Perth Revelation International Film Festival

Last weekend i was over in Perth with the opportunity to contribute to Revelation with a couple of talks in the Screen Conference program - 'HD Heaven I and II'. Here is a summary by audience member Kate Beverley:

HD Heaven: With Cinematographer Toby Oliver, ACS
Sat 14 July 1pm – 5pm
With a 95% male audience I proudly contributed to the 5% of females but quickly realised I was somewhat out of my depth of field in my understanding of HD compared to the rest of the budding young men dressed in their blue t-shirts sitting around me.
Toby Oliver has shot a range of Australian productions in High Definition including features Last Train to Freo and Em 4 Jay, doco Forbidden Lie$, and TV series Lockie Leonard. His interest in cinematography began at a young age when he experimented with making films in high school – long before digital. Toby states upfront that “to learn how to shoot film you have to do it a lot.” HD is perhaps more democratic and user friendly however, this is not to say that HD is a heaven or a haven. One of the keys to successful execution of HD is lighting “lighting is about learning,
unlearning and re-learning.”
So what’s the HD revolution all about? This latest cinematographical reform has been triggered by technology where HD is now, in most situations, cheaper than film – the cameras are cheap the tapes are cheap - $10k for a camera and you’re well on your way to making that feature you’ve been talking about for years. Still though, the majority of features shot in HD are finished on film but with the onset of digital cinema projection (95% of Australian cinemas still use 35mm projection) this is set to change very soon. At the moment we’re in a transitional stage where the chemical and the digital are mixing to become a fusion of past and present – but within the next few years films will be shot on digital and finished and distributed digitally. Will they still be called films?
Torstein Dyrting, who recently shot WA doco Spirit Stones praises the flexibility of HD and created over 30 design looks within the camera (rather than in post). Torstein used HD to manipulate colour and the speed of the camera to contribute to the documentary storytelling depending on the location and the feel. He also embraced the opportunity of working with DOP and Director Alan Collins on this project “We could have a discussion without actually speaking” – I guess that’s cinematographer talk?
But to me HD sounds complicated - there are hard drives and lots of uploading and downloading and something about 23.98 vs 24 vs 25 frames per second and interlaced and progressive 1080 – I think we need a standard because the girl up the back is getting confused, boys can you help?

Thanks Kate!
I think we can can help, it's not so bad.
I will post a rundown of Revelation very soon, which was curated this year by the very capable Megan Spencer, followed by my take on the 2007 SMPTE show in Sydney.