Film and Digital Media @ Messiah

There’s a fascinating interview with Wong Kar Wai at Film & Video Webzine here. In it he states that for his work, it’s cheaper to shoot on film than on high-end digital cameras. I’ll quote a small portion of it in this blog entry.

F&V — The visual style of your films — the saturated colors, the way the camera moves, looking through glass or at reflections — is very much present in My Blueberry Nights. What specifically is in the frame, how should the colors look — is that a conversation that you had with Khondji?

WKW — Not so much about that. Darius is a very sensitive DP and very talented. And also, given the schedule and the locations that we shot in, it seems to me the final look of the film was a natural choice. When we shot in New York, the restaurant was so small it was hard to squeeze in all these cameras and a big crew, so we shot mainly [from] outside. It also makes sense to the story, because at that point we are still behind something, to observe what’s going on. And then the frame of the pictures — New York is pretty much like Hong Kong. It’s a vertical city, with vertical lines. And then when the character Elizabeth moves on to other parts of the country, we see the vertical lines become horizontal. And that’s why we shot in Cinemascope [2.35:1 aspect ratio].

We don’t talk much about the framing of things, because I think framing is something the director should be responsible for. It’s a matter of choice, a point of view. And the rest I just leave to Darius.

F&V — This film went through a digital intermediate, and I think you did that on 2046 as well as your segment of Eros.

WKW — Yes.

F&V — That’s a fairly new development for you, as well as many other filmmakers. Has it impacted the amount of work you can do on your pictures?

WKW — I try not to explore that. Especially for a production like My Blueberry Nights, it will give you a lot of excuses to say “Well, we’ll just leave it to post.” It’s something that’s good for films with a lot of effects, which you have to do that way, but for most films it’s only a kind of safety net. You have to make sure the light is right and the shot is right during shooting.

F&V — Do you see yourself relying more heavily on new digital technology? For instance, have you ever shot with a digital camera?

WKW — Actually, while we were shooting in Nevada we had a chance to get a very expensive digital camera called … I don’t remember the name.

F&V — The Genesis?

WKW — The Genesis. We shot in the desert. It’s very nice. It’s amazing. But somehow it’s not very practical for us. It’s too perfect for this film. So I think this equipment can be very useful and amazing to work with on some other projects but not this one.

F&V — When you say it’s “too perfect,” what are you missing? What makes the film image more attractive?

WKW — A kind of texture. I wanted to look at this film almost like a documentary. When you’re shooting with the Genesis, because it’s so fine — of course you can do adjustments in post, but we didn’t have time and resources to do so many different things afterwards. So I might as well do it on film, so I know exactly what will turn up.

F&V — Some directors … like the digital cameras because they don’t have to change film mags every 10 minutes and can capture a certain kind of performance by just letting the camera run. Would that appeal to you?

WKW — As long as you have the luxury of time and resources, that’s fine. But when you’re working with a very tight budget and a limited time, I think you have to do it straight on [film].

Read the whole interview here