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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Aaton, ARRI and Panavision — have all ceased production of new cameras.

Mark Toia

Mark Toia

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Although, it's obvious what direction things are going, the key thing to remember is that there are a lot of film cameras out there. In order for it to be worthwhile for the companies you mentioned to continue down the path of making film cameras, they would have to do something innovative with them, something that would have a lot of demand. Otherwise, they are businesses and they want to survive. That's why they are ceasing to make them. Doesn't mean film will disappear overnight. Plenty of cameras to go around. Biggest question is when will the labs start to fold up or change their focus? That's when it really gets interesting. I hope it remains a choice for a while longer, although admittedly I'll probably never touch a film camera ever again. My favorite film format was probably Super 8. Loved the form factor, loved the freedom, loved the look. I'm still waiting for a digital film to enter my top ten of all time list. It will probably happen eventually. Right now, they were all shot on film.
 
This all happened with still cameras already. The film will slowly dissapper though it will take few more years before it's like now that 90% is digital.
 
It's important to remember that although no new cameras companies like Panavision aren't just scrapping their old cameras they're great cameras they've simply said it's better for them to focus on making "New" digital cameras that's the key word here "New".
Will ARRI continue to manufacture arricam studios or 235s for those who order them? The articles aren't very clear on this.

Panavision is also hard at work on a new digital camera, says Phil Radin, Executive VP, Worldwide Marketing, who notes that Panavision built its last 35mm Millennium XL camera in the winter of 2009, although the company continues an "active program of upgrading and retrofitting of our 35mm camera fleet on a ongoing basis."
 
Steve, RE: "I'm still waiting for a digital film to enter my top ten of all time list. It will probably happen eventually. Right. "

Does the pope wear a pointy hat?

Which film in your top ten could not have been made on Epic?
 
Bill Anderson said:
Steve, RE: "I'm still waiting for a digital film to enter my top ten of all time list. It will probably happen eventually. Right. "

Does the pope wear a pointy hat?

Which film in your top ten could not have been made on Epic?
Click to expand...
Theoretically, all of them. I know that sounded like a slight against digital but in fact what I'm really saying is that film has over a 100 years of material to choose from, whereas digital cinema is still fairly young and it just so happens that none of those movies have made it into the top ten. I suspect there will be at least one that eventually does. Some of my favorite films, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather II, Sunset Blvd, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Goodfellas these all could be made on digital cameras such as RED but the trick is they were made at the time they were and carry with them a look and feel of that time. It's not easy to simulate this. Those films are in my head as what they are, celluloid images. If someone were to make the same films (actors, locations, etc exactly the way they were) with an Epic I would still choose the film versions because that is what is in my head, what I was originally drawn to. Everything that's made on Epic now and in the future will have its own place in time, and a good story and everything else that goes into making a masterful film will be what does it for me. So I suspect at some point a camera like Epic will film something that I will put in my list of favorite movies of all time. RED is young, digital cinema is young. I bet there are plenty of people who have a favorite movie shot digitally already. I just happen to not be one so far, but it's not RED's fault. :-)

Hopefully that makes sense, it's late and I'm a bit drained.
 
Just to be clear, there are movies shot digitally that are high on the list. For example, I really like Michael Haneke's Cache shot on digital video. Really fit the story very well.
 
Theoretically? But we could say that about any film ever made, could Dancer in the Dark have been equally well made on X instead of Y... and so on.
"The look and feel" is the look and feel of the tech at the time, nothing more, and it fits with our perceptions of a success, how can it be otherwise -
and yet many many awful movies were made with the same tech - should we blame film? - I digress, none of this takes into account the important implications of your post:
whether a digital camera will ever be used in such an artistic way as to merit a place with the greatest art made on film. Not only will it happen,
it will continue to happen so often as to make the film era look like a flash in the pan.
Digital will be with us for some time. I didn't take your comment as being a slight on digital, I just thought it was an unusual statement.
 
And just to put this into perspective, I have very few digital films on my all time favorite list. Love the films you mentioned. Love cinema, where it's been and where it's going.
And like you said, digital is young, and we've a long road ahead of us, and there isn't a curve in sight.
 
Digital cinema has going for it what all young people have going for them, hopefully. A long, promising life that has many twists and turns, many roads to travel, and ultimately at the end can say - that was a great life. I'm excited to watch it grow and mature.
 
The invention of the Digital stills camera practically killed the professional photographer. It made it easy for the non skilled to compete, which in turn made photography cheap.
The invention of the digital cinema .... ...... ..... ... ... ..

It's all just life. :)
 
Mark Toia said:
The invention of the Digital stills camera practically killed the professional photographer. It made it easy for the non skilled to compete, which in turn made photography cheap.
The invention of the digital cinema .... ...... ..... ... ... ..

It's all just life. :)
Click to expand...

True, it's very hard to make living as a photographer these days. But the thing is that everyone can take good pictures with still cameras these days. You only have to point a still camera and press the button without thinking anything. Video/film is very very different story. You can give DSLR to anyone, use automatic mode and let them take good looking pictures. Now give the same person an EPIC and teach him how to use it and tell him to make a good 1 minute short.

Pen and paper has been around for ages, but how many can really draw? When something requires more than a pressing a button you will have to have the right brain to be able to do it well.
 
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Gee , never thought of it that way........ Edison, D.W Griffith, Chaplin, Flaherty, Orson Wells, Hitchcock , Italian neo-realism , French new wave, Kubrick, Speilberg, Scorsese , all the Academy Awards ever won the ASC ... in fact everything from " Tree grows in Brooklyn" to " Tree of Life " will look like a flash in the pan ......

I know I should be looking forward at this " brave new world order" with enthusiasm .......... but instead I'm looking back at the flash in the pan with sadness .............. and awe
 
Brent, we all look back in "awe", but certainly not in "sadness". Why should one be sad? Nothing has been lost, but much has been gained.
These "great" films aren't leaving us, but the future is large and it will put early filmmakers' contributions into a very different perspective:
a human one - which has little to do with film stock. And since the future will have humans, it will find its own form of genius - time and time again.
Let me put it this way, would any of us be more confident in the continuing legacy of film genius if film were to be resurrected and digital be scrapped? I
believe that Chaplin or Truffaut or Kubrick or Hitchcock would have warmly embraced the likes of Epic in their day - so don't be sad.... ( :
 
Making a great photograph is as difficult as making a great painting. Anyone who frequents art school grad shows knows that the photography skills displayed are
generally very weak compared to those of the drawing and painting classes; a very strange thing when one considers just how easy photography is considered to be.
"Pushing a button without thinking..." is certainly easy, like pressing a piano key without thinking, plink, plonk, but playing the piano it is not.
Dripping paint on a canvas is also easy. So is painting a black square on a white ground. How about painting a blue field - Is it any easier than a Campbell's Soup can?
Why does Jeff Wall's photographs of bland suburbia garner such attention? Cindy Sherman? What separates an Ansel Adams from the millionth desert sunrise photograph?
Easy does not come into it.

Not too long ago I stood in front of Andreas Gursky's mural sized photograph "F1 Pit Stop...". It was for me the equivalent of standing in front of Da Vinci's "Last Supper".
 
"Not too long ago I stood in front of Andreas Gursky's mural sized photograph "F1 Pit Stop...". It was for me the equivalent of standing in front of Da Vinci's "Last Supper"." - Bill

Bill, I shared precisely the same experience with the same image.
 
Hey there is still one left - the Ikonoskop with their 16mm A-Cam camera ... maybe :)
 
Gotcha Bill ,

true words , well laid out , understood. ....absolutely a young Stanley Kubrick would've jumped on an Epic ( which could well become the ARRI 2C of this age). Your love of Film making celluloid or digital & indeed Art in any form shines through in your thoughtful posts.

You'll have to forgive me , I'm one of those standing back on the Flat Earth , scared Columbus is gonna sail off the edge of the world.
I know I have to adapt .... just can't make the change for now.... a Kodak dodo bird
 
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