Writing for Reuters, Akiko Mori notes that New York City’s DV Dojo is teaching students how to work with digital video thanks in part to Apple’s Final Cut Pro software. The news appears in a new article entitled PluggedIn: Digital Video School Teaches Filmmaking.
The school, founded by Michael Rosenblum, opened about 10 weeks ago in New York’s Bowery district. It has a “laid back, cafe-like atmosphere,” according to Mori. Rosenblum hopes to franchise DV Dojo worldwide. In addition to training people, DV Dojo offers rentals of DV cameras and Final Cut Pro-based editing systems for $20 an hour, one tenth what some pro studios charge.
This democratization of filmmaking has a downside, suggested Mori. 2002 Asian American Film Festival co-director Risa Morimoto, complained that the market is getting overcrowded with “people who think they can pick up a camera and just shoot” — a complaint that echoes those once heard from graphic designers at the advent of the desktop publishing revolution. Morimoto accepts that low-budget filmmakers are increasing opting for MiniDV-equipped camcorders to shoot their footage on, however.
And for filmmakers who want to make their DV material look like “real” movies? Mori points to a forthcoming $3,500 Panasonic MiniDV camera that can simultaneously capture 24-frame progressive scanned images (24P) and NTSC-standard 60-fields per second. “Apple Computer is collaborating with Panasonic to allow filmmakers to stay in the 24P environment throughout the post-production process with its Final Cut Pro editor,” said Mori.
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