When television was invented in 1923 by Scotsman John Logie Baird, (or Valdimir Zworkin in 1939), it did not come with an instruction manual.

In fact, much like the Internet some 70 years later, it was an entirely new medium. No one had ever seen television before, so no one knew what exactly to do with it, or how to make it.

Early television was incredibly complicated and expensive to produce.  The cameras were massively large, complicated and expensive, not to mention heavy. As a result, any TV station or network for that matter, could only afford a few, and so arise the idea of a cameraman (or woman, though there were few).  You needed a highly trained technician to carry out this massive piece of gear.

Early cameras also required lights (and sometime burning the tubes) and a separate sound technician.  Thus arose the concept of the ‘crew’.

Once a concept is established, it is hard to unwind.

Today, an iPhone gets a much better picture than most ‘professional’ TV cameras used by many stations.  The iPhone also edits, adds music, graphics, shares and can go live.  In short, the iPhone or smartphone gives a journalist or a filmmaker equipment and power to create that only a few years ago would have cost millions of dollars and required massive staffing to accomplish. Now, you have all that power, quite literally, in the palm of your hand.

Working with an iPhone is, for the content creator or reporter, a very different experience. The phone is unobtrusive.  There are few people on the planet now who have not seen an iPhone or smart phone, and few who have not made video on their own.  Thus, working with a phone immediately puts the subjects at ease.  Compare that with showing up with a giant shoulder-mounted camera, not to mention lights and a ‘team’.

Second, the phone is with the reporter or content creator all the time. No need to ‘book a crew’. No time pressure as the ‘crew’ is on the clock.  Having the phone with you, in your pocket all the time allows a spontaneity that ‘crews’ simply don’t engender.

Finally, there is the cost.  A good smart phone or iPhone costs about $1,000, the cost of a professional crew for one day.  And of course, the cost of producing content is now next to nothing.  Shoot some video, check it on the phone – if you don’t like it, go shoot some more until you get it the way you want it. And, as it also edits, shoot some video, go over to Starbucks, have a coffee, edit together a rough cut of the story or the scene.  Take a look at it. If you are in the news business, send it back to the station and do a zoom with your producer. Review it together, while you are still on the story location. Maybe you have missed something, now you can go back and get it.

Why would anyone want to work in any other way?