Digital Vs. Celluloid Debate Grips Movie World 13 June 2014, by Helen Rowe

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Digital vs. celluloid debate grips movie world 13 June 2014, by Helen Rowe

Director Quentin Tarantino lambasts digital film- Located on the slopes of Montmartre, Paris's old making as nothing less than the "death of cinema artists' quarter, Studio 28 with its Jean Cocteau- as I know it". Converts hail it as a democratising designed lamps and painted red steps, has old- force for good that is cheaper and faster than world charm in buckets. celluloid. In the projection room, though, Roulleau has made A debate is raging in the film world about the sure this small independent cinema is bang up to merits of shooting movies on 35mm film versus date. digital cameras. Roulleau took the decision to install digital In one corner are those who believe digital's projection equipment four years ago and admits he practical and economic benefits make it impossible "almost cried" when he saw the quality of the first to resist. digital images, which he described as "very icy, too perfect, with no atmosphere". In the other, "purists" such as Tarantino and "The Dark Knight Rises" director Christopher Nolan who Fortunately, he says, since then the quality has cherish the visual "texture" of 35mm and warn that seen constant improvements and in the past year something important is being lost. he has shown only two films in 35mm.

"The fact that most films now are not presented in "When you have a 35mm print, when the print is 35mm means that the war is lost," Tarantino told quite new the image is perfect, but after two weeks the Cannes Film Festival last month, describing in a theatre you have little dark spots on the screen digital projections as "just television in public". from the dust," he told AFP.

"Apparently the whole world is OK with television in "With digital, from the first screening to the last, six public—but what I knew as cinema is dead!" the months later, it's the same quality of image," he "Pulp Fiction" and "Kill Bill" director said. said.

Just 'nostalgia' Others stress that even movies shot in 35mm are now quickly converted to digital for distribution and JJ Abrams, another celluloid devotee, who has just that the real clincher is the impact on the studios' started shooting the new "Star Wars" movie, has bottom line. also warned that without 35mm "the standard for the highest, best quality" will be lost. Printing just one film on 35mm film and delivering it to the cinema where it will be shown can cost Nolan, meanwhile, predicts that studios will allow $1,500 alone—compared to $150 for digital. 35mm to completely disappear unless directors insist on it. With a copy needed for each of several thousand cinemas, it is easy to see why digital seems to have Alain Roulleau, whose family has run Paris's oldest won the day. cinema since 1948, however, dismisses all this as "nostalgia"—and points out that most studios have Patrick DiRenna, founder of the New York-based already stopped supplying films in 35mm. Digital Film Academy, called the shift to digital a natural evolution, adding that the lower start-up

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costs were allowing new voices to be heard.

Clay not marble

"The cameras are now almost completely there. The only thing that's lacking at this point is a slight level of picture quality, but that will change and in exchange we have a democratisation with artists who are now really able to do their work," he said.

Shooting a film on a digital camera, he said, was like "sculpting in clay not marble" with directors able to keep reshaping until "you get to where you need to go".

And he predicted that Tarantino too would eventually be won round.

"Great artists like Quentin Tarantino are generally uncomfortable when they come across something new," he said.

"Charlie Chaplin's discomfort with talkies is a perfect example—but when he finally made the adjustment, he turned around and made the 'The Great Dictator' and his mastery showed through again," he said.

For now, however, Tarantino shows no sign of wavering.

In Cannes, he added that he viewed the current generation of film-makers as a lost cause and lived in hope that 35mm could make a comeback.

"I'm hopeful that we're going through a woozy, romantic period with the ease of digital," he said.

"While this generation is completely hopeless, (I hope) that the next generation that will come up will demand the real thing—in the way that after 20 years, albums are slowly coming back."

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