CONSTANT CAPTURE

Technology is wonderful. Now anybody can walk around with a video camera which captures fairly good to excellent quality images...

The proof for me, especially, was in the bit of television I have watched in the last two days.

Last night, the CBC showed an episode of The Fifth Estate which detailed the final days of Laura Gainey's life. She was the young woman (daughter of NHL great, Bob Gainey) who died when swept off the deck of the tall ship Picton Castle last December during a storm at sea. Someone on the crew documented much of the fateful voyage with his video camera.

Normally, what happens in these cases is that documentary filmmakers depict much of the actual incident through dramatic recreations; using actors, shots of existing settings, stock shots, etc. But what we now have, and we have certainly entered this new phase, is that of constant capture: Everyone it seems has a video camera, or a still camera or a cell phone which takes motion pictures.

This 'constant capture' has allowed us for the last couple of years or so to see 'you are there' moments such as people having to walk through a subway tunnel to exit a broken down train... or whatever.

It goes without saying that what I am saying is not really news; it just really hit me last night in a big way.

To add to this, I admit I watched a CBC documentary on Paris Hilton tonight where a member of the paparazzi complained that regular citizen folk are getting the priceless shots -- moments captured because they just happen to be in the right place at the right time.

As he suggested, everybody is outfitted with the right equipment.