March 2026

The State of Shooting on Film — Part II

The first part of this story asked an intentionally provocative question: “Is shooting on film an art about to die?” Certainly, more motion-picture film is being shot now than 10 or 15 years ago, but the shape of the industry has changed. If there are two takeaways from this investigation, the first is something that Vincent Terlizzi, executive director of Colorlab, said in Part I: “The future of film is whatever people make of it.” Speaking as a filmmaker who learned to shoot on film, and still loves to shoot film, I’ve watched a lot of corporate support shift away from independent filmmakers and film artists toward major studios, making way for a robust boutique industry that puts the craft lightyears ahead of its lowest point in the...more