Most very high-end television commercials are still on 35mm film.
But yes, more and more of them are being shot on electronic formats. The Arri Alexa in particular is being used a good deal now. And yes, some RED, but possibly not as much as you'd think.
I have a colleague whose son was on a crew recently shooting a national commercial for major big-time U.S. advertiser. They had a gigantic full crew, a well-known national commercial director, and probably a high-six-figure production budget. There wasn't a 35mm camera, an Alexa, a RED, or any flavor of CineAlta in sight. They were shooting the commercial with five Canon 5D cameras (although they
were "Panavised," with Panavision lenses).
I direct commercial shoots every day, and always tried to shoot 35mm whenever I could... not only for big clients, but also regional or even local mom-and-pop clients. I learned how to do that even with tiny budgets... planning shots carefully, not wasting anything, calling "action" even before pulling camera trigger, and buying bargain re-cans (I once bought all the re-cans from the third season of "The Sopranos" for less than
a nickle a foot... 50,000 feet!). But now... well, I haven't even cracked the cases open on my film cameras in more than two years. When you can get electronic images now that look almost exactly like film, it's harder to make an argument for the fun (or expense) of loading magazines in the darkroom. We've even been able to fool the colorist at the film lab we use, and he watches Panavision footage all day.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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