Anthropoid: Shooting on film
"Film is very much alive and a great creative option" - Director Sean Ellis
"I wanted the movie to literally hit-the-ground-running—for the audience to be inside the suspense and action along with the protagonists—right from the start, to where their story ends. I also wanted a soft, desaturated look to the imagery, to act as kind of memory trigger to events taking place in the past. When I see period movies shot on digital, the image just does not look real to me. Ultra real looks ultra crap—it's just not engaging. I was in no doubt that I had to shoot Anthropoid on film. I love the texture and grain of Super16mm and the very beautiful aesthetic when it's combined with the widescreen Anamorphic format. Also, the great thing about shooting on S16mm is that the cameras are lovely and light, and therefore perfect for the handheld, in-the-moment picture style I wanted on screen." (Ellis, Director)
"We took lot of time and effort to recreate the period, shooting as far as possible in the exact same locations as the original events in 1941 and 1942, paying great attention to the costume, make-up and atmosphere," Ellis says. "I wanted the movie to be soaked in that period, and decided to shoot with tobacco filters on the camera, so the film would have an immediate tonal quality on being processed. With digital it's easy to get scared or lazy, and defer your decisions to post. By being well-prepared and clear about what I wanted, I knew we would not have to do too much to get the final image into shape during the DI grade."
“There's an etiquette, a discipline and an artfulness to imagemaking with film that you just don't get with digital. I'd love to see a whole generation of directors prepared to argue with their producers about the merits of shooting on film.”
Directed by Sean Ellis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Anthony Frewin, and who also worked as cinematographer and A-camera operator, Anthr
