Kodak Axes Digicams, but keeps film

Aristophanes · Feb 26, 2012

SchwinnParamount said:
Aristophanes, why don't you let Simon do the worrying for his company. If you are truly concerned, go out and buy your first film camera and your first roll of film. Go out and make pictures instead of blathering on about how soon film will go the way of the buggy whip.

Tell that to Kodak shareholders who have been wiped out by the 99% loss of film customers.

Buggy whips are still made. So are buggies. Put your effort where your mouth is and make your own film.

keithwms · Feb 26, 2012

Ach sh*t I thought we were done with the silly back and forth.

People!

Let... It.... Go.

And shoot more film

brucemuir · Feb 26, 2012

This is entertaining

even at our least cordial us apuggers are way more polite in our bickering than almost any other forums

:munch:

keithwms · Feb 26, 2012

That's true Bruce, there haven't been any direct accusations of mental illness... yet

richard ide · Feb 26, 2012

Who needs mental illness? This thread is a perfect substitute.

ME Super · Feb 26, 2012

The voices in my head

The voices in my head sound like the Chick-fil-a cows. And they are holding signs that say "Shoot mor philm!"

MaximusM3 · Feb 27, 2012

How ironic is that "The Artist", a silent movie, shot on color film and transferred to b&w, wins an Oscar for best picture in 2012, in what used to be known as Kodak Theater?

keithwms · Feb 27, 2012

Most of the nominated films were shot on film, weren't they?

MaximusM3 · Feb 27, 2012

keithwms said:
Most of the nominated films were shot on film, weren't they?

Likely, Keith, except for Hugo. But a silent, black & white, seems surreal.

keithwms · Feb 27, 2012

Haven't seen The Artist yet but the snippets I've seen look very good. I just hope they don't, you know, come out with a 3D colourized version in a few months :confused:

I suspect that we'll see more back-to-the-future cine in the coming years. There has been so much 3D / CG / blue panther nonsense, there have to be some gritty, realistic, confrontational films in the works. Once Hollywood is finished making 3D spectacles out of everything from Star Wars to Gone with the Wind.

MaximusM3 · Feb 27, 2012

keithwms said:
Haven't seen The Artist yet but the snippets I've seen look very good. I just hope they don't, you know, come out with a 3D colourized version in a few months :confused:

I suspect that we'll see more back-to-the-future cine in the coming years. There has been so much 3D / CG / blue panther nonsense, there have to be some gritty, realistic, confrontational films in the works. Once Hollywood is finished making 3D spectacles out of everything from Star Wars to Gone with the Wind.

Of course, Keith..the more things change, the more they stayed the same. Same reason why Foo Fighters, who won another Grammy this year, had their latest effort recorded all on analog tape in a garage, with no computer aids whatsoever (unheard of these days), and why vinyl still sounds better than CDs. No matter how ugly it is out there, there is still a very deep appreciation for analogue quality.

CGW · Feb 27, 2012

keithwms said:
Haven't seen The Artist yet but the snippets I've seen look very good. I just hope they don't, you know, come out with a 3D colourized version in a few months :confused:

I suspect that we'll see more back-to-the-future cine in the coming years. There has been so much 3D / CG / blue panther nonsense, there have to be some gritty, realistic, confrontational films in the works. Once Hollywood is finished making 3D spectacles out of everything from Star Wars to Gone with the Wind.

Worth a look if you can get at it:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/02/27/120227crat_atlarge_denby

keithwms · Feb 27, 2012

Interesting. I haven't seen Pandora's Box. The only b&w film that comes to mind offhand is Metropolis. I guess I need to do some film watching!

CGW · Feb 27, 2012

keithwms said:
Interesting. I haven't seen Pandora's Box. The only b&w film that comes to mind offhand is Metropolis. I guess I need to do some film watching!

On YouTube.

MDR · Feb 27, 2012

Sadly the artist was not shot with B&W film but with Vision 500T Stock and desaturated by digital means. Most Studios can't make B&W Movies because of the stupidity of the Audience, some market don't accept B&W Movies and therefore most B&W movies are shot in color and are later desaturated in post. The results unfortunately do not really look like classic B&W movies because they often lack the silvery look and grittiness grain structure of somthing like Tri-X or Plus-X.

Dominik

Aristophanes · Feb 27, 2012

MaximusM3 said:
Likely, Keith, except for Hugo. But a silent, black & white, seems surreal.

It was also shot in a squarish format.

The movie was shot on Kodak's colour film with Panavision cameras using lenses for some shots that retained historical distortion. It was converted to digital and b/w in post for editing and distribution. According to the cinematographer, they went with the colour film because of the superior grey tonal range available once converted.

It cost $15 million to make.

Avatar in 3D was awesome.

It cost $237 million to make.

CGW · Feb 27, 2012

Most Studios can't make B&W Movies because of the stupidity of the Audience, some market don't accept B&W Movies and therefore most B&W movies are shot in color and are later desaturated in post.

Huh? Audience stupidity? How would they know(or care)what it was shot on? Haven't seen any protestors outside theatres upset about post b&w. "Good Night and Good Luck" from 2005 was a good looking movie.

semi-ambivalent · Feb 27, 2012

Aristophanes said:
It was also shot in a squarish format.

The movie was shot on Kodak's colour film with Panavision cameras using lenses for some shots that retained historical distortion. It was converted to digital and b/w in post for editing and distribution. According to the cinematographer, they went with the colour film because of the superior grey tonal range available once converted.

It cost $15 million to make.

Avatar in 3D was awesome.

It cost $237 million to make.

Remember, a lot of that 237M was lease fees on James Cameron's ego.

I saw Hugo and the 3-D was very disruptive to the imagery. Cheesy too.

s-Where's the chariot scene?-a

Tim Gray · Feb 27, 2012

CGW said:
Huh? Audience stupidity? How would they know(or care)what it was shot on? Haven't seen any protestors outside theatres upset about post b&w. "Good Night and Good Luck" from 2005 was a good looking movie.

As CGW states, that wasn't shot on B&W film. Problem is, the B&W stocks available are grainier than the 500T stocks, and are slower to boot. So in recent years when someone *does* make a movie that is meant for B&W, they often shoot it on color stock. And I don't think it's necessarily an audience stupidity thing, but more of a studio stupidity assuming audience stupidity thing. If that makes sense

The last movies that I can recall that were shot on true B&W stock, other than indie ones like Pi, were Schindler's List, and selected scenes from Memento and Casino Royale (the newish Bond movie from the mid 2000's).

MDR · Feb 27, 2012

The Tonal scale is not the same 500t is definetly less grainy than comparable B&W Film but does not have the same tonality. Pi ( Eastman Plus-X 7276 & Tri-X)and other Low Budget movies often use reversal stock resulting again in a different tonality. The comment concerning audience stupidity, ignorance would have been a better word, comes from the fact that the audience in some markets does not accept B&W Movies (market research), I have witnessed it myself after watching Casablanca in a retrospective I heard a lot of complains about the film beeing B&W. The Artist had a lot of problems with its audience as well beeing B&W and silent. see the link unfortunately in german: http://www.moviereporter.de/posts/the-artist-us-kinopublikum-verlangt-geld-zuruck
And the studio beeing overly cautious/stupid is another sad fact. La Haine another french film shot in B/W was visually superb. Using real B/W film with max 80 Asa for the Artist would have come closer to the original look of that era that's my only gripe with this otherwise superb film.

Dominik

MDR · Feb 27, 2012

Forgot to say that the markets complaining about B&W don't accept any B&W desaturated to or real they want color.

Dominik

MaximusM3 · Feb 27, 2012

..and an interesting point of view, which may not be far off the mark...http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/27/opinion/anderson-oscar-night/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Aristophanes · Feb 27, 2012

Douglas Coupland (Generation X) said it best:

"Nostalgia is a weapon."

MDR · Feb 27, 2012

Massimo thank you for the link, the comments below are very telling as well not only the critic. Aristophanes I have to read Generation X again love that book.

Dominik

Kodak Axes Digicams, but keeps film

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