While the costs of producing 35mm feature films are creeping prohibitively high for many producers, high-definition and other digital video formats have provided a legitimate alternative, while the more economical 16mm and Super 16 formats seem to be making a resurgence.

These were the subjects at a panel discussion titled Stock Exchange at the recent Toronto International Film Festival. Caroline Kaplan, senior VP of production and development at the U.S.-based Independent Film Channel, moderated the session, sponsored by Kodak. Kaplan’s credits as executive producer include the features Boys Don’t Cry, Waking Life, Monsoon Wedding and Pieces of April. She was in Toronto to promote her latest production, German director Wim Wenders’ low-budget feature Land of Plenty, which was shot on digital video.

Otherwise, the panel, which included directors, producers and directors of photography who consistently shoot on film, was weighted toward the photochemical end of the spectrum.

Most of the speakers, all from the U.S., toil in the indie world, and so can speak to the same issues most Canadian filmmakers face. The exception was lensing legend Vilmos Zsigmond, the star of the afternoon.

Zsigmond, who fled his native Hungary during the bloody revolution of 1956, started lensing programmers in Hollywood in the 1960s. He got a big break when he hooked up with maverick filmmaker Robert Altman to make the classic anti-western McCabe & Mrs. Miller in 1971. The film was stunningly innovative with its gritty, naturalistic lighting and highly impressionistic style. Soon the DOP was manning the camera on some of the decade’s most iconic movies, including Deliverance, The Long Goodbye, The Sugarland Express, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (for which he won an Academy Award), The Last Waltz and The Deer Hunter.

Zsigmond was at the festival to present the director’s cut of Heaven’s Gate, the wildly over-budget 1980 western he shot for helmer Michael Cimino that bankrupted United Artists and is often credited with sounding the death knell for auteur-driven American cinema. The whole fiasco is detailed in the documentary Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate, which also screened at TIFF.

‘Hello, my name is George Lucas and film is dead!’ Zsigmond said jokingly as he was introduced, copping the Star Wars creator’s famous comment at the National Association of Broadcasters conference three years ago, when he announced that he had shot Star Wars II – Attack of the Clones on Sony 24p HDCAM. But for every filmmaker willing to embrace the digital domain, there are still others, such as Steven Spielberg, with whom Zsigmond has collaborated, who swear they will always shoot only on film.

Lee Daniels, who produced Oscar winner Monster’s Ball and was in town hawking The Woodsman, a controversial feature starring Kevin Bacon, spoke on behalf of the panel when he said directors will almost always argue on behalf of shooting 35mm, although that’s not always possible.

‘When you’ve got two hours [of drama] and you have to stretch your budget, you simply have to say ‘no’ – and sort of say ‘yes’ – to the director and figure out a more creative way to handle the look,’ Daniels said.

That would be a concern to all present save Zsigmond, who to this day continues to work on big productions with top Hollywood talents and only shoots 35mm. But the cameraman recalled his low-budget days of working with economical camera systems that yielded strong results, such as two-perf pulldown, a popular choice in the 1960s that he said today’s cash-strapped filmmakers would be wise to investigate. Zsigmond added that he wished film manufacturers today would lower the price of film stocks to make them accessible to more filmmakers.

Sometimes budget dictates right off the bat what format will be used. And then, sometimes, it’s a question of deciding where you want the available funds to go, as DOP panelist Tim Orr learned on the well-regarded U.S. indie film Raising Victor Vargas. Orr also shot TIFF 2004 entry Imaginary Heroes, a family drama that drew strong notices for Sigourney Weaver’s lead performance.

‘[Vargas] was low-budget – about US$800,000 – and the director, Peter Sollett, wanted to allow his cast a lot of freedom of improvisation, and so we thought that we may be shooting a lot of film,’ Orr recalled. ‘Instead of having a smaller shooting ratio, we decided to shoot on Super 16 to allow us to shoot more film, and it really worked out well. I was very happy with the [optical] blowup. A lot of people could be fooled that it was 35mm.’

Woody the master

While some directors will shoot copious amounts of film for coverage, some directors – even those less concerned about budget – can efficiently limit their ratios while still getting the performances they want. To illustrate this point, Zsigmond brought up his recent collaboration with Woody Allen on the forthcoming feature Melinda and Melinda, starring Will Ferrell.

‘I love to work with [Allen],’ Zsigmond said. ‘The way he makes movies, he goes back to the old school – it’s nothing but master shots. He will shoot a master and he will do it over and over until he is satisfied with it.’

Allen’s approach, the DOP explained, is to limit close-ups wherever possible. The director believes that any cutting during the action of a scene distracts the audience and reminds them of the artificiality of the cinematic medium. To get viewers to suspend disbelief, Allen wants the action to play out in real time.

While basing shooting decisions solely on esthetic reasons might seem restricted only to the lucky few, even those working in smaller budgets can stick to their artistic guns.

‘You have to adapt to today’s economics and the way films are made. Being a cinematographer, you should be able to photograph [a story] regardless of the format,’ said Orr. But he added that although he was not inherently against shooting HD or DV, he has thus far passed on the video gigs that have come his way. ‘I’ve declined to do those projects because they were based more on economics than artistic sensibility for the film.’

One recent major production that chose to originate on HD was the thriller Collateral, starring Tom Cruise. DOPs Paul Cameron and Dion Beebe shared lensing chores on the film, using the Thomson Viper FilmStream system to capture L.A.’s seedy nightlife.

Writer/producer/director Paul Haggis, who also sat on the TIFF panel, expressed his bewilderment as to why Collateral director Michael Mann went digital, considering that economics were obviously not a factor.

‘I couldn’t find a reason, emotionally or logically, for him to do so,’ Haggis said, adding that he nonetheless liked the film. Haggis, the Canadian ex-pat who created and wrote for Due South, was somewhat the man of the hour, his feature helming debut Crash, a 35mm car-themed L.A. ensemble piece, having generated plenty of TIFF buzz.

‘You have to have a reason to choose any format,’ he added.