21 Grams

[Jason]

Does anyone know what kind of camera was used for this film? I am pretty sure it is some sort of Digital. This is encouraging because it shows a great movie can be made on a cheap camera, but discouraging because I dont think I can find a cast that can pull off performances like penn watts del torro etc.
also, on a slightly different topic, it seems like all big budget mini-dv films I see are very blown out in that the darks are very dark, and the whites are almost blinding. is this because of over-lighting?

[movieman]

Digital? No way. Look at the grain structure. Looks like super 16 blown up to 35.

[Jason]

really? if so it looks like digital. film shouldnt be so blown out.

[truepictures]

I would figure it is digital, because I've shot on a 3 ccd and it surprisingly looked just like 21 grams, i projected it on a small screen, like the ones in college and high school classrooms and the results were very similar. In the production notes of 21 grams, they say:

Nearly every shot in 21 Grams was done with a hand-held camera, resulting in a heightened sense of tension that will be deeply felt by audiences. Prieto, who operated his own camera on the film, prefers the hand-held method because of its "immediacy, the sense of 'anything can happen.' I react to what the actors are doing - I mostly know what's going to happen, but I try to forget about that and just feel 'in the moment.'

I think it is probably done in digital and there's always a reason for the extreme everything. I don't think they would make a film with such big names in a half-assed manner.

[noahtgreat]

Definitely was not done Digital.

http://www.theasc.com/magazine/index.htm?dec03/cover/index.html~main

I still haven't seen this film, but I did read the article while avoiding doing my day-job.

--Noah

[truepictures]

i see! film all along. that sucks, but digital can achieve close to same quality, so that works for me.

have any of you heard of the camera that they used to make the last Star Wars? I hear it's a film camera with digital capabilities, sort of like how a mini-disc works.

fantastic great stuff.

[Jason]

Thanks for the info and article link. Very good stuff.