In a recent interview for a Mass media, Alejandro González Iñárritu revealed that filming his acclaimed Babel used three formats different registration. One for the scenes filmed in Morocco, another for the parts of the plot that occur in North America and a third for recordings in Japan. The The plot of the film is so immersive that during the screening the change in appearance is not noticeable, although there is an obvious change of environment. A posteriori, remembering and reviewing the scenes of each of the locations, I understand and justify the decision of the director.
The mix of formats it's not new to cinema. Many times it has been used more by budget or to solve logistical problems that by technical and artistic considerations. This was not the case with González, who had a large budget for his production. Today there are interesting possibilities to mix formats with a communicative objective. This is expressed by director Jimmy Lindsey, who in her short Film Eulogy used video and movie to show two different timelines. Normally, this effect could have been worked on post-production, but Lindsey preferred to do it on camera despite that this could cause him problems in post.
The fact that productions of low budget are mixing formats allows us to formulate some hypotheses:
- A production with a mixture of formats are not necessarily more expensive. No however, it is necessary to study and master the formats before embarking on a multi-format adventure. The diversity opens up creative possibilities. But they are the masters of each format who can mix them and produce something new.
- Each format has its reason to be (even within the same production), not only as for the budget of the project but in terms of the communicative intention of the director. It is not feasible to film a first communion in 35 mm, but it could justify at a certain point to include HDV shots in a blockbuster.
- We live in a world multiformat. The promise of a single standard for everything the world is not achievable. Formats compete with each other and bridges are permanently created between the different Continents. Today, switchers, NLE, VTR and servers allow this peaceful coexistence between the different formats and offer us interesting alternatives, but increasing the chances of confusion.
Not only are there multiple formats of video and film. We also have different standards of television broadcasting (and, it seems, Latin America will have more than one), various computational standards and up to different voltages from country to country. Technological divergence presents us with challenges, but at the same time offers possibilities creative that can be harnessed by those who dominate the Formats.
