"We're All Shooters Now"

November 5, 2007

My new book on shooting video begins with an interesting mock rant:

I'll be honest with you. I hate DV. I hate everything about it. And that goes for HDV and the new inexpensive HD cameras as well.

I hate all of it for one very good reason: Not long ago I was a revered craftsman of privilege and status, a special person with unfettered access to the world's best and priciest storytelling tools...

Today I am no longer that special person as almost anyone can afford a decent camera and be a Video Shooter. The tools have become so easy to use and commonplace, it is no longer much of an issue who possesses the means to tell captivating stories—we all do.

This introduction is in support of the book Video Shooter (by Barry Braverman).. but it lands on a central fact of modern life: an extreme democratization of the means of producing creative works.

In this case we have a professional video shooter who had access to very pricey equipment. He was a specialist with a craft. There is still a place for specialists, but that place—on any reading of the trends—is getting narrower. The ability to get high quality film, to edit, to work with sound.. all this can be done almost as well by amateurs sitting in front of a personal computer.

To add just one example: consider the photo sharing site Flickr. There are thousands of talented photographers out there.. I am constantly surprised by the images I stumble across. What separates these images from those by professional photographers? Not much. Amateurs have high quality cameras and amazing darkroom abilities thanks to Photoshop. It is possible that professional photographers craft better images.. but it will be a marginal difference.

Bottom line is that this is a good time for creativity. An unbelievably good time. But a bad time for making money from this creative work. Think about that: the tools for creating are open to all of us, but we can't make a living at it. Art does not have to be controlled by any guild but can be everyone's hobby.

Creative work could begin to move away from dominance by geniuses and toward a more shared and open experience. If I exchange photos with a small group on Flickr, and only look at these photos, I may miss out on a few works of stupendous genius adored by the art crowd, but the quotient of beauty in my life will nevertheless be high. That quotient is what should matter.

In a world with over 6 billion people it is absurd to think about artists in the same way. We should look forward not to great artists, but to art making sub-cultures.. circles of people who exchange their work and dig what they do.