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F i l m
Film is a medium through which light causes a chemical reaction which manifests physically. The physical manifestation of light in terms of film is represented by grains of silver. These grains of silver came from silver halide, which is suspended in particle form in celluloid. Before the silver can be made visible to the human eye, it must first react with other chemicals which, in some cases, eat away the silver then react the silver nitrate (i.e. slide film).
Try taking some film pictures and watch the reaction to the light. I will only ever shoot on film because of the way film reacts to the light. It is a fully developed medium, like charcoal or acrylic. The artistry is in the placement of light on the film itself, through the camera. Artistry is also in the development of the film, since physical substances are being played with. Film was originally created to duplicate painting. Motion film was created to duplicate theater. Now, film is created separately and in a weird conjunction between painting and theater.
If film isn't supported, the film development shops will go out of date and close down or drastically raise their prices. This would cause difficulty for shooting on film. Also, historically significant motion films could not be duplicated very easily. Cinematographer Oliver Stapleton pointed this out too on IMDB's Ask a Filmmaker.
As a medium, film is quite interesting. The creation of the film medium involves a technique shared with other materials—suspending chemicals in a gooey material so it may react to something. Liquid Crystal Displays use a similar technique. So do batteries to some extent. Film technology has been improved to such a great extent that Kodak now makes film that covers the whole spectrum of visible light, which is quite a breakthrough. This places the developers in charge of what colors and shades get attention. It is a mistake to think that digital photography is the technological successor to film in any terms except for those to keep the historians happy.
Three miles outside of barnstorm my Lendreites make film. They created a factory in which grown media (i.e. Plastic, or Celluloid) is manufactured automatically. The silver is the hard part—it is not grown but is found or mined. One meter of 35mm film is about three seconds of motion film. Therefore, in order for our filmmakers to be happy, there must be a certain amount of silver. Thus reactionary films are not worth filming, not only because of their stupidity, but more because of the scarcity of silver.
My friends and fellows like to collect precious film as well as precious silver things. We keep a pool of film resources where we can find it. If there is a surplus in film, we love to come up with a few images to place on it. Two miles east of us was a village with a particularly interesting culture—Kinsen Fairies. We photographed them in a short documentary using our Bolex after having come across four spools of 16mm film. If I had the spare film, I would have filmed you, Lendria.
