IFH 028: How Quentin Tarantino is Keeping Film Alive with The Hateful Eight

By Alex Ferrari | December 1, 2015 |

The Hateful Eight: How it’s keeping film alive!

Ah, the good ol’ digital vs film debate. Well you won’t get any of that in the article or podcast. With Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight coming out Dec 25, 2015, and it being shot on “Glorious 70mm,” there has been a lot of chatter about film again.

With filmmakers like Christopher Nolan shooting 35mm and IMAX on his latest film and JJ Abrams shooting Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 35 mm, film seems to still be an art form that many filmmakers are not ready to let go of just yet.

What Quentin Tarantino has done with The Hateful Eight is unique. He has brought back to life the Ultra Panavision 70 technique along with anamorphic 65mm lenses that haven’t been seen since the 60’s.

Here are some specs:

Camera: Panavision 65 HR Camera and Panavision Panaflex System 65 Studio
Lenses: Panavision APO Panatar
Film Stock 65mm: Kodak Vision3 200T 5213, Vision3 500T 5219
Aspect Ratio: 2.75:1

Quentin Tarantino has some very strong opinions about shooting digital.

“Part of the reason I’m feeling [like retiring] is, I can’t stand all this digital stuff. This is not what I signed up for,” he said.

“Even the fact that digital presentation is the way it is right now – I mean, it’s television in public, it’s just television in public. That’s how I feel about it. I came into this for film.”

He continued:

“I hate that stuff. I shoot film. But to me, even digital projection is – it’s over, as far as I’m concerned. It’s over.”

“If I’m gonna do TV in public, I’d rather just write one of my big scripts and do it as a miniseries for HBO, and then I don’t have the time pressure that I’m always under, and I get to actually use all the script,” he explained.

“I always write these huge scripts that I have to kind of – my scripts aren’t like blueprints. They’re not novels, but they’re novels written with script format. And so I’m adapting the script into a movie every day.”

This is what he said he’d do if he would write another huge epic.

“The one movie that I was actually able to use everything – where you actually have the entire breadth of what I spent a year writing – was the two Kill Bill movies because it’s two movies. So if I’m gonna do another big epic thing again, it’ll probably be like a 6-hour miniseries or something.”

The Hatful Eight will be getting a nation-wide release in Ultra Panavision 70, that means it’ll be the first fiction feature film screened in anamorphic 70mm with a single-projector Cinerama system since Khartoum in 1966.

Watch Quentin Tarantino, director of photography Bob Richardson and Panavison explain how they brought Ultra Panavision 70, back to life in The Hateful Eight.

A Christmas Eve Conversation With Quentin Tarantino & Paul Thomas Anderson on 70mm Film

Quentin: I didn’t realize how much of a lost cause [35mm] was. At the same time I didn’t realize to the same extent 70mm would be a drawing point. Not just to me and other film geeks. There is no intelligent argument to be had that puts digital in front of [70mm]. It actually might be film’s saving grace. Film’s last stand. Film’s last night in the arena — and actually conquer.

Quentin Tarantino’s nine feature The Hateful Eight opens in US cinemas on December 25.

Side by Side

Check out this amazing documentary SIDE BY SIDE, produced by Keanu Reeves, takes an in-depth look at this revolution.

Through interviews with directors, cinematographers, film students, producers, technologists, editors, and exhibitors, SIDE BY SIDE examines all aspects of filmmaking — from capture to edit, visual effects to color correction, distribution to archive.

At this moment when digital and photochemical filmmaking coexist, SIDE BY SIDE explores what has been gained, what is lost, and what the future might bring. Check out the trailer below:

Martin Scorsese on the Film vs Digital Debate

Robert Rodriguez on the Film vs Digital Debate

David Fincher on the Film vs Digital Debate

James Cameron on the Film vs Digital Debate

Right click here to download the MP3

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Robert G. Barnwell

I don’t think a handful of directors and DPs are enough of a market to “save” film. Also, from an audience’s perspective, its not much of an argument. Digital has progressed to a point where an audience can’t tell the difference between the two (and, honestly, few of us filmmakers can either.) The debate is now more an emotional one based on nostalgia than anything else.
- Alex Ferrari
  
  I’d agree with you on most levels but something like Ultra Panavision is special, as is IMAX. It’s only a matter of time but I hope film sticks around just for the heritage part of “film” making.
Andrew Khorsand

I went to the L.A. Premiere of The Hateful Eight earlier this week and saw it at the Cinerama Dome. If you don’t see this film on 70mm format then you’re doing yourself a disservice. It was an excellent looking print and I thought it was higher quality than anything HD has given us. This is the only way to experience the movie and I hope this is the beginning of a comeback for more directors to shoot on this format!
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