Greg Pak

Greg Pak is the director of the award-winning films FIGHTING GRANDPA, MOUSE and PO MO KNOCK KNOCK. He runs the websites theworkshop.org, filmhelp.com and gregpak.com, and is now in pre-production for RIO CHINO his first feature film.

My previous three shorts, shot and edited on 16mm film, took $35,000 and three years to complete. My last three shorts, shot and edited with cheap digital technology, required just $2000 and three months to finish.

I'm still planning to shoot RIO CHINO, my first feature, on film--it's a Western, after all, and film just looks better, particularly for outdoor and period pictures.

But I love cheap digital video for simply letting me work.

John Ford made hundreds of shorts before he shot STAGECOACH. Now, incredibly, MiniDV gives us independents the same chance to grow and improve before and between tackling our opuses.