Listening to It's Heart

A few nights ago, I was standing in a grove of trees in a wash, deep in a high desert canyon, participating in the right of passage of cinematographers in LA - shooting a B horror movie.  Like most every low budget project these days, we were shooting on the Red.  As I hoisted the camera to my shoulder for the 57th time that evening and it settled in next to my right ear, it's fan kicked on, whirring loudly.  Then it hit me - one of the things I missed about shooting 35mm was hearing the soft flutter of the film racing through the gate, the heart beat of the camera.  It was a more organic, calming sound....I know it sounds strange, but hearing that film running through the gate meant all was right in the world, the film was exposing and capturing my vision.  Now, we work with computers jammed into the camera bodies, whirring  and clicking, freezing up and constantly needing to be re booted.   I'm not always assured the image has been layed down to the card.  The Red is a great camera, despite it's short comings, but it doesn't have a heart beat.....