Comments on: College rant – Top 10 Reasons I hate shooting on film

By: Sean Moran

Sean Moran — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 20:16:21 +0000

I’m also shooting on the DVX100B and I think it’s great. But if anyone knows of anything that shoots a little better or where I can locate the 35mm adapter for the DVX it would be much appreciated.

By: Alex Grigorcea

Alex Grigorcea — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 19:34:14 +0000

Hi James , big fan here , it is mostly true what you say about digital vs film , but nowadays you can get a cheap rig with something like a 5d mk3 or blackmagic 4k , the thing is , it does matter from one perspective , the lenses , back when you were filming on 16 mm the range of lenses for digital was weak , and you couldn’t get the same look and feel of a film with digital , i am a director of photography , and i can tell you , that you as a director , don’t have to deal with this sort of problems , it is usually the DoP’s job , i’ve only shot on digital , all my short movies , my commercials and music videos , all on the RED , but I must emphasize that i does matter what you shoot on , beacause the look of a movie shot on a handheld “vacation” camera will alwats look cheap and unprofessional , beit a pile of shit , be it a great story . Lenses ftw!

By: JayRam

JayRam — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 02:56:00 +0000

James,

How likely are you to recommend film school, what with the cost most institutes are asking for? I’ve been on the fence about it for a couple years. Over this last year I’ve come to believe that pretty much everything you need to know can be learned through trial and error. Of course, talent also helps. What say you?

By: frostare

frostare — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 08:08:52 +0000

Call the film “The Celluloid Mummy”

By: sloth-machine

sloth-machine — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:58:24 +0000

Ah, I remember the days of physically cutting film and taping it together. I was in a film school in 1999-2000. The splicers where so gunked up with tape adhesive that it never gave your film a clean cut. When your edited film would roll through the projector, your image would jump between edits…it was annoying. I may be nostalgic for many things and really miss them but film is one thing that can just go extinct, including photography (there are some insanely nice digital SLR point and shoot camera out there these days).

There are hundreds of missing theatrical films today because of your very reasons James.

By: CannedParadox

CannedParadox — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 04:36:59 +0000

Taping film together while editing would have been a dream. We had to use a technique called wet spicing. That’s where you scrape the emulsion of the off between last sprocket holes of the film that’s about to end and the first sprocket holes of the film you’re about to splice to. You overlap the scraped frames (only 1 sprocket deep), glue them together with some film cement and press it in a special heated plate to set the cement. After about 30 seconds to a minute you remove it and prey to the cruel film gods that they stick, if not you have to cut the frames and start again. And you had to do this for EVERY. SINGLE. SPLICE.

By: erik37

erik37 — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 01:12:58 +0000

Nice story man thats fucking ridiculous they have college students try an shoot that way i would have never made it with being broke an all lol

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 01:08:12 +0000

James, man, I love this stuff! 😀 Being an indie-filmaker who wants to go to film school next year it’s nice to get such a cautionary tale XD Oh yeah, and I JUST BOUGHT A PANASONIC HDC TODAY! WHOOOOOOOO!!

By: diegowar

diegowar — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 19:30:23 +0000

Ahah, thanks for sharing these memories with us, very interesting. Looks like you were born at the right time (or slightly too soon) ^^

By: JGanthor

JGanthor — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 18:32:27 +0000

James, I can completely relate. I went to film school in Michigan back in 2002, and back then HD technology was just being pioneered for professional use. We used to sit around and argue about which was better, shooting on 35mm or digital video.

Part of the tuition paid for 500 ft. of 16mm film stock so we could shoot our thesis projects – that translates into about 12 minutes of film, and then we had to buy our own film. I shot a horror spoof, the majority of which was shot on 16mm, and I have all the complaints you talk about.

As a matter of fact, I had two rolls of film come back with nothing but static – apparently, whoever loaded the magazines didn’t leave enough of a loop at the bottom, and when the film was threaded through the camera, it rubbed up against the film gate and nothing was captured.

I ended up shooting the rest of the film on standard DV. With a trained eye you can tell the difference, but in thed end, the story still gets told.

Lloyd Kaufman is one filmmaker who, at least in the past, has always stood up for the film medium. I would love to experiment with film when I someday get the cash for it, but I’m really glad that it’s a technology of the past and that not as many filmmakers are hung up about it.