Quentin Tarantino And Judd Apatow Agree: Kodak Film Can’t Disappear—They Need It

Like you and everyone you know, most movie and TV directors have given up film cameras and switched to digital. Almost all movies and television shows are recorded digitally nowadays, and as a result, Eastman Kodak has become the only company still producing traditional motion picture film, the Wall Street Journal reports. But Kodak, too, could go the way of recent competitor Fujifilm—it could cease to produce movie reel film altogether.

Some Hollywood directors are trying to stop this, however. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Judd Apatow and J.J. Abrams are pressuring movie studios to try to help Kodak out. This will probably take the form of long-term commitments to purchase Kodak film, although details of the agreement are still being worked out. 

Whether or not directors will actually use that film, however, is another question. Film schools have almost entirely switched over to shooting digitally, most movie theaters only have digital projectors, and digital footage costs about the same as traditional film to produce (but requires much less effort to edit), the Journal points out. So while Hollywood types like the idea of having old-school film around, it's possible that in a few decades, no one will be willing to deal with the inconvenience of using that nostalgic medium—or will even know how to.

Rachel Nuwer | | READ MORE

Rachel Nuwer is a freelance science writer based in Brooklyn.