The most interesting session on Sunday from my point of view at the Digital Cinema Summit was the session titled “Perspective from the Art Director’s Guild: The Impact of Digital Photography.” In the category of what many of us who follow the rise and evolution of digital cameras don’t pay nearly enough attention to is how these technologies are affecting the other crafts. In this session, Tom Walsh, the president of the Art Directors Guild Technology Committee (did you even realize the Art Directors had a technology committee? I didn’t, which is sort of my point) made clear the impact is significant on set designers, art directors, and costume designers, among others. Walsh and four of his colleagues talked the audience through that impact–showing clips from various movies and TV shows shot digitally, explaining how color, textures, and fabrics were impacted in those sequences by the way they were shot with digital camera systems.

They also showed off a handful of costumes and gave pointers about how those would likely be impacted if shot digitally. The days of cheap sets, and “cheating,” they say are over because of the clarity of what in the background can be captured. And if you are ever shooting a scene with actors dressed in white, such as a lab coat, make sure you choose off-white or even pale blue, they emphasized. And watch it with patterned fabric, whatever you do.

If you want to know how to get it right, check out Collateral, Apocalypto, and Zodiac, they suggest.

It was an interesting, and creative presentation on a day largely dominated by highly technical discussions tailored to the SMPTE crowd, which put on another thought-provoking event this year.

–MG