Shooting on Film

Just picked up equipment for pick-ups! It's our last 7 shots of the film!



For those of you who have already expressed great enthusiasm for the look of the film, I'd like to introduce you to a very special part of our team: the Arri 416. This beautiful piece of machinery held strong and true throughout the shoot.

We shot on Kodak film stock. We had collected a few different stocks over the course of our film schooling, but we coordinated the use of them, so they could artistically represent the story. Notice the change in grain and color response that Kodak's 7229 and 7230 film stocks give us in the doctor's office scene. We decided to use those in that environment to enhance the dangers of the new world Owen has found himself in. We kept the rest of the film in relatively low grain with Vision 3 200T and 250T. The vision 3 stocks have gorgeous color response, and a great latitude. We're very satisfied!

Why shoot film over digital?

We've all heard this question, haven't we? What's the difference? Can't tell?

The bottom line is a little something we call latitude.

First take this still shot from Owen's Hobby. On digital, it would probably look something like this:

All of the subtleties of the highlights would be completely lost and displayed as white or "blown-out" pixels. The result might even be potentially worse than this depending on what camera you're using. Most digital cameras have only 5 stops of latitude. This means that from the darkest darks to the lightest lights on the image, the amount of light only double 5 times. Film, on the other hand, has 7 stops of latitude. allowing us to expose for our actors, which the camera will end up on, while still capturing the beauty of the sunrise over the ocean.

Now there are a few cameras that are developing better latitude response (the Arri Alexa), particularly in the low end. But there's still a long way to go with this technology. 

The color response is also fairly different. This is more of a subjective matter, though as it seems that many of this generation's tastes are tailoring themselves towards that digital look. Which do you prefer?

Screen cap from the film.

Photo taken with a Canon T2i by Francisco Vasquez on set during the shoot.

Notice the vibrant, artificial pop of the blue in comparison to the film. The reds are similar, but I personally think that the film offers a slightly richer tone. The skin tone however is miles apart. That warmth of the film image is really valuable to film making because it allows the audience to make a connection with the character just a bit easier. I think this is more important than most people realize. The change from film to digital in this day is an economic one. It saves a fair bit of budget, especially for students. But I believe there are plenty of reasons to spend that money. 

Now, I admit this was a very general discussion, and every camera is different and so are the different film stocks. All I'm saying is go out there and find out for yourself. This generation is quick to write off film because we have the quicker, easier option, and we do tend to lean towards quicker and easier these days, don't we? However, as artists, we must ask ourselves if we can afford to think like that.

Note also that the digital image above has been heavily color corrected in photoshop whereas the film image has not received any correction yet.