Is the quest to digitally preserve film doomed?
DIT (Digital Image Transfer) Explained
Slidebean explains how digital technology, introduced as a proxy for preserving film during the editing process, instead came to replace celluloid altogether:
35mm Prints in the 2020s
As a case study, writer/director/editor Sean Baker takes Letterboxd to get a 35mm print made of his Oscar-winning film Anora (2023):
Adventures in 35mm Scanning
WatchingtheAerial attempts a 35mm scanning process – and discovers first-hand why the results, from official ‘remasters’ to fan-made ‘restoriations’, from unstable photochemicals to subjective memories, can vary wildly in quality, consistency, and ‘authenticity’:
AI To The Rescue?
Nerrel looks at the 4K ‘remasters’ of Aliens and True Lies, both originally shot on 35mm film, as case studies of how AI can ruin movies now, too:
Try It Yourself
For those of us who can’t afford to shoot on film, here are some techniques in post and in camera to at least achieve a less digital look:
Further Viewing
Steve Yedlin, director of photography on films including Knives Out (2019), Glass Onion (2022), Wake Up Dead Man (2025), and The Last Jedi (2017), is renowned for his ability to make his footage, captured digitally, look like film: