Despite Hollywood’s transition to digital, director Christopher Nolan has always spoken out about his love of physical film and films prints, which led to Paramount Pictures taking big steps last year to make sure his latest film Interstellar got a “film-print” run as well as a digital one.
In fact, just last summer Nolan, as well as big name directors like J.J. Abrams, Judd Apatow and Quentin Tarantino, joined in the discussions with studios about this topic, which led to them purchasing film stock from Kodak on a yearly basis.
Over the weekend, THR reports that Nolan was a guest speaker at a Getty Research Institute discussion panel, entitled “Reframing the Future of Film: Strategies to keep the medium of film available to ‘shoot, protect & preserve”, along with Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke, visual artist Tacita Dean, Film Society Of Lincoln Center’s Eugene Hernandez and many more, and took the opportunity again to speak out for film and its artistic and archival importances.
“We need film projectors and film prints — forever,” he said. “If you want the choice, it’s very important to support film now. Filmmakers are going out of their way to shoot film and talk about it. We want to see a world where there’s a choice; it’s important to preserve it for future generations.”
“We don’t have a uniform standard for preservation and archiving for the studios, at the Academy, or at archival institutions,” Nolan added. “There’s no stable digital archiving medium, [at least not] in the immediate future. If there is, it would need to be tested for decades… The library value of film is extremely important. Preserving films photochemically is essential… [it] works and is resolution independent… and future proof.”
While many filmmakers are now taking to digital means to make their films, which often works out cheaper than ever, Nolan and his counterparts are strong believers that film can last, and that now even more importantly than ever is the time to make sure the long legacy of film prints continue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ONsp_bmDYXc
Originally published March 10, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
