Over the past few years, the film versus digital conversation has been waged steadily in Hollywood. In one corner you have Hollywood studios who love the cost-savings of embracing new technology, and filmmakers like David Fincher who are continually finding fresh methods of creative expression thanks to the ever expanding boundaries that digital cameras open up. On the other side are folks like Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino who insist there is nothing like the grain, texture, and the depth of color you can get from film, and for them, no digital camera has yet come close. Generally speaking, the voices being heard on this subject are auteurs or those making a very particular kind of capital lettered Cinema, but let’s face it, most movies are made by people who don’t quite hold lofty auteur status.
Enter Todd Phillips of “The Hangover” trilogy and most recently “War Dogs,” who in a conversation with Collider earlier this month, shared why he also prefers film over digital; a sentiment that was solidified by shooting “War Dogs” in the latter format.
“This is the first movie I did it digitally, and that had a lot to do with the fact that we were running around to so many countries and we were a little bit worried about all the film and the film stock and the consistency. [Cinematographer] Larry [Sher] really talked me into it…I was against it, honestly on my next movie I won’t do it again, I would shoot film again,” the director said. “It’s just something about film, and I’m not trying to be a snob, but my basic reason for it is actually really dumb but there’s a part of magic that’s lost when you shoot digitally. When you’re literally seeing exactly what you’re gonna see in the movie theater, most directors would go, ‘That’s perfect, so much control’ and I’m going, ‘Where’s the magic part where you look at dailies the next day and you’re like, Aww.’ So there’s a piece of magic I always feel like gets lost shooting digitally…”
Phillips is not the first filmmaker to speak of that particularly alchemical part of the process, where you’re separated from what you just shot, and only see the result much later. And perhaps it’s this feeling that ties into the director’s advocacy for the big screen experience. Earlier this year, he hit CinemaCon to underscore the importance of sitting in a theater with a big group of people, instead of watching something on your iPhone, and it’s a stance he continues to hold.
“… I hate to sound like an old man but…when I’m directing a movie, the audience’s experience is part of that. In other words, when we were shooting ‘The Hangover’ and I go, ‘There’s gonna be 400 people laughing at this moment,’ it’s part of the soundtrack of the movie,” he said. “So if you’re watching it alone at home I promise ‘The Hangover’ isn’t gonna be as funny as it is on Universal City Walk on a Friday night or a Saturday night; I know that, I’ve seen it on HBO. So you try to preserve as much as possible of the theatrical experience. Like I said I don’t mean to sound like and old man, but there is something to that where I just think that it’s part of the soundtrack of a film.”
Speaking more recently with Little White Lies, Phillips elaborated a bit more on this point.
“What I love about movies is what’s disappearing which is the group experience. When I make a movie, the way we choose music and way we choose wardrobe for a film, I’m thinking about the audience’s reaction to a moment,” he said. “So nothing bums me out more than where everything is headed now, which is iPhones and TV. We’re going to lose that shared experience, which is so precious and so powerful.”
However, with moviegoing becoming more expensive, and the offerings at home more and more enticing, it’s harder for many people to justify a night out at the movies. What gets you out of the house? Let us know below.