When I shot documentaries we used 16mm film. Because of the cost I had to be intuitive and prepare to shoot what hadn't even started to take place. I had a director once tell me to only shoot the 'home runs' to save film. Now, with cheap tape or digital you just keep the camera rolling shooting everything without thought to cost. To me it means that the skill of 'only shooting the home runs' has been lost and that was one of the things I liked most about my craft as a documentary film maker.

When tape was replacing film and I rolled non-stop I lost interest. Not that I was against tape, It was just a cheap replacement for film. Hell, when I used a tape camera I wasn't even a 'cinematographer ' any more, I was a 'shooter'?

It wasn't a myth. Shooting documentary film took more skill than tape or now digital. I've done all and I've experienced the change in the skill needed to do good work.