Why Film?
Even in the early stages of preproduction on “Benny Boy” we knew that we had to shoot this project on film. In particular, 16mm felt right for this project. A raw, messy film needed a look that complemented the emotions on screen. I personally love film and in an ideal world would almost always shoot on celluloid. Our DP Michael Bagnato puts me to shame though in the world of analog zealots. I asked him to write up his thoughts on shooting film on “Benny Boy”-TH
“We live in an increasingly fragmented world where value has shifted from the physical to the digital, where an industry was told/declares that "Film is dead", a medium and material that has sustained an industry for over 100 years; where's the rationale in this?
I find the ease and efficiency in digital filmmaking to be more of a deterrent for me than a benefit, frankly. The attention one must give to celluloid film is much different than digital filmmaking: one is more patient, detail-oriented, careful, precise, and most of all, unsure.
During Benny Boy, I never once used any monitor whatsoever to dictate the image to Thomas, and this built a certain amount of trust and rapport between us during the planning and filming process, which I think is immensely important.
The choice to film Benny Boy on Kodak Vision 3 200T/7213 and 500T/7219 16mm was a decision based on the more raw, gritty, grainy quality of the film stock. 16mm provided us with a sense of structure and poise on set for fear of mistakes, errors, and costs, that inevitably pushed us to actually experiment and improvise. The sense of being "unsure" felt freeing in a way, because each of us knew that we would receive the processed/scanned film from Kodak Film Lab Atlanta and have no idea what to expect.
We were quite impressed once we received the film back, and quickly recognized our patience, precision, and care aided in the creation of some beautiful imagery. Yet, Thomas and I decided that 16mm is not as delicate as we originally thought, and that the latitude and quality of 200T and 500T allows for a much greater amount of experimentation. All in all, celluloid filmmaking produces trust: trust in medium and material, trust in planning, trust in crew, and trust in yourself.”
—Michael Bagnato, DP “Benny Boy”
