Im looking around at schools and one of them purports that despite digital being a cheap medium, analog film will be used in the film industry for years to come. Now im doubting ill get a full education going to a digitally exclusive school, which are essentially all other schools that im looking at. So what advantages does analog film have over digital?
If its the grainy old-school quality, couldn't filters easily simulate the effect?
edit: i see a similar question which just recently asked. If the jaded experienced dont wish to explain this once again, could you point me to a site that explains all this in detail?
If you want to be a cinematographer you should probably learn film and video.
If you want to be a director who knows what the cinematographer is talking about when he says why something can or cannot be done you should learn film and digital.
If you want to make your own movies a pure digital school might work nicely as you can make dozens of digital shorts for the cost of a single one using film.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
poof - for the most part the choice is a personal one. Ask 30 DP why they shoot what they shoot and you'll get 30 different answers. Filters are used on both film and video to give the desired look so I'm not sure there really is an "advantage" of one over the other.
On the professional end, it comes down to personal choice.
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
There is nothing that film can do which video cannot, theoretically. Technologically speaking, video is a superior format. The only thing that film had going for it in this arena was superior resolution, but with cameras like Red coming out, that advantage will soon be gone.
That being said, I am of the opinion that film LOOKS way nicer than video. This is a subjective aesthetic choice, but it's an opinion held by many a filmmaker and filmgoer. And yes, you can try to simulate a "film look" digitally and there are plenty of plugins to help you do that, but it's never going to look quite like film. In fact, I'd say that such effects tend to stick out like a sore thumb and be very distracting.
There is a certain cadence and character to film that, although being theoretically inferior (lower frame rate, grain, different color response curves, etc.), can be very aesthetically pleasing and impossible to reproduce on video. So the choice to use film on a project is now generally an aesthetic, rather than technical, decision. If you're shooting a project that you envision with a film aesthetic, shoot film. If you're shooting a project that you envision with a video aesthetic, shoot video.
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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com
and my reel at http://portfolio.exgfilms.com
