Choosing Super 16mm over Digital and the Cinematography of 'Beasts of the Southern Wild' | No Film School

It seems like there have been tons of posts about this movie, but The Creators Project has been slowly releasing their exclusive Behind the Scenes videos over the course of the last few months. We've taken a look at the score and other aspects, but now we've got a video with Director of Photography Ben Richardson talking about the aesthetic of the film and their choice to shoot on celluloid as opposed to digital.

The possible spoilers near the end don't really give away any major plot details:

I never got the opportunity to use a Super 16mm camera as nice as the 416, but I have used the Arri SR2 and SR3, and I've even flown the SR3 on a Steadicam. The conversation that Ben is having in the video will probably not be a discussion that most people will be having in the future, because economics will dictate that film is too costly for many lower-budget productions (if it exists at all), especially when you consider how cheaply you can shoot on many compressed formats. I've read that they shot a tremendous amount of film on the project, and the way that Ben talks about the style of shooting, that doesn't surprise me.

We've talked about Beasts of the Southern Wild quite a bit, but really you should check it out if you haven't seen it, if only because this kind of idea and the execution at this budget level -- on film no less -- is an absolute miracle. The way the budget came together, and the way that the film utilized real locations, it really makes you hopeful that independent filmmaking can continue to make inventive and original projects that push the boundaries of the form.

Link: Breaking Down The Cinematography of Beasts Of The Southern Wild -- The Creators Project

cinematography ARRI celluloid film watch makingof beastsofthesouthernwild benhzeitlin

What's the Hype With 'Interstellar' Revisiting Cinemas After a Decade in 70mm IMAX?

Here's Why You Need to Revisit 'Interstellar' in 70mm IMAX

Celebrate the love and hope at the center of Nolan's space epic in the format it was meant to be seen.

If we know anything about Christopher Nolan, he likes to go big. Nolan started with smaller-scale stories (as many of us do) with early noir adjacent works like Following, Memento, and Insomnia, then started going and staying big with his illusionist drama The Prestige. Since then, the scale has been various degrees of massive, with the biggest scope in his time-and-space sprawling epic, Interstellar.

While Interstellarmight not be everyone's favorite Nolan outing, there's no denying it's an impressive feat of filmmaking and his most emotional—if watching Matthew McConaughey's Cooper desperately try to reach his family through quantum space-time doesn't make you cry at least a little bit, what's going on, dude?

With Interstellar'sIMAX release, it's a great time to shed some tears in a public setting in one of the most prestigious film formats around. As we mentioned in our film gauge piece, Nolan loves shooting on film and utilizes 65mm intentionally to provoke a tone of massive scale. In that regard, Interstellar was made for 70mm IMAX. That goes without saying, dawg. That being said, other factors make Interstellar a perfect movie to revisit in theaters while you can.

Let's break down the release further below.

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