Process over Product
Why Digital Will Never Be Film
Every week I come across a post or YouTube video with a variation of “Make your photos look like film”, or “This camera makes your images look like film”. While we can use LUTs and film grain simulations, the result will never be the same, let me elaborate.
Film, in a single image or a moving image, is a process, not a result. Cameras have made incredible advancements over the 150-plus years of photography, but in the end, it’s a sealed box with a lens. The camera is superfluous to the process of photography, in my opinion. While you may be able to increase resolution with new advancements, in the end, it’s the person taking the image and not the camera that makes the image.
“You don't take a photograph, you make it.”
-Ansel Adams
Working in the film industry made me a little jaded as I recreated the same lighting setup hundreds of times, even when another setup may have told a better story, and the “best” camera may not be the tool for your job. When I started teaching film and photography I knew I wanted to place an emphasis on story and process over the finished result.
Before we start, I want to take a moment to say that I am not against digital photography. I have directed three feature films, all on digital, and taken 10’s of thousands of digital images. I own close to 30 cameras, including film and digital, all of which I classify as a tool to create my work. Why would I want to simulate the look of another camera when I can just use the camera? I pick a specific look for each project, because of the emotional response I hope to evoke from my viewer. Of course, I could film everything with a 4k camera and then downgrade, but I could also just use a VHS camera and get the exact look that I want with little to no post-production.
Film is a Feeling
I remember getting my first camera as a child, a Kodak 110 film camera, and taking the images to be developed at a Walmart. The time between the images being captured and seen would be a bare minimum of a couple of hours, thanks to one-hour photos, or weeks and even years if you forgot you had film. It’s a process that I willingly embark upon, knowing I won’t instantly see them.
I start each beginner photography class I teach, focusing on storytelling. Every student carries a professional digital camera in their pockets with infinite possibilities. Thanks to auto functions you just need to point the lens at the place you want to capture and instantly see the result. If you don’t like it, delete it and try again. But what if you change your mind in a week? Maybe that photograph was one of the best things you ever captured.
Each class I usually end up with a student who deletes a lot of their images stating “But they weren’t any good!” What metric is good measured by? I suggest they just take the images and look at them later when they are less judgmental of their creations. I remember doing this myself when I started, it was easy to judge immediately and throw them away.
“Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They are different processes.”
-Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules-
With film, this is not an option. You must think about the image before you press the shutter. The image lives only in your mind. Each decision is specifically made by the artist, with intention and specificity. The manipulation of the negative allows the artist multiple opportunities in the process to manipulate their image. "The Camera, The Negative, and The Print as Ansel Adams so uniquely wrote about. These three steps allow an artist to capture exactly what is in their mind, without ever getting a chance to look at the original image. The process is more important than the final image.
We can always make an image simulate the look of film, but digital will never allow the feeling you experience when you take a photo on celluloid and know that its exactly what you meant to do. Film is a feeling, it captures emotion, allowing us an opportunity to slow down. When I teach film to new students I let them know up front that this is a slow process and it takes exactly as long as it takes. You can’t develop the film any faster than the chemicals allow, and if you print in a darkroom it takes an exact amount of time to make an image. You must trust the process.
The Journey
While recording our most recent episode of the Art Provoked podcast, my business partner Kenny Keeler asked me how I would describe myself as an artist and it gave me pause.
My interaction with film and photography has always been to evoke emotion in a viewer. I want to show you how I see the world, and hopefully have you question it and create conversations. I don’t want you to even think about the camera that was used. I want viewers to be challenged as they attempt to understand how I felt at that moment. As I have gotten older, my work doesn’t aim for perfection as I now know this is impossible. In the end, I am making work that I need for myself and I hope it speaks to others as well.
Is film slow, yes. Is digital fast, yes1. Do they both end in images, yes! I am a big advocate of picking the tool that is right for the job. I’ve never looked at a classic painting and tried to guess the brush they used or what type of canvas was used, so why do filmmakers and photographers flood the conversation with technical requirements?
If you want something to look a specific way then I'd like to suggest you try to use that tool. While you can always simulate the result, the process you use to create will change how you create it. Tristan Noelle, the cinematographer of my first two features used an analogy of going on a cross-country road trip. You have the option of driving a brand-new sports car or a 1960s sports car. Will they both get you there? Absolutely! Will the experience be different if you take away GPS, computers, fuel injection, etc? Absolutely! The journey will most definitely be different, and for some, that is more important.
-Jerry-
P.S. Images takes on motion picture available at www.thecelluloidcollective.com. Save 20% by using the code bronson20.
Unless you spend a lot of time post-production editing raw images.
Whenever a student asks me what kind of camera they should get I say “the dumbest one you can find.”