“The century of film has passed. We are in the digital age now, and trying to hold on to an old-fashioned technology that’s cumbersome and expensive — you just can’t do it.”
Those were film-maker George Lucas’s words for an article that appeared in the New York Times last November.
Lucas is working on what may be (at least in part) the biggest-budget video ever: Star Wars: Episode II. It was shot last year, much of the live, principal photography without film, and the feature is expected to appear in theatres a year from now, with some movie houses even projecting it digitally.
People such as Lucas predict that celluloid will not be able to compete with the digital technology’s ease of distribution and projection, its flexibility, clarity and low cost; and so traditional film must die.
But hold your hearses. If the cinematographers that Scott Brooke knows have anything to say about it, the digital revolution in the motion picture industry might not happen as quickly as Lucas would like.
Brooke is the general manager of William F. White Ltd. Calgary, the biggest supplier of film and television rentals in Alberta.
He acknowledges that major technical hurdles have been overcome lately. His company has purchased six HD p24 cameras, and they are finding a ready market, primarily in Vancouver and Toronto where they are being used primarily on commercials and television programming. Chances are you’ve already seen a digitally-shot commercial without even realizing it.
But not all problems have been solved. “It’s getting closer to film. The video is very, very clean and clear. But visually, it’s not as appealing as film.”
The graininess of celluloid, he says, gives film a pleasing aesthetic quality that is hard to replicate.
The cinematographers and directors of photography that Brooke comes into contact with are not whole-heartedly adopting the technology — yet. But they are not dismissing it, either. The attendance at a recent seminar on the subject in Calgary attracted 59 industry specialists.
“It’s all subjective, really,” says Brooke. “No one knows which way it’s going to go.”
Larry Reese, an actor, director and instructor at Red Deer College’s new Bachelor of Applied Motion Picture Arts program, agrees.
“It’s going to take some getting used to for the public. It’s an excitingly different look,” says the actor, who has appeared in Unforgiven and who works on many local pictures.
“We will still give the students the option of using film. But in that case, we have to sit down and carefully work out a special budget.”
As in ‘reel’ life, the savings and technical advantages of digital technology may be hard for the students to resist, especially with the astonishingly fresh look of digital.
Reese has been instrumental in developing Red Deer college’s dramatic motion-picture program that will launch officially this fall. His department has purchased a $30,000 digital camera. Unfortunately, Lucas’s Panavision-modified Sony camcorder is unavailable. But even the basic F900 model lists for $100,000 US, while the lens costs another $30,000 US — a little too pricey for the college.
“We are closely associating with the industry to ensure that our program is practical. Global gave us a quarter of a million dollars,” he says of the Canadian media giant. “We need to have tools the students will encounter on the job.”
Other film schools in the province, such as the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and NAIT, are also purchasing new digital cameras. “What we try to do is stay with the technology, but in some cases we buy one level down the model selection so we can buy enough gear to keep current,” says Dick Bourne, academic co-ordinator of SAIT’s Cinema Television Stage and Radio program.
How long before the new technology is obsolete? Tried and true 35-mm and 16-mm film standards have remained largely consistent for decades.
“You don’t want to jump the gun,” says Alberta’s Film Commissioner Paul Rayman. “Everyone’s in a race to create the digital technology that will create the right film look. The risk is that you set up with the wrong standard.”
For Doug MacLeod, one of Alberta’s most prominent producers (North of 60, Sheldon Kennedy Story), the jump to the digital age is being done cautiously. He has just returned from Toronto, where he was researching the “p24” standard, film’s fiercest rival.
“The quality is there. And for anyone working in the 35-mm format, there are some savings that can be realized. But we work in 16 mm, and we’re still doing that investigation. You can’t afford not to consider it now. But I’m not sure that it’s cheaper for us yet.”
Another risk, says Rayman, is that innovations may hurt one of Alberta’s biggest advantages.
“Alberta’s strengths largely lie in our locations. With digital advances, you could come here, make the plates, and shoot the rest in Saskatchewan.”
For Reese, the bells and whistles are just a necessary means to an end. “No matter how advanced the equipment becomes, you still need humans to tell the stories. It comes down to conceptual intelligence. And equipment will never be able to imitate that.”
Next week, Ian van de Burgt looks at the hot debate over government subsidies to the film industry.
