Four film stocks, four different sizes, one crime drama – welcome to Madness
(Image credit: Rebel Pictures)
Is this a love letter to film stock, or the biggest waste of our limited stock of film? EIther way the new crime drama's title, Intent Vover ("Nothing Ventured"), seems appropriate.
Let's address the elephant in the room right away: I love film photography, I can often be seen out and about shooting street photography with my giant Fuji GW690 or another of the best film cameras out there. In fact my dream camera to own, the Leica M-A, is a film camera. But using four different types of motion picture film to shoot a crime drama is just a waste of time in my option.
If that sounds like a bad idea to you or a great idea, well, Danish filmmaker Jesper Tønnes is working on an ambitious noir film demonstrating, in his words, "the true potential of Kodak’s analog film formats."
Watch the trailer!
The drama will be shot in four formats: Super 8, Super 16, 35mm, and 65mm film. Now this might sound like an amazing project to some, who may think how wonderful it is to showcase the use of these film stocks, but my gripe is overall quality and price.
You can use some of the best film scanners to produce either 2K or 4K scans of your Super 16mm movies with no problem. But trying to match that to the far superior 65mm motion picture film seen in IMAX theaters just doesn't make sense, will be a total pain in the rear to grade and match, and how on Earth will all these film stocks look and work together?
The shots below even illustrate my point of the quality difference. Here we have stills from the Super 8 film and Super 16 film, and you can see the difference is significant. So imagine the change from Super 16 to 65mm film.
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Super 8 stills (Image credit: Jesper Tønnes)
Super 16 stills (Image credit: Jesper Tønnes)
There is a reason why Hollywood and independent productions choose a single film stock and stick to it, it's called CONSISTENCY! Honestly, this is a maddening discussion I am having with myself about this.
On one hand I applaud Tønnes on showcasing the use of these films, but on the other hand I'm just mad at how stupid this whole experience is. It's not sustainable in any situation; in fact, I am sure even the realms of Hollywood productions would not mix all these films stock together, but here we are.
How this project will go we will have to see, but I'm not a fan as you have guessed. I just think it is too much work for very little gain; either pick one film stock and used it throughout your production or shoot digital and digitally manipulate the footage to your required look – it will certainly be cheaper!
You can find more about Intent Vover and contribute to its crowdfunding campaign at Kickstarter.
(Image credit: Rebel Pictures)
If this has been interesting we recommend you take a look at ourbest film cameras for photography or why not see what the best cine cameras are on the market for your next project?
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For nearly two decades Sebastian's work has been published internationally. Originally specializing in Equestrianism, his visuals have been used by the leading names in the equestrian industry such as The Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), The Jockey Club, Horse & Hound, and many more for various advertising campaigns, books, and pre/post-event highlights.
He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts, holds a Foundation Degree in Equitation Science, and is a Master of Arts in Publishing. He is a member of Nikon NPS and has been a Nikon user since the film days using a Nikon F5 and saw the digital transition with Nikon's D series cameras and is still to this day the youngest member to be elected into BEWA, The British Equestrian Writers' Association.
He is familiar with and shows great interest in street, medium, and large format photography with products by Leica, Phase One, Hasselblad, Alpa, and Sinar. Sebastian has also used many cinema cameras from the likes of Sony, RED, ARRI, and everything in between. He now spends his spare time using his trusted Leica M-E or Leica M2 shooting Street photography or general life as he sees it, usually in Black and White.
