Three-Point Lighting by Bill Olson

It’s no secret that we’re in a communications revolution. E-mail and IM have increased the speed and decreased the cost of long-distance communication, and Web sites have allowed even common people to express viewpoints to an international audience. But until recently, feature motion picture creation has been something a person could do only if they got their foot inside Hollywood or if they had a large source of money.

Before miniDV camcorders, the only way to make a movie of acceptable visual quality outside of Hollywood was with 16-mm film. But this was too expensive for most aspiring filmmakers. The use of miniDV for more than just home movies is a road that was legitimized if not paved by major filmmakers like Spike Lee, who shot most of “Bamboozled” on miniDV, and Steven Soderbergh, who used it to shoot “Full Frontal.”

Over the past few years, miniDV has been accepted by Public Television for independently produced documentaries, such as those aired on the PBS series “Independent Lens” and “POV.”

Now with the success of the movie “Open Water,” not only can miniDV open up major motion picture distribution to a low-budget indie filmmaker, but also a guerrilla filmmaker.

Guerilla filmmakers have been an important driving force in socially relevant documentaries since the 1960s. They are typically individuals working without assistance and with their own limited financial resources. They might be making a movie, but they often look like a tourist shooting home movies.

That’s basically how “Open Water” was shot, by a husband and wife, two actors and no crew. MiniDV has made it affordable for literally anyone to make a feature motion picture. The hard part is finding a good story idea, but even Hollywood has trouble with that.

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