"THE digital medium should not be blamed for filmmakers' faults. It's the wrong practices in digital movie-making that should be addressed."
Independent filmmaker and producer Jon Red was reacting to the article, "The downside of digital," which came out in Inquirer Entertainment on Sunday. German media critic Tilman Baumgärtel cited the 10 most common "shortcomings" of digital movies.
According to Red, Baumgärtel, a professor at the UP Film Institute, identified lapses or errors in some of the digital films he watched but failed to point out that these were committed by the filmmakers.
"I appreciate the points he raised. All of them are valid, except the writer should direct his comments to the hand that pulls the trigger, not the gun, so to speak," Red stressed. "It's important that we point this out to young filmmakers so as not to discourage them."
Red protested Baumgärtel's comment on the failure of most local digital films to influence its audience because of their "dangerous lack of restraint."
"We must note that because of digital filmmaking, the monopoly of big movie outfits is slowly being stamped out. Now, everybody gets to express their ideas," Red said. "It is because of this that good films like 'Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros,' 'Ilusyon,' 'Kubrador' and 'Imahe Nasyon' were created."
In the article, Baumgärtel stated that films made using 35-millimeter are generally better than digital.
Red argued: "'Superman Returns' was made with digital cameras, but this doesn't make it inferior to the other 'Superman' movies. If we talk about aesthetics, we cannot just say 35 mm is better. It really depends on the subject matter. That type of thinking is too conventional."
