Trailer For Keanu Reeves New Doc On Future Of Cinema - With Lynch, Lucas, Scorsese, Nolan, Dunham, Rodriguez, Cameron...

[Brendon Connelly]

As digital technology takes command of both film production and distribution (not to mention promotion and discussion, of course) there are lots of questions to be asked about the place of traditional, analogue technology, both now and in the future.

And there are plenty of opposing views, some of which you will see, in soundbite form at least, in this trailer for Side By Side. It's a documentary produced by and featuring Keanu Reeves and directed by Chris Kenneally, set for a screening at the Berlin film fest.



Side by Side Official Trailer (2012) from Company Films on Vimeo.

I have to say that while I do love film, and I love what it has done, and what it can do, I'm a digital man, really. A well preserved and sensitively transferred 4k presentation of a 65mm print is going to provide a better viewing experience under almost all comparable conditions. And data is easier to archive more securely and permanently too, if we're sensible about it.

I would see the shooting of a new film photochemically to be the specific choice, not the default, and it really calls for particular reason. What that reason might be, I don't know. Not beyond the inherently sentimental "I just like the look of it more."

Still, all the reels of films that do already exist certainly deserve our respect and the most careful of handling.

I'm looking forward to Reeves' film a great deal. Here's a full list of the folk who will be featured:

Steven Soderbergh James Cameron David Lynch Richard Linklater Martin Scorsese Lana Wachowski Andy Wachowski Christopher Nolan Walter Pfister ASC David Fincher Reed Morano Greta Gerwig George Lucas Robert Rodriguez Bradford Young Michael Chapman ASC John Mathieson BSC Vittorio Storaro ASC David Stump ASC Dick Pope BSC Sandi Sissel ASC Donald McAlpine ACS Michael Ballhaus ASC David Tattersall BSC Phil Meheux BSC Charles Herzfeld Alec Shapiro Lars von Trier Anthony Dod Mantle BSC Jason Kliot Geoffrey Gilmore Ellen Kuras ASC Caroline Kaplan Darnell Martin John Malkovich Danny Boyle Thomas Rothman Michael Phillips Walter Murch ACE Craig Wood Derek Ambrosi Anne Coates ACE Chris Lebenzon ACE Lorenzo DiBonaventure John Knoll Tim Webber Dennis Muren Adam Valdez Jonathan Fawkner Don Ciana Terry Haggar Andrej Bartkowick ASC Stefan Sonnenfeld Jill Bogdanowicz Tim Stipan Jost Vocano ASC Geoff Boyle BSC Dion Beebe ASC ACS Robert H. Harvey Jim Jannard Ted Schilowitz Vilmos Zsigmond ASC Bruce Dorn Shruti Ganguly Lena Dunham Ari Presler Glenn Kennel Vincent M. Pace Steve Schklair Joel Schumacher Barry Levinson Michael Goi ASC Gary Einhaus Edward Stratmann

Thanks to The Playlist and Caryn James for the embed.

[Sean Kelly]

This is simply not true. Although there have been many different technical standards (format, colour process, aspect ratio, frame rate) over the last 117 years of motion picture film’s existence it is relatively simple to preserve; you just need to keep it cold and dry. A well preserved 35mm print film from the 1890s (putting aside nitrate law and the value of the archival object) would run though a modern projector with little modification. Will you be able to say the same for a 4K DCP in 100 years’ time? I doubt it. Some cinemas currently have trouble playing back DCPs now Observations on film art : Pandora’s digital box: At the festival

Codecs, like analogue video tape standards before them are numerous, short lived, and rely on not just the carrier but particular technology / software to be read / decoded. Without that technology / software you have immediately lost your moving pictures, you cannot simply hold it up to light as with film and see your frames of data.

At this moment in time I believe you will still find even if a large production shoots, edits and distributes digitally they will record back to film for a final preservation element. Of course it will be different for amateur / television production and film will eventually not be manufactured so digital preservation will become more and more necessary.

There is currently no one standard preservation codec and there are masses of different capture/editing codecs (usually proprietary). Preservation of digital content relies on data migration plans. You have to 'actively' preserve. Transcode to your chosen preservation codec (M-JPEG2000?), wrapper (MXF/DPX?), and carrier (LTO/NAS RAID?!?); and utilise not only your back up plan but also your financial plan to migrate your data to the latest codec/wrapper/carrier when they become obsolete or break. It’s not simple.

Still,looking forward to the film too!