Kodak Deal Resurrects Film In Hollywood, But For How Long?
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- Image via Reuters
When all six of the major Hollywood studios finalized deals last week with Kodak to purchase enough 35mm film stock to keep the company’s film manufacturing operations afloat for “a few years,” cineastes everywhere cheered. And who wouldn’t? For years A-list directors like Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino and J.J. Abrams have rallied for a return to what Tarantino lovingly refers to as “the magic of movies” shot on 35mm film. And though the idea of a glorious third act reversal for the medium many have already written off sounds great in theory, Kodak’s Hollywood ending isn’t written in stone, or celluloid, just yet.
Although top-flight directors will continue to shoot big-budget studio movies on Kodak film for the foreseeable future (Nolan shot 2014’s Interstellar on celluloid and Abrams hotly-anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII was shot entirely on film) even some of the medium’s staunchest allies – filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, whose Oscar-nominated The Wolf of Wall Street became the first major Hollywood film to get a digital-only release last year – have accepted the fact that digital film production and distribution is here to stay.
Similar to the situation with 8mm videotape – which was once the lifeblood of the IFE industry and is now swiftly dying on the vine – the economic feasibility of film as a medium moving forward is not good.
And though film purists argue that nothing compares to the warmth, depth of color and naturalistic look of 35mm film, digital film advocates like Oscar-nominated writer/director David Lynch and film icon Jean-Luc Godard have been stretching the boundaries of digital filmmaking for years with visuals that rival the finest ever put to film. Another big selling point for digital filmmaking is that it’s faster and easier to work with – mostly due to the fact that digital equipment and cameras are lighter and less cumbersome than their 35mm counterparts. Digital film is also much cheaper to distribute. For instance, it costs roughly $1,500-2,000 to create and ship a 35mm print to theaters versus $150 for a paperback-sized Digital Cinema Package (DCP) hard drive. And since most big studio releases ship upwards of 3,500 prints per title, the cost saving benefits of going digital are staggering.
And if the recently launched Digital Cinema Distribution Coalition (DCDC) takes off as planned, someday soon shipping costs will be a thing of the past as well. Formed in October of 2013 as a joint venture between AMC and Cinemark Theaters, Regal Entertainment Group, NBC Universal and Warner Bros., the DCDC is a satellite distribution system that can literally “beam” content directly from studios and content providers to theaters equipped with digital projection technology. Which, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) – who reported last May that 37,711 of the total 40,048 movie theaters in the US had gone digital – is practically every multiplex in North America.
Another potential nail in Kodak’s coffin is the fact that there are so few film labs left that actually process 35mm footage. Similar to the situation with 8mm videotape – which was once the lifeblood of the IFE industry and is now swiftly dying on the vine – the economic feasibility of film as a medium moving forward is not good.
And if further proof of the viability of digital film in the new media age was required, one need look no further than the hallowed projection rooms of the recently concluded Sundance Film Festival. For the fist time in its 30-year history, the festival went with an all-digital projection format last month. In fact, one of the buzziest films at the fest, Sean Baker’s transgender prostitute tale Tangerine, was shot entirely on an iPhone 5s. And, by all accounts, it looked amazing.
As Kodak readies for their last, splashy Hollywood close-up, Tangerine‘s success only further highlights the fact that no matter what kind of camera or film stock filmmakers are using, the key ingredient in making any movie great is a story well told. And those never go out of style.