There were two events this last weekend that portend the future of film. One that you all knew about is the worldwide opening of part one of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. Shot completely in digital using 48 3D Red Epic cameras, The Hobbit is what many film aficionados believe is the future of film whether we like it or not. Lots of cameras, all digital and no film going through the gate at all.
Jackson has long been a proponent of the digtial format and has embraced all new technology as the future of cinema. That includes 3D, higher frame rates and the use of HDR or High Dynamic Range technology. He believes this technology will make images more relistic for the audience. Based on the lukewarm reviews for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, not everyone agrees.
The second, less heralded event was Cinefamily’s 24 Hour Telethon from the Silent Movie Theater in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, that featured the likes of Jason Swartzman, John Hawkes, Udo Kier, Guy Maddin and Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr.. All of whom are donating their time to help raise money for Cinefamily this year.
Cinefamily is a non-profit theater that specializes in the kinds of films that film fans rarely get to see on the big screen and has become a cultural icon of sorts to LA’s film going community. This December alone, Cinefamily has featured a special studio sneak of On the Road and first run French film Holy Motors all while gearing up for a week long celebration for the 30th Anniversary of First Blood at the end of the month. That’s right. One whole week of First Blood starring Sylvester Stallone. It’s the kind of place that shows Vittorio De Sica’s Umberto D. one evening and a Herschell Gordon Lewis marathon the following night.
You’re probably thinking to yourself that Cinefamily sounds like a pretty cool place, but what does a wacky variety show have to do with the future of film? I’ll tell you why. Because Cinefamily is raising money for a new state of the art digital system so they can continue to show first run films that will only be released on digital in the very near future. Not just first run Hollywood films, either.
Hadrian Belove, Cinefamily’s director explained it to me this way: “You’ve heard about the ‘death of film’. Many have been comparing the film-to-digital conversion with the silent-to-sound shift, when thousands of theaters went out of business nationwide, because they couldn’t afford the conversion. I’m not gonna get into the weeds of the film vs. digital debate here, other than to say Cinefamily is committed to playing as much celluloid film stock as possible, whenever possible, but it is essential we are able to play whatever format a film is available in.”
He continued, “It’s not just new movies. Many restorations of classic films will be coming out DCP-only as well. This is already happening. The new restoration of Children of Paradise was DCP-only, as was Polanski’s Tess, Zulawski’s The Important Thing is to Love, and so on. There’s a big Hitchcock restoration series coming out next year that, in our current state, we can’t bring to you.
“We have to be able to play every format that distributors supply to us. Don’t get me wrong, we still love film here at Cinefamily. We’re still going to show film whenever we can. We will never get rid of our two 35MM projectors, or our 16MM projector. But even some of the best indie films are not available on film anymore. It is just too expensive for the filmmakers to make a print these days.”
This switch to digital has been predicted for a long time and it’s going to happen whether we like it or not. Recently major filmmakers like Martin Scorcese have announced they are embracing digital after poo pooing the format and lauding the joys of film for most of their careers. Other filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino are trying to remain true to the film format while admitting they are fighting a losing battle against the rising digital tide.
Nolan said, earlier this year, he will continue to shoot his cinematic spectaculars on film as long the equipment allows him to do so, stating, “I want to work with the best possible image quality, and that’s film. Film has the most range, the highest resolution by far. But you won’t hear that, because there’s no money in sticking with the old format. There’s a huge danger to this, and it’s being motivated by economic pressure.”
Tarantino, on the other hand, hinted he will retire soon because of the digital revolution. “I hate that stuff,” Tarantino said recently. “I shoot film. But to me, even digital projection is — it’s over, as far as I’m concerned. It’s over.”
Back in 2008, Steven Spielberg was already weighing in on the issue. Speaking at premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spielberg had this to say, “Making a film digitally and releasing a film in the same digital process gives a beautiful image. It creates an extraordinarily clean, sharp image, but making a film on celluloid – as I’d like to do with all of my pictures then transferring, releasing it, and projecting it digitally is a very inferior image. So the decision to go out to a vast number of motion picture theatres was a simple decision for me to make. But digital cinema is inevitable, it’s right around the corner and even someday I will have to convert, but right now I love film.”
That “someday”, as the fine folks at Cinefamily and other independent cinemas have come to realize, is now. Many films are presently only distributed in digital because it is much cheaper for studios to deliver films that way. It is cheaper to finish a film in digital as well. Post production is currently much easier in digital and getting less expensive all the time.
There will be people who try to hang on. Tarantino will get Harvey to let him make his films on 35 and force them to strike one or two prints. Some small movie houses will continue showing films that run through a gate as a kind of novelty because they won’t have the money to upgrade. Most of these small theaters will end up going out of business because they will no longer be able to get content from distributors.
Filmmakers will be forced to go digital because they will not be able to rent the equipment to shoot on film. It will get harder and harder to buy film and get it developed as well.
Here is my question for the Rope of Silicon audience. Are you okay with seeing most if not all of your films filmed and projected digitally? Will you miss film if it goes away completely? Or will you join Tarantino in retiring from movies altogether?
Cinefamily’s Second Annual Telethon ran all weekend and you can see highlights online. Robert Downey, Jr. was the first guest and if you haven’t seen him telling inside Hollywood stories you really must check it out. You can also check out Cinefamily’s amazing Kickstarter video on their web-site website.
