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Do you prefer Film or Digital Cinematography ?

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Note that this is not a "which is better" thread, so don't flame other's opinions on this.

I do prefer the look of Film, but I think that it is such a pain working with it. I mean, I have to scout of film stock on the internet, try to find the best price on them, be careful not to expose them to light, and send them of to a laboratory for processing. Not to mention that since I prefer the telecine process, instead of editing film the linear way, I have to have it converted to a digital file for use on my computer. I'm not trying to scare anyone off from using film, but I want them to understand that it is a costly method.

I used to really hate the look of digital, I mean, before I wouldn't even consider using it on anything. But I discovered this camera, the Panasonic AG-dvx100. I was really impressed by it's decent price, it's look (which has a strikingly similar look to film, due to it using progressive video to record motion, instead of interlaced)
I also loved the use of miniDV, I like the cheap cost factor of the MiniDV, as well as having a physical storage medium for my video's.

Another reason I switched over to digital for making short films is that it grants me a larger number of retakes, at an extremely affordable price (I'm a perfectionist).
 
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I'll leave the practical aspects aside and just focus on the esthetics.

I remember vinyl very well. I used to have a collection of about 800 vinyl records and about 400 vinyl singles (all trashed in the flood of '07).

There wasn't much difference between vinyl and 8-tracks and cassettes - until you started playing things on a really nice stereo system. That's when you heard a tremendous difference.

In the '80's the first digital formats appeared - DAT tape and CDs. They sounded just fine, because, for the most part, they were capturing the results of analog recording/processing/etc.

When digital multitrack recorders first started to appear the sound was rather brittle, almost harsh. At least that was the way most of us perceived it. Digital required a new way of thinking. In the music biz we had all long abandoned our tube technology in the studio; it was just so damn noisy! But digital lacked the "warmth" of analog tape; there's nothing like the sound of slamming guitar, bass and drums onto some Ampex tape. It was just so big and fat and freakin' ROCKIN'!!!!

But digital was so wonderfully quiet. What ended up happening was the input processing technologies changed. Tube technology came back in a big way; improved design and manufacturing has made tubes wonderfully quiet, and have brought the warmth back. It's not quite the same, but all of us old farts who so fondly remember analog tape are getting fewer and fewer by the year. In another 20 years or so we will all be mostly retired, and most will forget what the debate was all about.

The same will happen in the film vs. digital debate. The old school will be replaced by the new guard, plus the technology will improve to give that more analog/film look. I mean, c'mon, there were those who bemoaned the arrival of talkies, and those who derided the arrival of color film. This is just another step in the journey of artistic tools.
 
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TheArtist said:
Are you going full retard on purpose or what ? Do you even read ?
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That is called reiteration. I was astonished that you actually said that.

Saying nostalgia isn't a factor is illogical.



TheArtist said:
Nobody holds onto something that's way more trouble than the alternative if there are only downsides.
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Do you have any friends or relatives who still refuse to buy a CD player or ipod, etc. and still go with cassettes/8-tracks? How would you classify these people? Nostalgic perhaps? The same goes for vinyl listeners... sure, it may be a borrowed nostalgia, but who honestly WANTS an inperfection? It's like vying for a scratched CD that'll skip every time you tap the device playing it.

And your claim that you listen to it not for nostalgic purposes, but because you enjoy that crackling sound, does not negate the theory that nostalgia is a factor in vinyl's popularity, which again, is as though you speak for everyone who has ever liked vinyl.

Some people even buy vinyl records just because they love the packaging and the smell.
 
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Zensteve said:
I don't think I can tell the difference anymore, on large-budget films at theatrical screenings at any rate.

Even just a few years ago it was painfully obvious; not so much now.
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Me either. The old adage that it's not the technology, but what you do with it that counts. Get a good cinematographer, good color grader, noone'll even know. Add some grain and scratches if you're trying to fool people, but, either way:

"it's not the size that counts, it's how you use it" (Change size to equipment and this proves true in filmmaking)
 
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So, all of you, if you were on a film project right now, with an extensive budget, you would choose to shoot digital ?


Not me. 60mm nukes everything out there, not to mention motherfuckin IMAX. But I guess I'm just being nostalgic..
 
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