Alone in Tokyo HD from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
There's something really remarkable going on right now around the ability of consumers to create truly remarkable HD content and distribute it via the Internet. We've reach a moment where the production gear costs have dropped low enough, a fairly "average" computer like a MacBook Pro can edit in HD, and there are ready channels to distribute to the world, both in terms of technology (sites like Vimeo, which hosts the above video) and the bandwidth and capabilities of end users.
HD video is leaps and bounds ahead of standard video in terms of how "film like" it can get, and the tools are now arriving that let individuals record very high quality HD video for as less than $2000 - cameras run $600-800, and a $1000 adapter called the Letus Mini lets you connect SLR lenses for "film like" depth of field and fous effects, and a $2000 laptop with iMovieHD (free with new Macs) is all you need to edit, output and upload.
Right now this is leading to a lot of playing around on sites like Vimeo's HD Channel, but it won't be long before folks are producing their own documentaries, etc. using this. It's going to lead to an explosion of niche HD content, plus I'm sure a lot of more widespread hits as well. And it's going to have a real impact on traditional broadcast media - when a home user can produce niche content with quality twice that of a DVD, you're going to see a lot of competition for all those low-budget cable shows trying to survive out there right now.
It's very exciting, and I'm looking forward to see how it plays out over the next year or two. One thing I know for sure - this means I'd rather have a full on computer, like a Mac Mini, attached to my HDTV rather than something like the AppleTV where I'm locked into only a few distribution channels.
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