Why Film Knowledge Is Becoming a Career Advantage Again - a thought for New Year

I thought I’d share some New Year thoughts that occurred to me as a result of writing my last few blogs.

For a long time, film knowledge felt like something you kept quietly to yourself — a historical curiosity rather than a professional asset. As digital workflows became dominant, entire generations of crew came through without ever loading a magazine, threading a camera, or thinking about stock, gates, or emulsion characteristics. For a while, it seemed perfectly reasonable to assume that celluloid would slowly retreat to the margins.

That assumption no longer holds.

Over the past few years — and particularly in the last 12–18 months — film has returned to mainstream production in a way that is no longer symbolic or nostalgic. It is operational. Large studio features, prestige productions, and ambitious independents are once again choosing 16mm, 35mm, VistaVision, 65mm and IMAX — and in doing so, they are rediscovering a problem the industry had quietly forgotten:

You need people who actually know how to work with film.

The Skills Gap Nobody Planned For.

Digital democratised filmmaking. That was one of its great strengths. But an unintended consequence was that film literacy slowly drained out of the crew base. Many excellent camera assistants, operators and DOPs simply never had the opportunity — or the need — to work with celluloid.

That’s fine when nobody is shooting film.

It becomes a problem when suddenly a significant number of productions are.

35mm Panavision Panaflex MillenniumXL2 motion picture film camera on set.

A few years ago, on a large-format production shooting IMAX, a very experienced camera technician I know was asked to pull focus — despite the fact that he hadn’t worked as a focus puller for nearly ten years. Not because he was the obvious choice, but because there simply weren’t enough focus pullers available with recent, hands-on IMAX experience.

That’s not a criticism of the individual — quite the opposite. It’s a clear illustration of how thin the pool of film-literate crew had become, even at the very top end of the industry.

And it’s exactly why film knowledge is quietly becoming valuable again.

Film Is No Longer a Niche Choice

We’re now seeing a convergence of factors:

• Major studio films choosing film for aesthetic and narrative reasons

• Large-format productions (VistaVision, 65mm, IMAX) increasing rather than declining

• New film stocks being introduced

• New film cameras being developed for the first time in decades

When production chooses film today, it does so deliberately — and when it does, it suddenly cares very deeply about experience.

That’s where knowledge becomes leverage.

The Role of Training: SCCE and the Return of Craft

One of the most encouraging developments I’ve seen recently is the creation of the Salford Celluloid Centre of Excellence (SCCE).

I attended the launch of the Centre through my connection with Logmar, whose Magellan 65mm cameras are now based there. SCCE’s ambition is genuinely impressive: to give students and working crew access to every film format from 8mm through to 65mm, supported by industry partners including Kodak and Sunbelt Rentals.

Crucially, this isn’t nostalgia-driven education. It’s practical, vocational training.

Students coming through SCCE aren’t just learning theory — they’re learning how to load, operate, troubleshoot and think in film terms. Some will graduate having worked with 65mm Magellan cameras, making them, almost by default, part of a very small global pool of people who can honestly say they are “Magellan-trained.”

That matters.

Because when a production decides to shoot large format, the question isn’t “what camera should we use?” — it’s “who can crew this safely?”

New Cameras, Old Knowledge — and Why That’s Interesting.

What’s particularly fascinating is that film’s resurgence isn’t just being driven by heritage equipment.

The Logmar Magellan 65mm is the first new 65mm motion picture camera in decades. Alongside the recently announced IMAX Keighley camera, it represents something we haven’t seen for a long time: new large-format film cameras that aren’t museum pieces.

But new hardware still relies on old knowledge.

You can’t menu-your-way out of film. You need people who understand exposure discipline, mechanical tolerances, magazine handling, focus strategy, stock behaviour and the realities of limited footage.

That’s why training initiatives like SCCE — and people who already have film experience — suddenly sit in a very interesting position.

Why This Is a Career Strategy (Quietly)

None of this means digital is going away. Of course it isn’t.

But what is changing is the value placed on people who can move confidently between formats — and particularly those who don’t panic when film is involved.

For younger crew, film knowledge is becoming a differentiator.

For more experienced crew who never lost it, it’s becoming relevant again.

And for productions, it reduces risk.

Film sets don’t fail because people don’t care. They fail because people don’t know what they don’t know. When schedules are tight and budgets are real, experience counts — especially when the medium itself is unforgiving.

A Quiet Shift, Not a Revolution.

This isn’t a manifesto. Film won’t replace digital, and it doesn’t need to.

But the balance has shifted just enough that film knowledge is no longer redundant — and in certain contexts, it’s becoming a genuine asset again.

Training centres like SCCE, the return of large-format production, and the emergence of new film cameras are all pointing in the same direction:

Those who can work with celluloid — calmly, competently, and without drama — are going to be increasingly useful.

And usefulness, in this industry, is often what leads to opportunity.

Mark