American Cinematographer - June 2008 - 94

Fluid thinking. Watertight solutions. We have an extensive inventory that includes 435 and 35-3 Remote AquaCam™— 2001 winner of a Technical Achievement Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences If the film you finished with a DI performed poorly at the box office, ask yourself what kind of love it will receive in the virtual vault. things, including poorly exposed negative, why do we need the cinematographer at all? That was the missile I saw a director launch at a student audience several years ago. His memorable statement was, “Digital technology will forever free us from the tyranny of the cinematographer and the caterer.” My response was, “I guess we can debate the role of the cinematographer, but I’ve never seen anyone make a movie without a caterer.” and YCM separation masters. Lest you think I’m a quirky Luddite trying to hang onto an antiquated technology, let me say this: the Council’s report recommends that digital masters be “migrated” every five to seven years to ensure their integrity, and to ensure the data won’t be imprisoned in a format that can no longer be read. If the film you finished with a DI performed poorly at the box office, ask yourself what kind of love it will receive in the virtual vault. • • HD Remote AquaCam™ • Underwater camera housings • Splash bags companion • HydroHead ®— the perfectand splash bags to our RemoteAquaCam • Light meter housings • Underwater lighting — including HMI, incandescent, fluorescent & ultraviolet Ground Fault Protection • ™ for a full range of tilts and pans, in, out and over the water — now available with a third axis for even more range of motion 301 E. El Segundo Blvd. El Segundo, CA 90245 Tel: 31 0/301-81 87 Fax: 310/821-9886 www.hydroflex.com I’ve had a queasy feeling about the stampede toward digital image capture, mastering and finishing for a long time. However, as I read more stories from the trenches about the problematic and costly maintenance of digital-cinema projectors and their penchant to drop out information, our old, noisy, rickety film projectors take on benefits that have nothing to do with nostalgia. Late last year, the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences published a report called “The Digital Dilemma,” and it makes for frightening reading if you’re a filmmaker who has finished your film with a DI. If that film did not enjoy stellar box-office earnings, you have even more reason to feel uneasy. Among the many crucial issues of archival storage and preservation that it engages, the report details the high cost of “safe” storage of DI files — especially 4K — compared to storing 35mm film. I won’t scare you with the numbers, but I put quotation marks around the word “safe” because that is a really relative term, especially when it’s compared to the proven long life of film negative The first studio film I did (as an assistant cameraman) was Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), which was much heralded in advance of release but maligned by critics after release. To call it a “disappointment” is tantamount to calling former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer “indiscreet.” But somehow, the film survived vault storage for almost 40 years, and during that time, it came to be perceived as a signature work of New American Cinema. Early this year, The Criterion Collection issued a deluxe DVD of the film, and it looks magnificent — film capture, film finish. The time-honored ritual of film capture, film work print, film contactanswer-and-release print is rapidly fading out. Of the films recognized with ASC nominations for 2007, only There Will Be Blood followed this paradigm. Do you suppose the dramatic sense of depth and grandeur in the luminous release prints was a coincidence? Cinematographer Robert Elswit, ASC, and director Paul Thomas Anderson spoke at length in these pages (AC Jan. ’08) about their decision to stay the course with film- 94

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American Cinematographer - June 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 2008