Technology gaps, meritocracy and Marty McFly

It's amazing the sort of quality camcorders can achieve these days.

Perya (Town Fair) - a Canon 7D Short from Jason Magbanua on Vimeo.

LINK

This footage was shot on a camcorder that costs around $3K. Nothing was done post-shooting to enhance the colors, and no additional lights were used. So, if that footage of your family barbecue were filmed with this camcorder by amateurs like your uncle, it would still look as amazing.

This means that any kid with access to this camcorder and an Apple computer essentially has all of the technological advantages that any professional film company does: film quality of a lot of movies these days like Babel, midi soundtrack recording on GarageBand, sound and video editing on iMovie. Everything but CGI (but who the hell even wants that?). The only difference is that the quality is slightly lesser, more so regarding sound than film quality. But throw in a half-decent microphone, and again, the quality is only slightly lesser.

[The same goes the gap between professional music recordings and what can be done at home on the same Mac with GarageBand software.]

My friends and I were watching Back To The Future a few days ago, and I wondered, "What if Will Smith did the same thing with this movie as he's doing with The Karate Kid? What if there were a Back To The Future where a kid goes from 2015 to 1985, the same 30 year gap as from 1985 to 1955? Would it have the same effect?" And we came to the conclusion, "No, it wouldn't. In fact, it wouldn't be very effective at all. The only fodder for culture-shock moments would arise when Marty copes with no internet and lets slip the fall of the Berlin Wall. Other than that, it's all a matter of quality and convenience. Not even the clothes or pop culture is conceptually different."

It seems as if, while the technological gaps in quality and availability are closing at faster and faster rates (as evidenced by the wonders of camcorders and pervasive computer software), the conceptual gaps in technology have slowed. Digital technology and free love would shock someone in 1955. But what today would shock someone from 1985? Reality TV? Hardly. The difference: nothing's very new, it's just faster and cheaper and now available on your iPhone.

To be sure, my point here is not a lament, just an observation. In fact, if anything, it's cause for celebration: because the gap between what the powers-that-be in the entertainment industry have at their disposal, and that of a 12 year-old kid, are negligible, there's now no reason (other than talent and hard work) why we can't tap into all of the incredible talent out there, stifled in the past for lack of meritocracy.