Do You Need To Shoot In 4K?
4K has been a part of the filmmaking has been discussed since the RED ONE was first announced at the 2006 NAB Show. Soon, experts were proclaiming with certainty, 4K would take over within just a couple of years, and HD would be obsolete in a few years. 12 years later, though, HD is still here.
Just about every new camera can shoot 4K now. As we know, smartphones have been shooting 4K since Acer’s Liquid S2 released 5 years ago. It’s really opened up since 2007/2008, when the RED ONE was the only real option.
I see a lot of smartphone filmmakers who put 4K in the title or description of their work, as if it’s major selling point. But is it really necessary?
So far, I’ve only shot in 2K. And when it comes to uploading to Amazon Video, they currently only accept HD. YouTube can accept 4K, but how many people watch in that resolution?
I tried to Google the number, but couldn’t find the figures. However, I think you’ll find a huge majority of YouTube viewers watch in HD or less. Most of the time when I’m watching YouTube, I’m happy to get 720p.
If you stream a film via Amazon Video, you’re given a choice to pay more to get HD quality. I always choose SD. Not just because I’m stingy, but also because even though my broadband is fast, there’s very little visual difference to my eyes. And I’ll probably be watching it on an HD monitor. So, 4K? Forget it.
Netflix are one of the only players to require original productions be shot in 4k. However, they still buy films shot in HD or 2K. So, unless Netflix are funding your production, you could still sell your film to them if you shot it in HD.
If it’s good enough for Netflix, why isn’t it good enough for you? With so many smartphones shooting 4K now, there’s people shooting their holiday videos and pets in 4K. But really, are those videos really any more watchable because of their high resolution?
Is Worrying About 4K Actually Hurting Your Production?
“Back in the film days, cameras were relevant for decades, and most filmmakers didn’t need to obsess over their gear or worry that their work would lose relevancy because of the technology they were using. They focused on what mattered – telling a good story with great performances and entertaining an audience. And I think we’re finally starting to get back to that place…” – Noam Kroll
Noam Kroll is an award-winning Los Angeles based filmmaker, and the founder of the boutique production house, Creative Rebellion. Check out his post Why Shooting 4K Is Becoming Less Important.
Also, there’s an interesting comment on the post, by reader called Liam:
“I shoot docs more than narrative, so it’s certainly a different ball game, but I’ve shot a couple of low budget indie projects recently that have spent significant time and money worrying that they have to shoot 4K to be taken seriously. In some cases, actual anxiety that it won’t be good enough to shoot cheaply on a GH5 or C100 or similar and spend the money saved on pre/post production, hotels or something else.
Then I was at Sheffield Doc Fest earlier this year and the opening film playing to an enormous theatre was shot on a prosumer camcorder in HD, with the auto-white balance left on in some shots (it looked like crap but it WAS a great story). Then several of the award winning films it turns out (Minding the Gap which has now been picket up by Hulu, and Hale County, This Morning, This Evening) were shot on 5Dmkiii’s. I heard another was shot on the bmpcc…etc etc. Another beautiful doc that keeps getting drooled over time and time again for it’s visuals is The Islands and the Whales, shot on a Sony F3 in HD.
In my world at least, the only people worrying about 4K are the amateurs. It’s a very strange disconnect and I get wrapped up just as much as the next person in worrying about the wrong things. The latest camera doesn’t do much good at all for a production in many cases.”
What are your thoughts on shooting in 4K?
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I’ve got two thoughts on 4K acquisition based on my experience, but I should preface this with the obvious – don’t try to shoot 4K “just because” – don’t strain your budget or your technical capabilities at the expense of your story – content is King, 4K’s just a nice way to show your story.
1) Shoot 4K and don’t re-crop anything: this is great for mobile filmmaking especially, since the 4K codecs that the phones use are light enough that most 2-5 year old computers SHOULD be able to keep with the demands, and if you’re editing in the phone, then obviously the phone you shot on should be able to handle it. Then you can either export in 4K or HD, depending on the requirements of your delivery pipeline – If you’re exporting your 4K to HD as your final master, then your HD does in fact look objectively sharper. I’ve tested this with my A7s. If you’re uploading to YouTube, and export in 4K, your content is that much more “future proof” – sooner than later consumer screens will default to 4K – my Surface Pro 3 has a 2K screen (rather than 1080) and I frequently watch videos (both from YouTube and other sources) on my 4K screen in my living room. 4K is coming and fast, don’t hobble yourself.
2) Shoot in 4K knowing that you will only ever deliver the project in 1080, and you open up the ability to punch in 50% without any image degradation – giving you more opportunities to edit or recomp a shot if you need, it also opens up opportunities for artistic choices like post zooms
Either way, if you’ve got the tech on hand and it doesn’t interfere with your storytelling – shoot 4K. Likewise, don’t kill yourself trying to get a 4K camera if you’ve got a perfectly usable HD setup that you’re comfortable with.
In the professional projects I’ve worked on, we still use HD – A LOT, but this year especially, we are getting pushed more and more to 4K acquisition by our clients, and that’s not just because it’s cool.
It’s true, the story and how you deliver it matters more, of course the visual is important but one shouldn’t stress over it.
I have been shooting in UHD since the note 3. Back then my video editor cyberlink Powerdirector free Version didn’t support it. so I paid for powerdirector 12.
I read somewhere that when you are about to export 4k or UHD video and you export as 1080p.
You get a sharper 1080p. since then UHD has been my new year resolution year after year. I use a note 8 now.
I prefer to shoot raw 24fps 1080p on my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera rather than at 4k on a DSLR. I think the image and colours are so much more cinematic. Online content is almost always watched at HD and anyone with a 4k tv, with the exception of Ultra HD Blu-Ray, and a coupe of 4k (highly compressed) satellite channels, watch the majority of their content in HD (scaled up to 4k).
My recent iPhone 6s short was shot at 4k, 24fps 100mbs, but because I was shooting in such low light, the iso was set to the max. The b/w image was very noisy as a result, but at 4k the noise was much finer and when exported at 2k, it looked like 16mm film grain.
The free version of Davinci Resolve 15 only allows you to create a 2k DCP’s, but that’s perfect because not all film festivals have 4k projectors. Unfortunately a 4k DCP when downscaled through a 2k projector looks awful, but a 2k DCP upscaled through 4k projector looks amazing!
So I would agree with you – 4k, particularly as a final screening format is unnecessary.
“Such high resolution”?
4K is still inferior to 35mm, FFS.