FIlm vs Digital: On This Project We Decided to Use Both
Though no longer as hard fought a battle as it once was, many filmmakers still fight over which is superior: film or digital cameras?
By CASEY CROSS
A few years ago, I got a call that led to the craziest week of my life. I was asked to produce a music video, in 4 days, for the pop artist Kesha. I don’t know if her nickname is the Queen of Glitter, but let’s just say that I spent a lot of the next 72 hours figuring out the logistics to glitter canons and what might react adversely to bare skin.
To clarify, Kesha and her people came to me full of ideas. From a content perspective, they had a lot of it figured out. They were fantastic collaborators. What they didn’t know, however, was how it was all going to come together and look as cool as they saw it in their heads. They wanted it to feel raw.
“I want it to feel like something filmed by your creepy uncle in the back of the room,” Kesha said to me on our first meeting.
My DP, Matthew Satterfield, had some immediate thoughts. “Why not shoot on film? I have some 16mm short-ends from a previous film in my refrigerator.”
Great idea. My only issue, personally, was that I didn’t think the grunge look would stay interesting for the whole video. I might have been wrong, but I felt like we needed to mix in a more modern look as well. That, and we had NO idea what state the 16mm short-ends were in, or how well they would match with each other.
(For those that don’t know, film short-ends are the leftover feet of unused film in a roll. So for example, you might shoot 350ft of film from a 400ft roll, and that 50ft can get saved for later, which is the short-end.)
I suggested we shoot on the Arri Alexa, and apply the desired film grain in post.
We ultimately decided to shoot on both formats.
With film, it’s a rush for everyone on set because the second that film starts clicking through that camera, everyone knows that Money. Is. Getting. Spent.
This project suddenly turned into a dream come true! Obviously, I was beyond pumped to work with an artist on Kesha’s level, but now I got the added bonus of shooting on two amazing formats.
My first observation, and it’s been said a million times before, but there is a big difference in the mentality of shooting with film vs. digital. With digital, we could have the artist run the same take over and over again until our eyes started bleeding behind the playback monitor. This is both good and bad. Good because you can make sure you are happy with your footage before moving on, but bad because sometimes the footage is good enough and you really should be moving on before the day gets away from you.
With film, it’s a rush for everyone on set because the second that film starts clicking through that camera, everyone knows that Money. Is. Getting. Spent.
Everyone is super focused because everyone knows that there are only a few shots at nailing it. For more on the benefits of film, check out this article.
Of course, that’s the downside as well. If something legitimately goes wrong for more than 2 takes, you might just have to live with it.
My second observation is that, believe it or not, I like being able to see what the image is actually going to look like while I’m shooting it. I’ve shot on film a few times now, and there is really no way to “see” what’s going on the film. You can see the framing, sure, but you can’t see the film until it’s processed. However, this isn’t the end of the world. Film is stupid flexible in post. For one of our projects, I watched the colorist take a shot that, no joke, looked black as space and turn it into the most picturesque sunset shot I’ve ever seen.
It actually made me question if cinematographers that shoot exclusively on film even know what their movies are going to look like before they sit down in a theater 6 months later.
With any digital camera, for better or worse, there are going to be some things you have to work around. Highlights may blow out, and the information is gone. With film, that’s not really the case, but at least with digital you can see what you’re actually capturing and adjust as needed.
At the end of the day, I’m glad I got to experiment with both formats on the same production. It was an interesting experience, and made for some really creative multi-cam. For me, unless the project really needs it again in the future, I think I’ve got the film bug out of my system.
However, I hope one day that film does make a strong return. With affordable stock and processing, as well as an availability of cameras, I think film is an amazing tool for filmmakers. It’s a truly unique experience as a creative person in an industry that can feel so “techy.” Sometimes, you just want to run celluloid through a machine 100 years old and let the light take care of the rest.
To learn more about me, or see some of my directing and producing work, visit www.caseycross.com
