Film still has its fans

[Joanna Carter]

I had to take the car into the garage on Monday and had a couple of hours to kill. So, I took a meander around town and came across a crew, filming advertising for Holland and Barrett's new shop.

Having noticed a video monitor, I remarked to the man from the ad agency that I assumed they were shooting on HD video, only to be rebuffed with the reply that they were actually using 35mm film in Panavision cameras!!!

I asked why they chose film rather than video; his reply was simply that film was better

[Trail Images]

I have seen this in just the past few years for advertising shoots in the Alabama Hills here in California. The area is always being used for movies, commercials, as well as magazine photo shoots too. I came upon one crew shooting for Volkswagen and thought for sure they would be shooting digital. I did not stop as I was just passing by, however, I noticed they were shooting one image after another of the same vehicle interior time and time again. Not knowing the business I could not understand the need for so many images of the same thing in 15 second increments with obviously little or no light change, except the shoot went on for hours. Again, my thought was digital for sure with that many images shot. That night the group were being housed at the same hotel where I was staying. As I passed their room they had a "light table" setup and using loupes to inspect 35mm slide, after slide, of this Volkswagen. They only spoke German that I could hear and the vehicle had been in a closed trailer except for the shots being taken over a three day period that I saw. I have no idea how they got the stuff processed so quickly without a 2 hour round trip drive from that location where we were at. But they worked it out some how and the slides all had cardboard frames too, not just strips of film on review....

[dave_whatever]

I'd not only be surprised they were shooting film for a car advert, I'd actually be amazed they were shooting a car at all - a lot of car adverts these days never feature a real life car, instead they have a 3D model on computer instead. The only real location shots might often be just backdrop shots, and also they can shoot a chrome sphere in the same location, they then can map the reflections from this sphere onto the car model.

[Trail Images]

Really not sure what they were shooting the images for per se, but they had a large enclosed trailer with two identical VW's in it, one white the other black. Again, I'm not at all sure what they were shooting the images for I just assumed magazine or possibly car brochures. One day they parked one of the vehicles on the main dirt road through the area, Movie Road as it's known, and they setup about 3 cameras and shot the car for well over 4 hours without moving a thing. This area is well known for all types of shoots with Mt. Whitney as the main back drop there. Overall, the only point being made is it was all still being shot on film for whatever the reasons.