The Digital Bit on the Side

The Celluloid Sea

When I first started in this business it was a completely different world. Digital didn’t exist. Alexa was just a girl’s name, Red was just a colour and Venice was just an historic city in Italy. Then came the digital shock.

I had been a fish swimming in a celluloid sea and, for me, it was largely a 16mm celluloid sea. The first cameras I got to work with were the Arri 16BL, Arri SRII and Éclair NPR. I had brief exposure to 35mm too in the form of the Arri IIc, Arri III, Arri BL4 (which I loved), the Moviecam Conpact and a brief encounter with a Panavision Panastar (high speed version of the Panaflex). Then The Shock arrived.

The digital bit on the side

The digital shock for me was not the arrival of digital cameras; that was to come later. It was  film cameras becoming digital. It caused me a lot of panic. First I encountered the Arri SR3. What I saw was an SRII which someone had painted a mid grey colour and had a weird digital thing stuck on the side that had a glowing digital display. I panicked. What was this digital thing? How did it work? I had a lot of sleepless nights and spent a lot of time learning how to use this new digital interface. I spent a lot of time panicking and stressing about it and pretending to everyone on set that everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about but inside I was having kittens.

I had the same reaction to the 435 and 535. With  the 435 I saw an Arri III with a digital bit on the side and, with the 535, I saw a BL4 with a digital bit on the side (although I never used the 535.). Also, of course the Aaton XTR prod was, in many ways, an Éclair NPR with a digital bit on the side. I never used the Aaton LTR so I saw the similarities with the Éclair (I hated Aaton magazines, especially the 35mm, but that’s another story).

Me worrying about the, ‘digital bit on the side,’ of an Arri 435 while Alan Trow BSC checks the frame.

The Sony Shock. Facing the Sony Menus.

And then it got worse when I got to use the first non-celluloid camera that I ever used (apart from a digibeta I shot a short film with once). That was a Panavised Sony F900 which was really a souped up Sony ENG camera that had been specifically designed for the Star Wars Prequels. There, instead of the new digital bit on the side, I now had the horror of the Sony menus to contend with! That and Back Focus which meant I dreaded changing lenses (thank God for Primo zooms!). The Sony menus just turned my world into a nightmare. I was constantly getting lost in the menus; not a happy place. How I missed the, ‘digital bit on the side.” lol

Of course, now the Alexa style menus are becoming common place; I can cope with them. They are not dissimilar to the, ‘digital bit on the side,’ of the later film cameras. Just don’t get me started on the Red menus!

Celluloid Comfort

So, whenever I get the opportunity to work with film, regardless of whether it is 16mm or 35mm (and once, briefly, even 65mm!). I breathe a sigh of relief. I am home. I am where I am comfortable. I am always amused when I see young DOPs who panic when they are confronted with a camera that shoots celluloid. How things have changed!

Mark

You can watch my Celluloid Reel here: https://vimeo.com/1127932746