that
motion pictures should have as little motion in them as possible. He achieved his auteur’s style by mounting on a
tripod his Keystone and four lights so large and so bright and so hot that I suspected he stole them from an airport.
As Daddy sat, smoking, in the cooler darkness at the back of the room, he directed each child and adult to sit in a
chair in front of the Christmas tree and gradually lose all sight as they followed instructions to look into the camera,
and the airport lights, while they unwrapped and held up each of their presents for the camera to see for at least
one minute.
What does all this have to do with the state of digital video cameras 50 years later? Just this: Today my father would
have access to cameras with zoom lenses, built-in sound systems, automatic focus, exposure, and white balance
compensation. He could shoot for hours without having to change his memory card, writable DVD, or whatever
medium was saving his movies digitally. After shooting his tape, he wouldn’t have to mess with glue and a primitive
editor to piece parts of his film together. He’d be able to use software comparable to what real Hollywood editors
use to slice and splice their movies. Compared to all he had to go through half a century ago, he could skate
through the artistic process of creating home movies where everyone in the family would still just sit in front of the
Christmas tree and open presents one by one.
As James Cameron and Ken Rockwell suggest, it’s not the camera that makes a great movie. It’s the camera opera-
tor. And sound operator. And editor. And writer. And a lot of other people whose jobs have become easier because
of the technological advances in video and movie cameras. But that equipment hasn’t managed to draw imagina-
tion, art, and creativity out of people who didn’t have them already. Remember, for Titanic, Cameron used pretty
much the same cameras, lights, and sound equipment that were used to make Snakes on a Plane.
CHAPTER 2 INSIDE DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERAS^17