At a time when many top-shelf Hollywood directors -- names such as Michael Mann, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and Francis Ford Coppola -- are proselytizing the advantages of shooting on high-definition digital video, a small, dedicated band of independent filmmakers is championing the seemingly outdated idea of actually shooting on film.
“Beeswax," which opens in L.A. on Friday at the Nuart Theatre, is the third feature by filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, all of them shot and edited on film. His latest project tells the story of twin sisters (played by real-life twins Tilly and Maggie Hatcher) in Austin, Texas, one the much put-upon co-owner of a vintage store, the other a seemingly tetherless free spirit.
The film captures the oblong pacing and offbeat rhythms of emerging adulthood as it explores the things that bond people together, and its naturalistic, lived-in feel comes across in its slightly washed-out yet warm color palette and gentle visual textures.
“The main reason I want to shoot on film is because it feels great. I love how it feels on-screen, I love how it feels on the editing table," Bujalski said this year shortly after the film's U.S. premiere at the South by Southwest festival in Austin. “Having been around video, having acted in some things that were shot on video, there isn't that same sense of, you've got to sit up straight, hold your breath and do it right because we're about to film."
Particularly at the level of ultra-low-budget, genuinely independent filmmaking, it would seem that the efficiencies of shooting on video -- lower costs, less equipment, fewer crew members and the ability for essentially limitless takes -- make for an obvious choice. Yet Bujalski isn't the only purist, as Azazel Jacobs ("Momma's Man"), Alex Ross Perry ("Impolex"), Jeff Mizushima ("Etienne!"), Frankie Latina ("Modus Operandi"), Ronald Bronstein ("Frownland") and Joshua and Ben Safdie ("Go Get Some Rosemary") have all also opted to actually shoot their movies on film. Most are working on 16-millimeter or the slightly larger Super-16 but with the occasional foray up to 35-millimeter or even dipping all the way down to Super-8.
“When I look through the film camera and it starts rolling, especially on the first day of shooting, and it starts flickering 24 times a second, it's still a very exciting feeling," said Matthias Grunsky, cinematographer on all three of Bujalski's features. “Compared to a video camera, where when you turn it on you see the image in the viewfinder whether you're shooting or not, there is a totally different energy when you shoot on film. Not only for me, for everybody, they know there is something precious going on."
Far from a simple nostalgia craze, the trend is perhaps analogous to the recent resurgence in sales of vinyl records in the age of the MP3, as filmmakers come to terms with the increasingly digitized future.
