I recently rented a movie ...
Question: I recently rented a movie called The Dead Next Door, whose liner notes claimed it was "the most expensive 8mm film ever shot." This reminded me of an interview with Vincent Gallo, who made Buffalo '66 and The Brown Bunny, in which he talked about wanting to film in 16mm, Super-16mm and 35mm, but they were too expensive. So my question is this: What do those numbers mean? How do they affect a director and more important, what do they mean to us, the filmgoers?
Answer: The numbers refer to film gauge: 8mm film, which is what people used for home movies in the pre-video era, is 8 millimeters wide (about a third of an inch); 16mm and Super-16 are twice that and 35mm, the standard professional film gauge size, is 1 1/3 inches across. Super-8 and Super-16 use more of the film's useful width (the area between the sprocket holes on either side) to record images than 8mm or 16mm; bigger image, same size strip of film. The big difference for filmmakers is money: 8mm equipment and processing is less than 16mm equipment and processing, and 16mm equipment and processing is cheaper than 35mm equipment and processing. The second difference is image quality, which affects the viewer as well: The larger the original filmed image, the larger you can project it without the image getting muddy or blurry or blown out. I understand that The Dead Next Door (1988) looks pretty good, but call me old school: I think it's self-defeating to invest money, time and creativity in what goes in front of the camera and then shoot it on 8mm unless you specifically want degraded image quality. Actor-turned-director Vincent Gallo shot The Brown Bunny (2003) on digital video, which cuts raw stock costs substantially because you can tape over takes you don't like, and eliminates up-front processing costs entirely. Digital video is capable of producing a remarkably sharp, vibrant image if — and this is a big if — the filmmaker is extra-careful about lighting and composition. DV images tend to smear in low-light situations, which is a liability unless the smeary quality is factored into the film's overall aesthetic. Despite its drawbacks, DV (in combination with off-the-shelf computer editing packages) is the greatest thing that's happened to independent filmmakers in decades: It's really, really cheap, and sheer expense is the single biggest obstacle to truly independent filmmaking.
