Interesting: Abrams joins directors trying to save Kodak

This is an interesting little article,  I'm sorry if someone has posted it already.  I'm glad that Abrams is shooting the new film on actual film.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/07/30/quentin-tarantino-jj-abrams-save-kodak/?hpt=hp_t2

"In just a few years, digital video has overtaken film-based shooting by an overwhelming margin. But in the interest of staving off premature extinction, a group of directors have banded together to keep the Eastman Kodak Co. making movie film.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a group of directors, led by the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Judd Apatow, and J.J. Abrams (who is filming Star Wars VII on film) pushed studio heads into negotiations with the film company. These discussions, which the WSJbroke the lid on, revolve around promises to buy a set quantity of film for the next several years, regardless of whether they plan to use all of it.

Kodak’s motion-picture film sales have fallen 96 percent since 2006, from 12.4 billion linear feet to an estimated 449 million. Fujifilm Crop. left the business last year, and Kodak is the only major company left producing the product.

The company’s chief executive, Jeff Clarke, told the WSJ that Kodak initially hoped to enlist studios in a joint venture on its Rochester, N.Y., plant, but that proposal failed. The second solution, involving the purchase of mass quantities of film, became the consensus after filmmakers started to join the discussion (and personally lobby executives).

Tarantino, for instance, appealed to Bob Weinstein, co-chairman of Weinstein Co. “It’s a financial commitment, no doubt about it,” Weinstein told the WSJ, “But I don’t think we could look some of our filmmakers in the eyes if we didn’t do it.”

Weinstein’s claims are supported by comments from other directors. Apatow told the newspaper that both film and digital video are “valid choices” but “there’s a magic to the grain and the color quality that you get with film.” In a separate interview, Abrams argued that “film sets the standard and once it’s no longer available, the ability to shoot the benchmark goes away. Suddenly you’re left with what is, in many cases, perfectly good but not necessarily the best, the warmest, the most rich and detailed images.”

In negotiations with Kodak, Weinstein Co. is joined by Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios."

I guess this means we can expect Rian Johnson's Episode VIII to be shot on film as well.

Nvm, ninja'd

The same thing is happening in audio production.  Analog/Film still presents great quality but the end product in albums and films is always digital anyways.  I miss shooting still film but I honestly haven't touched my film camera in ten years.  :(  Too expensive... 

Twenty years ago my friends made a short film, 16mm.  It cost around $3000 to shoot, develop, and edit a ten minute film.  For that amount they could buy a nice digital cam and editing software and make as many "films" as they want. On the plus side, it looked fantastic. 

I've seen several movies projected digitally in theaters over the last couple years that I could've sworn were shot on film and weren't. Digital's capabilities are now close enough to film's for many of the directors and cinematographers out there. Certainly it's become hard to tell the difference as far as 35mm goes.

It's the things Abrams and Nolan and Tarantino are doing with film that can't be done digitally, like shooting in 65mm. Yes, there is currently a 65mm-sized Phantom camera that Imax uses, but it's only 4k and still not nearly as big as real 15/70.

Too bad that even if things look great for a theatrical release, that certain movies are then overly 're-mastered' and strangely 're-colourised' for their home releases.  Kinda defeats the original purpose I feel.

Come the first major solar flare wipe and everyone will come to their senses in regard to digital being the only record.

As much as will miss the next few Transformers movies etc at least there will be fading film copies of every Star Wars film to that date.

Ady and Harmy should transfer their projects to film ASAP.

if a solar flare erases all harddrives then movies will be the least of our problems :)

It wouldn't just be hard-drives. Most electrical grids and machines wouldn't work either. Society would have to rebuild what was lost.

Culture is a vital part of what makes us civilised.

If the only copies of cultural artifacts like movies can't be played mechanically it will be much more difficult to reclaim them.

Remember for some films and television the only good examples left have been digitally converted so unless there is a system for converting them back they will also be lost.

Modern classics will probably be lost.

It won't be too far in the future that you won't be able to even buy or rent DVD's Blu-Rays of movies I fear let alone kill off film.

It feels like a complete removal of any kind of physicality of media on the horizon. Everything will be streamed and downloaded by the user and the device used to make it i.e. video camera streams what you have filmed and downloads it to a PC for editing.

Although it has made the process inexpensive... I hope there will still be a desire for physical media. Like Old Vinyl Records, and that quality will become cherished or they can find an alternative method to physically capture footage again physically but more inexpensively perhaps using different materials.

There is a massive Kodak plant near where I live that shut down, it's now being developed for property. Kodak were not quick enough jumping on to the digital band wagon. They are nearly finished unless they can pull something out of the bag. A lot of jobs were lost and quite bad all round in general.

^Frankly, unless it exists physically, I feel I don't really own it. I got a bunch of CBR files burned to CDs, but I still want those same comics in a more permanent, tangible form I can hold in my hands and place on a shelf.

I think we all love analog media, but let's not forget how freeing digital has been for all of us.  None of the preservations on this forum would have been feasible without digital.  I know I've taken thousands of pictures of my son and I would not have been able to afford doing that on film.

The thing that bugs me the most about new tech is how cell phones have replaced cameras almost completely.  It's handy to have a cell phone if you need to take a quick pic but I've seen people using their cellphones to record/take pictures of their newborn babies and graduations and even weddings.  Convenience has overtaken quality in a lot of peoples priorities I think.

I do miss film though,  there's something magical about those little negative strips.