As soon as the first 1080 HD cameras rolled out of the factory, talk started about the death of film. But when Sony debuted a 1080 24p camera designed to mimic the feel and workflow of film cameras, the debate took a more heated turn. The whole world knows that George Lucas chose the camera for the new Star Wars — and those who have seen parts of the finished film say the results are remarkable. However, film's fate is by no means settled.

In one of the most interesting recent demonstrations in this ongoing debate, Kodak gave three well-known cinematographers a chance to shoot film and 24p side by side. I found the results extraordinary, not so much for what they resolved about the relative quality of film and HD, but for what they didn't. It was clear how truly different the two mediums are. Certainly there is parity in many situations; there are times when you can't tell them apart. But it's the subtleties that make art, and that's where things get interesting.

In the hands of Kodak's film shooters, film was most often the clear winner. The depth of field, focus, and contrast, with only a few exceptions, were better served by film, or at least by the skills of the film-trained shooters. That, says HD pioneer Pierre de Lespinois, is the real point. Film shooters understand their tools and how to bring out the subtleties. If they are to become just as articulate in HD, they will have to study the medium.

Conversely, video shooters must be prepared, he says, to learn the language that film shooters have built over the last 100 years. It's a language made up of camera movements, filtering techniques, subtleties of focus, and depth of field. And it's a language coming into the video world through the gateway of HD.

The overlap of film sensibility and HD technology is increasing as more film-style projects become HD. Beginning on page 34, we look at two such projects in the documentary genre and talk to de Lespinois about what happens when these worlds collide. And on page 24, Bob Turner covers a new editing technology that supports Panasonic's AJ-HDC27V — another HD camera that embraces a previously film-only convention: the ability to shoot fast or slow motion.

Where will it all lead? De Lespinois believes that over the next 10 years the line between film and video will blend until it vanishes into a new visual vocabulary.