16 Mm Film - Modern Usage

Modern Usage

The two major suppliers of 16 mm film today are Kodak and Fujifilm. 16 mm film is used in television, such as for the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology (it has since been produced in 16:9 high definition) and Friday Night Lights and The O.C. as well as the The Walking Dead in the US. In the UK, the format is exceedingly popular for dramas and commercials. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) played a large part in the development of the format. They worked extensively with Kodak during the 1950s and 1960s to bring 16 mm to a professional level, since the BBC needed cheaper, more portable production solutions while maintaining a higher quality than was offered at the time, when the format was mostly for home display of theatrical shorts, newsreels, and cartoons, documentary capture and display for various purposes (including education), and limited "high end" amateur use. Today the format also is frequently used for student films, while usage in documentary has almost disappeared. With the advent of HDTV, Super 16 film is still used for some productions destined for HD. Some low-budget theatrical features are shot on 16 mm and super 16 mm such as Kevin Smith's 16 mm 1994 independent hit Clerks Ironically, thanks to advances in film stock and digital technology – specifically digital intermediate (DI) – the format has experienced a dramatic improvement in picture quality since the 1970s and is now seen as a revitalized option. Vera Drake, for example, was shot on Super 16 mm film, digitally scanned at a high resolution, edited and color graded, and then printed out onto 35 mm film via a laser film recorder. Because of the digital process, the quality of the final 35 mm print is high enough to often fool professionals into thinking the footage was shot on 35 mm.

In Britain most exterior television footage was shot on 16 mm from the 1960s until the 1980s and some even until the early 90's, when the development of more portable television cameras and videotape machines led to video replacing 16 mm in many instances. Some drama shows and documentaries were made entirely on 16 mm, notably Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, The Ascent of Man and Life on Earth. More recently, the advent of widescreen television has led to the use of Super 16. For example, the 2008/09 BBC fantasy drama series Merlin was shot in Super 16.

BBC considers Super16 to be a standard definition format, but other broadcasting and production companies may have different outlook. In particular, Scrubs has been shot on Super16 from the start and is aired either as 4:3 SD (first 7 seasons) or as 16:9 HD (seasons 8 and 9). John Inwood, the cinematographer of the series, believed that footage from his Aaton XTR Prod camera was not only sufficient to air in high definition, it "looked terrific."

The Academy Award winning Leaving Las Vegas (1995) was shot on 16 mm. For more movies filmed in Super 16 mm, see Films shot in Super 16.

The first 2 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were shot on 16 mm and was switched to 35 mm for its later seasons.

The first season of the popular series Sex and the City was shot on 16 mm. Later seasons were shot on 35 mm.

All three seasons of Veronica Mars were shot on 16mm and aired in HD.

The first 3 seasons of Stargate SG-1 (bar the season 3 finale and the effects shots) were shot in 16 mm, before switching to 35 mm for later seasons.

The 2009 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker, was shot using Aaton Super 16 mm cameras and Fujifilm 16 mm film stocks. The cost savings over 35 mm allowed the production to utilize multiple cameras for many shots, exposing over 1,000,000 feet of film.

British Napoleonic era drama Sharpe (TV series) was shot on Super 16 mm right through to the film Sharpe's Challenge (2006). For the last film in the series, Sharpe's Peril (2008), the producers switched to 35 mm.