Why shoot 4k if you are only going to deliver HD?
According to Reelseo over 400 hours of video are being posted to YouTube every minute. In 2015 TechCrunch reported that Facebook hit 8 billion daily video views. And Adweek writes that 65% of video views are now on mobile devices. So why shoot 4k if you are only going to post your video to the internet which will likely be viewed on a mobile device? There are several reasons.
Sony FS7 4k camera setup for interview in the studio.
One benefit is future proofing. While we are just starting to see TVs and bandwidth that will support 4k, as with HD, 4k will get here sooner than you think. Shooting 4k now and building a library of footage that will be usable for the next generation of video products will give your footage a longer shelf life.
Tom Pisello, Founder - Alinean
Another reason to film in 4K is time savings. We work a lot with corporate executives whose time is valuable. Executives have very busy days and will usually only schedule a short window of time for a video shoot. Often scripts are detailed and read from a teleprompter with one or sometimes two execs together delivering their message to camera. Filming in 4k with the Sony FS7 camera gives us the ability to shoot a fairly wide shot and in post production we can digitally cut into a tighter shot giving the illusion that two cameras were used. This is very helpful if parts of the script need to be edited out.
Sony FS7 4k camera on a Dana dolly.
And finally, having the flexibility to reframe a shot can give you more options in post and could potentialy keep you from having to do a reshoot.
So shooting 4k video now may seem like overkill, especially for the small screen, but it can add flexibility and actually save time and money in the long run.