Issue 130 – DV Devotee

admin | September 1, 2009

Jon Jost

Veteran filmmaker Jon Jost on his love for digital video and why he’ll never go back to film.

As a considerably experienced filmmaker, I have been frequently asked just why I shifted to digital video, and have had dangled before me the hypothetical query, ‘If someone gave you 50 million dollars would you shoot in film?’ to which my answer has always been that while nobody is ever going to do that, if they did, I would say ‘no’ unless I could shoot in HD. Here’s why.

In 1996, having shot some 15 features on celluloid – 16 mm, Super 16 and then 35 mm (Panavision, their best systems and lenses) – an invitation to make something for the Dokumenta arts exhibition in Germany found Sony’s first DV camera in my hands. Quite literally, I played with it for about a minute and told myself I’d never shoot in film again. And I haven’t.

Digital video is now about to do what I knew it would do back 13 years ago – wipe out film. Back then it was certainly not equal to film in some respects – though from the outset I felt it was better in most respects, just not in resolution and latitude. But otherwise it was far better creatively and in terms of finances, there simply wasn’t any comparison. Being honest though, I never would have made the shift if I hadn’t felt that aesthetically it was a superior medium – in appearance (unless you wanted it to literally look like film), in its visual elasticity, in the capacity to experiment and change without cost – in virtually every respect artistically and financially. For me those were the bottom lines.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 130.