35mm vs. 16mm

Ok firstly let me say that there are a number of reasons why I would opt to use a particular medium whether be it 8mm, 16mm, 35mm or even Digital Video in a production. But the main reason for my decisions would normally come from a creative standpoint. Taking into account the script and the intended desired Look and Feel.

35mm gives you a completely different look to that of 16mm. But in no instance is this better. It’s just a different look. The choice of which film format one uses should be weighted against all creative factors pertaining to the intended objective of the scene/film. There are instances where it is a must to use 35mm as the choice medium and there are times 35mm will fail to deliver the desired look. It’s quite simple really... Let me try to explain (I'm normally accused of being long winded but please bare with me for a bit). My reason normally is based on the set per say. When I mean by set is the 'Location' as to where majority of the script would be played out. If we are shooting is a confined area where by the possibility of the 'Background Throw' is short or limited, (meaning to say the backgrounds area more likely than not going to be really close to the main action); and I want to try and achieve some form of depth in the final image I would opt to use 16mm. Now if the script requires us to shoot out doors and majority of the shots require the usage of wide and semi-wide lenses, which would in-turn give us an infinite 'Background Throw', than I would opt for using 35mm. In short, the 16mm film format would give us larger depth of field latitude when shooting in-doors vs. 35mm.

This is due to the size of the celluloid (film) vs. the amount of photosensitive cells able to fit on the film. Photosensitive cells here are the elements that allow the film to capture an image. When a photosensitive cell is exposed to light, the intensity of that light is recorded and stored. If a whole bunch of photosensitive cells are bunched together on celluloid and exposed, an image is captured. The information that makes up this image is made out from a mixture of light from different sources, which either are emulating from a source or bouncing off different surfaces. Now given that the size of a photosensitive cell remains constant, the amount of photosensitive cells able to fit on a frame would be vary depending on format. 16mm would allow lesser compared to the 35mm. Because 16mm is physically smaller than 35mm it has less space to store information (image).

Now for example, if we were to do a test to see the difference between the image produced on 35mm vs. 16mm, what we would have to do is to double shoot a shot, using both 35 mm and 16mm. Lets say for this example, the shot is a WA (wide angle) shot of someone in a supermarket walking down one of the many product aisle. What we would have are two different images, even if the actions of the person are the same... The difference would be in the overall look... The 35mm would have a very sharp looking background. We would be able to see almost everything in the frame, somewhat like video. On the other hand with the image shot using 16mm there would appear to be greater depth. Meaning to say, what we would probably be able to see clearly would be the person walking and perhaps two or three feet around that person, everything else (the background and the environment) would be clear enough to register but not focused on, unless we decide to deliberately shit focus to the background.

Now, the clients would normally jump around about this time and say "but I want my product in the background to be seen”... Totally understood. But equally important are the actions in the foreground, which are at the end of the day working collectively together to deliver the communication objectives. Now by having the ability to control the focal point of any one scene within TVC we would then be able to better guide the TVC in totality to the desired regions that would best deliver the communication of the TVC per say.

In short, with the ability to control the focus of a scene we would be able to then help our 'viewers' focus on what we want them to focus on. This is why I prefer to use 16mm in a close or in-door location, somewhat like the location in our TVC. One more thing before I finish this up... please lay to rest all previous inhibitions you might have to 16mm being the inferior film format. This may have been true say 7 or 8 years ago. With present day technologies in imaging the difference between 35mm and 16mm are very minimal.


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