I want to shoot on film, possible?

S

skunker

Well-known member
Hey everyone,
I've been away from videomaking for about a year now and finally decided to get back into it. We have an opportunity to shoot a promotional video (about 5mins long) with a decent size budget and are looking at our camera options. I currently own a DVX100.

Recently, some friends shot a Tourism commercial for the state of Texas and they used an old Bolex hand-held film camera and nothing more. The weather was bad and the just used available light. I guess you could say they were "running and gunning" at whatever interested them, but the end product came out fantastic.

You can view the short 30sec footage here: http://www.traveltex.com/texas_ads_tv.asp?ad=camera

My question, how expensive is it to shoot on a film camera like they did and edit it? I really like the film look from using film cameras. I shot some 8mm film stuff in college, but that was a few years back, so I kind of forgot how expensive it was (school paid for it). How would you edit the film?

If the budget was right, would you use film and not DV?
 
If the budget is so decent that choosing film does not affect the production value (what you shoot is more important than what it's shot on) itself, I would definitely do it.

Good luck!
 
Your friends are good!

What's your distribution method? Film is usually better than dv, but depending on what stock you use, it can look grainy and washed out. If you shoot exclusively outdoors, are very good and have a good DP, and use a fast stock (and carry a variety of lenses) you should get great results, even if you edit on DV.

Then again, it's not necessary...exposure lattitude is really the only advantage (but outdoors, it's a big one).
 
Shooting on a bolex doesn't have to be that expensive; you can buy film, get it processed, and transfer it to video for around $25/minute. An 11' roll of film, processed and transferred, can be done for around $300.
 
I loved that spot. The colors were beautiful, the angles were good, overall i thought it was just great. I love seeing good work!

Thanks for the link!
 
I'd argue that 8mm doesn't look as good as well shot DVX100. I'd also argue that if you're not going to be projecting it too large you can get the DVX100 to look comparible to 16mm stuff if you know what you're doing. At my college I ended up putting my film shot on a DVX100 against a lot of 16mm stuff. I got told by a lot of people that they felt mine had the best cinematography there, all of which assumed I had shot it 16mm. It really matters more as to what kind of workflow feels right to you and which medium you feel more comfortible in.
 
Yea, i'm not interested in 8mm, I'm talking about 16mm. I think average 16mm still looks better than great dvx footage. But hey, that's just me!
 
Sorry but 16mm is better than SD. It is arguable is it better than HD or not (I think that unfortunatley it is worse) but the technical quality of 16mm tape is better than NTSC or PAL SD. This is resolution and color depth...
I don't how it is where you live but in Poland you can buy a 122m roll of 16mm 5229 (kodak vision 2 expression) and process it for $200. Color correcting and a copy with cutting the negative is around $100. Even though most of the things is shot on 35mm. Besides the price of the tape other things cost the same.
 
i agree about 16mm looking better then dvx, hands down. Well super 16mm does, dvx can get close to regular 16. resolution wise, super 16 beats it out no problem. Here in california, where i get my film straight from kodak a 400ft roll of 7205 (a great stock-250D vision 2, perfect for outdoors) will cost about 100$ with a student discount, about 130 without. it comes out to about .14$ a foot (student discount) so a 100 ft roll is 14$ and without a student discount i believe its 23$ a 100ft roll. at fotokem processing is about .10$ a foot I believe (again, i thinkk thats with student discount). If shooting color negative (the 7205 is) you will have to go to telecine, which ranges from 150$ an hour on up -i transfered 1500ft in about 2 hrs. cost 450$ at a place called CCI digital. I just edit my footage off of DVCAM in premiere or FCP. it looks great. PM me with n/e other questions.
 
Oh, I have no doubt that well shot super 16mm will beat out DVX100.

First of all, my own film school experience was refering to regular 16mm, not super.

What I'm arguing to him is that a lot of how it looks will be how well you know what you are doing and also how big you project it. Even well shot regular 16mm will look better than well shot DVX100.

This guy however says he hasn't shot film in quite a while but owns a DVX100A (and I assume is familiar with it). I'm simply saying that if it's not going to be projected too big, he may well come out with a better product from his DVX100 that he knows how to use rather than 16mm film if he's a bit rusty.
 
I worked on many "big budget" 16mm productions in the early 90's, and DVX footage is vastly superior.

I'm assuming that film stock has improved a lot since then, because the stuff we shot was grainy, murky, and not very pleasing to look at.

I guess it boils down to how good your DP is. Well shot 16mm may be better than well-shot DVX footage, but mediocre DVX footage will be better than mediocre 16mm footage (not that you should be aiming at mediocre!)
 
Only 1 or 2 shots look crapy other then that it's top noth camerawork. The DP was really good and knew how to point the camera in the right direction at the right time. Plus since they just needed to get "stock" footage and then edit it down (no need for sinc audio) it was easier to shoot on film. What i like about film is that you actually think about what you gonna shoot or are careful to shoot only what you need.
 
I think pmark was shooting older stocks. The new 7218 and the low con 7229 are both amazing stocks. I just shot a short with them, they are both 500T, need very little light, and can handle a much wider latitide than a DVX. I'de say, camera not included, you could bargain to get your neg. developed for cheap and a telecine for around $100 an hour (if you bargain) for supervised. Check out TPG - The Post Group. During the off season they help out indies a LOT. There's also filmworks and, god forbid: fotokem. aka the guys who destroyed my title negative on my last film.

Too bad Deluxe doesn't do 16mm!
 
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