The Death of Film

Raiders90

Well-known member
"This is the digital age. We have computers...and computers...and technology...and money. We don't NEED a script."
 
Raiders112390 said:
"This is the digital age. We have computers...and computers...and technology...and money. We don't NEED a script."
EP1_3D_poster.jpg
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
This was coming. With film cameras and film rolls being so expensive to the average indie filmmaker, and a recession on top of that decreasing the amount of investors out there: these being the final nails in the coffin; it's really not surprising. I didn't really expect it this soon though.

Now, I guess any Average Joe can be a filmmaker with the right software and a decent digital camera and the right how-to books. It's probably why they try to keep motion capture processes as under wraps as possible.

There is a magic to learning how to setup, load and use a film camera- Mind you, definitely a lot more difficult than a digital one. This will probably be a slow death- there'll be still nostalgic pros out there who will shoot film as long as there are film rolls out there.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
^ Not to mention that RED released their RED Scarlet-X camera today.
Just about ten grand for a legitimate cinema quality camera. That is the LOWEST PRICE EVER for a serious movie camera. This is giving independent film makers a chance to play like the big boys (The upcoming Spiderman and Peter Jackson's Hobbit films were shot on the Scarlet's big brother the Epic).

I myself love 35mm, shot on it a few times... but it is so expensive for up and comers. Red has seriously changed the game.
Epic = 5k resolution for 50 grand
Scarlet = 4k resolution for 10 grand! (well technically 13 grand)
By the way digital cinema projection is at 3k or 4k in most theaters.

It is sad to lose film, I wish this wasn't the case, both have co-existed all right together... but from an up and comer like myself I understand the digital revolution, just because its more cost effective and the workflow is way easier. I think I may be getting a Scarlet. And I think a lot of people are thinking the same.

Like Violet said, "Nail in the coffin." :dead:
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
I could care less if it is digital that allows filmmakers like the Coen brothers to make a movie like The Yiddish Policemen's Union (one of my favorite novels of all time).

Years ago I was heartbroken over the Coen's not being able to make James Dickey's To The White Sea because they couldn't pull it off on a budget.
 

HJTHX1138

New member
Violet said:
There is a magic to learning how to setup, load and use a film camera- Mind you, definitely a lot more difficult than a digital one. This will probably be a slow death- there'll be still nostalgic pros out there who will shoot film as long as there are film rolls out there.

Agreed. As a person who's done both, seeing actual film come together is really beautiful.

There might be a comeback, slashfilm had an article about the whole VHS revolution (People going back to VHS). There will always be people who will give celluloid a little love (me included).
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
A film about DIGITAL vs. FILM

http://www.slashfilm.com/side-by-side-trailer-keanu-reeves/#more-115311

Side by Side is a documentary directed by Chris Kenneally in which Keanu Reeves (who also produced) talks about film and video with a wide variety of filmmakers, including Steven Soderbergh, James Cameron, David Lynch, Richard Linklater, Martin Scorsese, Andy & Lana Wachowski, Christopher Nolan, Walter Pfister, David Fincher and many, many more.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/35206631?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/35206631">Side by Side Official Trailer (2012)</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user10047112">Company Films</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
 

Raiders90

Well-known member
A question: Is film photography dead too, or just "film" film?
I always thought photographs taken with traditional film cameras gave a much crisper image than digital. Maybe crisper isn't the nicest word, but a more "flattering" image I guess.
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Raiders112390 said:
A question: Is film photography dead too, or just "film" film?
I always thought photographs taken with traditional film cameras gave a much crisper image than digital. Maybe crisper isn't the nicest word, but a more "flattering" image I guess.

Most photographers and people with photography as a hobby that I know, tend to use Digital SLRs. And if still film is used, it's often a smaller brand or Fujifilm. I've used Fuji stills, and I've found them to be as good as Kodak.

I've also known people who chose to use Fujifilm "film" film and they found it to be of equal quality with a cheaper price tag, just not as much marketing as Kodak has (or had) towards film school so little knowledge before use was a bit of a problem.

But going on to the bankruptcy of Kodak, I'm not surprised. Kind of expected it a bit sooner, however part of me is sad for Kodak. Kodak had sponsored me for their Masters of Cinematography course and was the only girl sponsored in the course. Everything I've learnt about cinematography, Kodak was a very big part of. I still own some stuff that Kodak gave me including a cinematography book and exposure wheel. So if it is the "death" of Kodak, it is in a way, a death of a friend.
 

Gustav

New member
A photographer friend of mine posted this on Facebook and it ruined my year. Like Violet, I knew it was coming, but it still seems sudden. Like any death.

A few words. Film may be gone, but it will not be forgotten. After all the current stocks are depleted, it will become a novelty like the pinhole camera and record players and old typewriters.

I regret to say I never filmed on 35 - only 16mm and super 8 - but I did shoot a 35mm Nikon camera for years and I can still appreciate its unique qualities which are so hard pinpoint but are somehow still so apparent to people like us. 35mm, when run through a projector, looked almost bio-luminescent. 35mm had a soul. But 35's richness was too subtle for the masses and along came this shiny, new, convenient digital...thing.

I recently gave in and got a DSLR. I will say it's much easier to use for too many reasons to mention here and it makes us all look like movie stars, but I don't know. I think the best way to say it has already been said over and over again - It's just not the same.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Gustav said:
I regret to say I never filmed on 35 - only 16mm and super 8 - but I did shoot a 35mm Nikon camera for years and I can still appreciate its unique qualities which are so hard pinpoint but are somehow still so apparent to people like us. 35mm, when run through a projector, looked almost bio-luminescent. 35mm had a soul. But 35's richness was too subtle for the masses and along came this shiny, new, convenient digital...thing.
I'm sorry to hear that ole' boy, as loading, shooting, printing and viewing 35mm is like nothing else... but it's not too late, I was just looking up some literature from UCLA and they're still teaching courses with 35mm, I don't know exactly where you hail from but... it's still possible. (ACT NOW WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!)

Violet I've been meaning to ask you, one film veteran to another, did you ever get to play with Panavision lenses? That is probably my lasting memory of film school... not croping something that you shot to make it 2.40:1, but actually watching an anamorphic projection of your negative... Really felt legitimate... ahhhh! (y)
 

Violet

Moderator Emeritus
Dr. Gonzo said:
Violet I've been meaning to ask you, one film veteran to another, did you ever get to play with Panavision lenses? That is probably my lasting memory of film school... not croping something that you shot to make it 2.40:1, but actually watching an anamorphic projection of your negative... Really felt legitimate... ahhhh! (y)


Yes, I did. :D I got to go to Panavision with my Industry mentor years ago. I learnt everything I could absorb in those few hours. I played around with Panastars, Milleniums, I even learnt how to setup and strike them. I learnt how to do all those camera tests that you do with 35mm cameras, focusing, all that sort of thing. I even got to play around with some filters. That experience was priceless. I was a kid in a candy store and was allowed to go nuts as long as I didn't break anything.

I didn't get to play around with 35mm much, mostly due to expense. I used Super 16 and regular 16 mostly. Actually, amazing how well Super 16 could come up. And we didn't crop anything btw. All of our stuff (incl digital) was anamorphic.

I used to love playing around with the Steenbeck. I felt like a "reel" editor whenever I got the chance to use it.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Has Hollywood Murdered the Movies?

There's an interesting article on The New Republic's site about the death of film as a narrative form. David Denby, better known as The New Yorker's resident film critic, argues instead that the medium is rapidly heading into pure spectacle in order to fuel ancillary purchases; i.e., toys, games, car insurance.

David Denby said:
...[the] franchise-capping Avengers was a carefully built phenomenon. Let?s go back a couple of years and pick up a single strand that led to it. Consider one of its predecessors, Iron Man 2, which began its run in the United States, on May 7, 2010, at 4,380 theaters. That?s only the number of theaters: multiplexes often put new movies on two or three, or even five or six, screens within the complex, so the actual number of screens was much higher?well over 6,000. The gross receipts for the opening weekend were $128 million. Yet those were not the movie?s first revenues. As a way of discouraging piracy and cheap street sale of the movie overseas, the movie?s distributor, Paramount Pictures, had opened Iron Man 2 a week earlier in many countries around the world. By May 9, at the end of the weekend in which the picture opened in America, cumulative worldwide theatrical gross was $324 million. By the end of its run, the cumulative total had advanced to $622 million. Let?s face it: big numbers are impressive, no matter what produced them.

The worldwide theatrical gross of Iron Man 2 served as a branding operation for what followed?sale of the movie to broadcast and cable TV, and licensing to retail outlets for DVD rentals and purchase. Iron Man 2 was itself part of a well-developed franchise (the first Iron Man came out in 2008). The hero, Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist-playboy, first appeared in a Marvel comic book in 1963 and still appears in new Marvel comics. By 2010, rattling around stores and malls all over the world, there were also Iron Man video games, soundtrack albums, toys, bobblehead dolls, construction sets, dishware, pillows, pajamas, helmets, t-shirts, and lounge pants. There was a hamburger available at Burger King named after Mickey Rourke, a supporting player in Iron Man 2. Companies such as Audi, LG Mobile, 7-Eleven, Dr. Pepper, Oracle, Royal Purple motor oil, and Symantec?s Norton software signed on as ?promotional partners,? issuing products with the Iron Man logo imprinted somewhere on the product or in its advertising. In effect, all of American commerce was selling the franchise. All of American commerce sells every franchise.

With Disney gearing up to "aggressively market" the Stars Wars brand, will a cherished franchise (of which I care very little about) be next? Will Space Opera become... uh, more operatic?

Full article is available here.
 
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