The new possibilities of visual expression hidden in 16mm film The challenge of the movie “Toki” [CINEMORE ACADEMY Vol.17]

16mm film photography is increasing

Q: From now on, I would like to ask you some technical questions, focusing on Imagica and Kodak. In the past, when movie theaters screened movies in the form of film, the film was the final finished product, but now most movie theaters screen movies digitally, so the finished product is digital data. I believe that digital post-production and improvements in grading technology have presented new possibilities for filming with 16mm film. Please tell us about this.

Inoue (Imagica): Short films supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs are sometimes completed on film, but unfortunately there is no other way to complete them on film. Also, regarding grading, when I was adjusting the colors on film, the flow was analogue, so I only touched on the colors overall. Now that we can do that digitally, we can touch as many areas as we like, including dark areas, middle layers, and highlights.

As you said, nowadays even if you shoot on film, you scan it into digital and finally finish it digitally, but on the other hand, I think it's very dangerous to change everything during grading. I am. When grading images shot on film, I try to take advantage of the film's strengths to some extent.

Q: I see, so being omnipotent also has its drawbacks. Also, from the perspective of Japanese movies, excluding commercials, I think 35mm film shooting has almost disappeared, but the current situation of 35mm film and 16mm film in Japan. please teach me. Isn't 16mm more popular than 35mm in Japan?

Yamamoto (Kodak): Currently, due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, when comparing 16mm and 35mm films in Japanese movies, 16mm is by far the most popular. If you have a plan to shoot with film, I think 16mm is often chosen due to budget considerations. By the way, the theatrical films that will be released in 2021 and shot in 35mm are " The Camellia Garden ", directed by photographer Yoshihiko Ueda, and " Touge: The Last The Samurai", starring Koji Yakusho and directed by Takashi Koizumi. There are 2 works.

“Toge: The Last The Samurai” trailer

Q: In the past, when I talked about 16mm film, I had the impression that it looked like old, old-fashioned footage, but is there a reason why 16mm has become so popular these days?

Yamamoto (Kodak): When movie theaters were still showing film, they shot it on 16mm film, blown it up, printed it on 35mm film, and showed it. As digital screening became mainstream, a trend was established in which negatives were directly scanned and digitized. Even 16mm can now be digitized in better condition, so I think that has had a big impact.

Q: I have heard that the sensitivity and other specifications of 35mm film have improved recently, but have the specifications of 16mm film improved as well?

Yamamoto (Kodak): Both 35mm and 16mm are cut from the same master roll, so the specifications are the same for both, just the film width is different. In 2007, we announced a technology called Kodak VISION 3, and by 2011 we announced four types of film with different sensitivities: 500T, 250D, 200T, and 50D. The Day After, there have been virtually no changes to this spec for the past 10 years. Rather, it is required to consistently manufacture products to the same specifications.

Q: What about the developing process? Is the content the same as before?

Inoue (Imagica): That's right. Although developing is a film technology developed over 100 years ago, the process itself has not changed much. During the development process, we may desensitize, sensitize, or perform a special development process called silver-retaining, but these are methods that have been around for a long time.

However, recently there has been a technology called ``film recording,'' which converts digital shots into film, and sometimes digital shots are turned into film, and then the film is scanned and digitized. This flow is based on the desire for a film look.

Q: That's amazing. Does that mean that this method is cheaper than using film on set?

Inoue (Imagica): That's right. There are bound to be bad takes on set, so we first shoot digitally, then do some rough editing, and only film the parts that are necessary. This flow is said to be advantageous in terms of cost.

Advantages of digital photography