American Cinematographer - May 2021 - 56

FILM FORWARD

From top: Phil Vigeant of Pro8mm, the company's Rhonda Cam,
Super 8 negative film being processed in their on-site lab.

Robert Zemeckis, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Todd Haynes, Sam Raimi and Wes Anderson all gained experience while using Super
8 to make short films early in their careers.
" Being successful in shooting film requires
knowledge, planning and intentionality, so it's
a great training ground for filmmakers who
want to polish their decision-making process, "
he says.
Plotnick adds, however, that digital is a
useful educational tool for those interested in
shooting film: " You can spend hours experimenting and creating images essentially for
free. We could never do that with film because
of the cost. As a result, these kids have a better-developed visual style than we ever could at
that age. So when they do try film, they're way
ahead even at the beginning. And they have

to them. It's not better or worse, but different.
Will they keep shooting it? That remains to be
seen. "
For Liza Voloshin, the " defects " are part of
what drew her to shooting film. The director
and visual artist made waves last year by photographing Katy Perry's music video " Daisies "
on Super 8 negative - not only to create an
impressionistic effect, but also to establish
a unique sense of intimacy with her subject.
The clip, with 26.5 million views on YouTube,
features the singer, who is visibly pregnant,
performing in a variety of natural settings, depicted in a floating, dreamlike, impressionistic
style that makes the most of the format's mobility and the image's grain structure.
" I got into shooting film after I saw that
Pro8mm was selling reconditioned Canon

310XLs - what they call the Rhonda Cam -
which is so compact that I could just imagine
walking around New York City and shooting
with it, " says Voloshin, who now considers her
Pro8mm-modified Beaulieu 4008 camera a
prized possession. " I started incorporating film
into my projects, and that very first footage was
used for 'The Age of Misinformation,' an installation I did for the Whitney Museum [and their
Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 19052016 exhibit in 2016]. The images felt immediate and tactile, and not like you could blow on
them and they would disappear, like so much of
our digital world does. "
Super 8 was a perfect medium for " The
Age of Misinformation " as " it was a look at
how technology changes our perception of the
world, " says Voloshin. " Using 8mm film seemed
an honest thing to do, [since] the process is all
about dishonesty as you control the perception
through framing and angles and editing, and
film itself is a perception of reality rather than
just a recording. "
The Canon 310XLs made Voloshin feel " one
with the camera, with the least amount of visible technology between me and the image I'm
capturing, " a notion that came into play on the

PLOTNICK PHOTO AND OTHER IMAGES COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.

more success early on, which is encouraging. "
Youthful fascination with analog technology
is another element in the equation, he says: " I
have students who collect LPs, Polaroid cameras, VHS tapes and music on cassettes - film
is part of that scene as well. " But their interest
also comes with misconceptions: " They know
Christopher Nolan says shooting film is the way
to go, but I'm not even [sure if] some of them
even understood at first that film is a photochemical process - that the footage has to be
processed in a lab, and that they would have to
wait to see the image. They also embrace light
leaks, scratches and dirt as 'good' - as part of a
visual language - while traditional filmmakers
would see those mistakes as disasters. While I
always tried to avoid those things, to make my
image look professional and more like 16mm,
they believe defects make it look 'real.' "
While some film proponents are accused
of simply being nostalgic, Plotnick's students
have no horse in that race: " They just want to
try something new, even if it's just new to them.
The images they routinely see have a very consistent look to their eyes, and film - especially
in a format like Super 8 or 16mm, which amplifies the characteristics of film - looks different

VIGEANT PHOTO BY NOELLA VIGEANT; OTHER IMAGES COURTESY OF PRO8MM.

" If I had a nickel for every time I was told film is going to
disappear, I'd be a rich guy. "

56 / MAY 2021

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American Cinematographer - May 2021

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