The Subway Short is the new Resolution Chart
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 4:30PM 
Folks following me on Twitter and watching the comments here have noticed that I’m a bit obsessed with an offhanded comment made on the Rebel Café. In response to some technically sound but rather dry sample footage from the Ikonoskop A-cam dII, Gage replied:
I need to see a subway short.
After I cleaned the coffee off my keyboard, I contemplated the profundity of that statement. See, it wasn’t long ago that when a new camera showed up, we wanted to see test shots of Macbeth swatches and resolution charts. Or at least we thought we did. But lately, some crazy filmmakers have brought art to a technology fight, and they are kicking ass. There’s the D90 Subway test, and one shot with the RED One as well. And there’s Reverie, AKA The Bourne Zoolander (you know I love you Vincent). These aren’t really short films, they’re emotional trigger experiments. They’re camera tests designed to tickle our cinema bone rather than satisfy our slide-rules. They promise a cinematic feel rather than razor sharp 4K filmouts. We watch them on our computer screens and on our TVs. You know, where we watch everything.
For every piece of footage that seemingly proves that the Nikon D90 D-Movies are unusable, there’s at least one that shows how great the footage can look if you work within the camera’s limitations. Ditto the 5D MkII. Folks seem less interested in how a camera fares on a test bench than how it handles being serupticioulsy weidled in a no-photography zone. After Gage’s comment, the Ikonoskop guys actually posted a tiny clip that’s kinda like a subway short!
I told Gage I’d make t-shirts, and I did (all credit goes here). Proceeds go toward buying Gage a beer.
A month ago I wrote that “buttons and features and resolution charts just had their ass handed to them by sex apeal,” and now that movement has a mantra. So when a camera company comes at you with specs and megapixels and data rates, you know what to tell them.
I need to see a subway short.
Reader Comments (19)
LOL. Oh dear.
Give the shirt in black and I'm in.
Done!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
This is so much more of an interesting litmus test than any of the dozen engineering metrics.
Do you see any particular shot list? Like running down stairs; subway comes out of tunnel into full sunlight; close up of hero in a crowd of people packed into subway car...
Red or DSLR? I can't choose. It's like choosing between chocolate or vanilla, to some there is definitely a better choice but to those like me who love both it's hard to decide.
I guess if I can get my dslr with 24p, 1/48 shutter, manual exposure, and record that to CF at or above 25mbps, and do it all for around a grand, I think that will help make my decision.
Jello effect or what have you can be dealt with, I just want to stop using DOF adapters. I just can't run down the street to get a shot with a dof'd hdv camera anymore.
Now I just wish there were a subway here in Utah that didn't give me sandwiches.
Found a commercial shot on the D90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgmrOrzPVvk
Download available: http://www.martincrespo.net/H30.mpg
Technical specs:
Nikon D90
Nikon 400 2.8
Nikon 80-200 2.8
Nikon 50 1.8
Nikon 17-55 2.8
Sigma 10-20
Originally posted on DPreview from Martin Crespo: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1034&message=30072832
P.S. Stu, I think you and Robert Rodriguez should get together with a couple of these cameras and shoot a quick and dirty action flick. That would be the greatest thing ever.
Good point. I recently wanted to know how the Panasonic LX-3 would do in hd video mode in low light situations, so I used in for a 48 hours filmmaking session at my film school: http://www.vimeo.com/2222358
I agree that it's a lot more meaningful to see and read about an actual shoot with the camera than just to look at the specs, because it also tells you a lot about the handling of the camera, the workflow and so on. Of course, it's important that those filmmakers share some additional info like what they did in post production etc., otherwise you may think that what you see in the final short is what was actually shot, which is not necessarily the case.
Next time I'm in the city...
:) My career in fx started with a http://www.matt.moses.name/start/BARTWu1.html" REL="nofollow">BART clip!
By the end of the weekend, there will be an HMC150 Subway Short. We'll see how well the HMC does for not drawing too much attention and getting me arrested in the LA subways.
Stu, you will be on hand to bail me out, yes?
I've got $4 from t-shirt sales in the Brian bail-out fund.
Just keep your private jet fueled up.
Actually, I made it out unscathed; I'm just still trying to figure out what the heck to do with AVCHD footage. I guess I'm gonna go to TIFF sequences.
Grrr.
Hey! $4 covers the beer, though! w00t!
5D mark II is out soon, will a subway short follow upon it's release?
here's another subway clip from the d90. minimal grading but i did apply my own stairstep removal plugin for fcp.
http://www.mattias.nu/stuff/d90test2_after.mov
...and if stu doesn't mind a bit of on topic advertising, here's the address: www.mattias.nu
We don't have subways in Wisconsin. :(
For us it'll have to be "show me the Rashomon forest short." Adapt!
Do you have a train station or an busy public area? A good part of the test is how well you can get around the public and crowds with the camera and also if the camera itself will draw the attention of security or law enforcement.
Considering how few people will be in the woods, and how many straight to DVD horror movies take place in the woods, I would say that is almost the anti-Subway Short. More of a zero production value test as opposed to high production value.
I have been planning a chase scene through premiere night crowds outside the Chinese Theater. I'll need to do that sometime.
Hey Brian,
Just joking around, more than anything.
However, last weekend was the start of deer hunting, so I'll see your "law enforcement" and raise you "gun toting venison eaters." :P
I do like your Chinese Theatre idea.