this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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I always hear people/actors/directors say, this tape or film is x meters long, it is this size, etc. do they really still use physical film? If so why aren’t they using terabytes of storage in a way more compact form?

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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

so when they talk about length, they're talking about the physical length of the film. 35mm film refers to the width. depending on the format being used- super35 for example- the length of a single frame or still on that film is about 18 mm.

as for why film- because digital recordings are actually pretty heavily compressed and once you lose that data, it can't be recovered. the information stored on the film is actually much, much more densely encoded even if it's analog. additionally, there's some effects that simply can't be perfectly replicated using digital, simply because it's a fundamentally different medium.

You'll have adherents to both camps, but ultimately it comes down to what produces a better film, and for box office productions, that's still analog film.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Digital video is not necessarily more compressed than analog film. The way your phone shoots it, yes. Modern digital cinema cameras however are both higher resolution and have a higher dynamic range than motion picture film. They shoot raw imagery that is incredibly high quality and detailed (and indeed needs large SSDs and hard drives) and is not behind film in any way, quality wise. This was different, even 10 years ago but by now, if all you care about is quality, digital is more than enough.

However, what digital cameras cannot reproduce is the the texture the feel and the specific look of film. Post processing gets close today but not all the way. Besides, the process of shooting film is very different and some directors and photographers prefer the more difficult yet more down to earth process.

Btw, in practice, most blockbuster films today are actually shot on digital cameras, especially the likes of RED, ARRI and Sony. Analog is only used by some productions although they are a minority now. Fanatics like Tarantino and Nolan are doing their best though to keep film alive and in the case of Nolan, push it to the limits by shooting 70mm and 70mm IMAX film. Especially the latter is better than any current digital camera but due to IMAX being much more difficult and expensive to shoot, almost no one besides Nolan uses it.

[–] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

Technology Connections did a series of videos that does a good job breaking it all down

https://youtu.be/rVpABCxiDaU

[–] SamXavia@kbin.run 7 points 1 year ago

It depends on the film, film (the tape) is expensive to be able to record on and some Directors prefer recording on it. But most smaller filmmakers go digital due to budget as well as the ability to edit it easier.

i beeelieve i read somehwere that 35mm film is comparable to 4k raw storage. 4k raw storage is a lot of data, and until recently you couldnt really store that kind of data and move it quickly around... you know what is portable though? 35mm film. its incredibly information dense, despite being analog and is ancient compared to new film-less recording systems.

film is still an efficient way to store quality data.

that said, i may be out of date and its days might not only be numbered, but over

[–] crandlecan@mander.xyz -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Analoge beats digital in quality.

Edit: y'all have to take back them downvotes... You know I am right! 😤

[–] bestusername@aussie.zone 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What is quality to you? The image size/resolution, the audio sample rate, the noise?

There's a point where the difference is imperceptible.

I think it's largely nostalgia behind replies like yours, analogue and digital are different, not a blanket better or worse.

[–] crandlecan@mander.xyz -3 points 1 year ago

Sure... Nostalgia is what drives the movie studios... That's why they still use analogue despite the superior results of digital, at lower total costs... 🤡!

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If we‘re talking IMAX, sure. No digital camera can reach that kind of resolution. But the standard 35mm film and even regular 70mm has been surpassed by digital cameras for a little while now, if we’re talking pure quality. Digital has higher resolution, higher dynamic range, higher sensitivity, etc.

What analogue film has is a texture and a feel that digital cannot emulate. It’s not objectively better but subjectively, it’s nicer. It has a certain look. It’s like vinyl records. They’re objectively worse than the digital masters but many still prefer them.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I worked at a theater in high-school/college. I think it was Dark Knight, but at some point after going digital they brought back the film projector for certain shows and it was presented as a quality thing. I'm a super auditory person, so the thing that always stuck out to me in the IMAX was the sound. Those subs bump hard.

Conversely, one of my worst experiences, subjectively of course, was HFR (high frame rate) movies. I think it was a LotR film, but it looked so weird that I couldn't get lost in the story.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Interesting. I can attest to analogue IMAX having great sound, however, if you watched an analogue film projection of a current film in the last 20 to 30 years, the audio was most likely digital anyways and I believe that is also true for IMAX, since the film itself does not even have audio on it. I suppose, a good audio master and especially a good audio system do a lot of heavy lifting.

And yea, hfr is meh. The effect it has on film is very underwhelming. The only film I have seen where it worked was Avatar. In Avatar 2 it works well in the scenes it’s in, however, the transition between the hfr and normal parts is extremely jarring and takes you out of the movie. The film you saw in hfr was probably one of the hobbit films, since it was a big marketing thing for them.

[–] crandlecan@mander.xyz 0 points 1 year ago