Since the creation of the first cinematograph by the Lumiere brothers, much time has passed. The development of technology in the field of cinema did not stop its development. The production process and everything connected with it has changed and evolved.
The most important aspect in the development of film production is undoubtedly the emergence of the new technologies that change the whole production process. The new technologies provide opportunities for displaying creative thinking and presentation of the author, but in the pursuit of new technologies, the filmmaker has not to forget about the main meaning of cinematography, namely, about the artistic value of a film. According to the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), are the commonly used in the digital world. What is the difference between the 2K and 4K formats? The difference between the two formats is in a number of pixels per line.
In the case of a resolution of 2K, the number of pixels is 2048 x 1080. The term 4K in the professional television industry is used to define the high-resolution format that is currently used in the production of films and television programs. According to the DCI, a standard for the 4K resolution in the production industry is 4096 x 2160 pixels, and the 4K resolution standard for the monitors and TVs is 3840 x 2160 pixels (Lendino 2015). The difference is obvious and shows the advantage of 4K. Nowadays, more and more content appears with a resolution above 2K and the 4K resolution become the standard for professional video and film production. Currently, there are a number of advantages associated with the acquisition of 4K, such as improving overall image quality, flexibility in scaling and cropping in post-production, and retaining content in the long term due to recording in formats with a higher resolution. The 4K has an incredibly detailed image that is very close to what the eye sees.
It has more details, better work on these details, clearer boundaries, and a good contrast. The 4K resolution is a breakthrough in the digital world.It should be noted that the development of digital technologies is constantly growing, and filmmakers are constantly looking for ways to remain technically relevant in promoting special effects. YouTube and Netflix provide 4K streaming capabilities, but also the new content appears on the market, shot in 6K and 8K. The 8K resolution has twice as many pixels than 4K and thus allows the professionals to shoot video in high definition with a wide lens and at a greater distance while allowing to scale and crop without losing quality (Wikipedia 2018). Some of the production companies start to shoot in 6k format, and this becomes a trend.
The example is the film “Gone Girl” by David Fincher in 2014. The film was shot entirely in 6K on the Red Epic Dragon camera and edited entirely in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (Stoilov 2014).The development of technology such as 4K places the new requirements of the work process and its supporting infrastructure (Digital Media World 2018). Tracing the production workflow, we should consider the next important things in relation to 4K. As far as the choice of the camera, the place for storing the material, the software, for high-quality editing of footage and everything connected with it, but the first thing that needs to consider is a budget, and from this will depend on further work, and the entire production process.One of the most important decision should be is a choice of a camera because all further work will depend on how good the source material will be. It is impossible to say unambiguously which camera will be better for shooting at 4K since the camera needs to be selected in accordance with the selected project or film. Definitely, a camera with high resolution will shoot better quality footage.
Video recording at a high level is simply necessary for a professional environment. According to the Encyclopedia, the first digital video camera to capture the 4K images was introduced in 2004 and it calles the DALSA Origin (PCmag 2018). Since then, there have appeared a large variety of cameras shooting in 4K, but some of the film companies continue to use a resolution under 4K. As the examples, the cameras for this year’s Oscar-nominated films such as “Blade Runner 2049” were Arri Alexa Mini, Arri Alexa Plus, Arri Alexa XT Studio, for the film “The Shape of Water” were Arri Alexa Mini, Arri Alexa XT Plus, and for the film “Darkest Hour” were Arri Alexa Mini, Arri Alexa SXT Plus. The fact that the most common format was under 4K (3.4K) (Mendelovich 2017). What’s the matter, if the first film in 4K was “Spider-Man 2” in 2004? It is possible that in choosing between the quality and already well-developed methodology, the professionals choose the clearly designed steps in the production process, rather than the best picture on the screen. Still, the 4K resolution continues to evolve and still has not reached its peak, as it happened with 3D, which reached its peak in 2010 and has been in a steady decline since.
A new range of Sony and RED cameras can record movies in the 8K. According to Screen Daily, the first feature film that was shot in the 8K, using the Red Weapon Dragon camera was “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” but was finally post-produced and delivered to the audience in 2K (Pennington 2017). Are consumers ready to accept this quality? How much will it cost to the production companies, theatres, and consumers themselves? A lot of questions arise with the advent of new technologies.
