Why I'd only shoot on film (or with an iPhone)

Every executive producer would hate me.

Higher costs, higher risks, zero guarantees. And yet today, if I had to choose, I'd only shoot on film.

Not for nostalgia. Not for the look. Not to play the vintage filmmaker.

Film brings imperfection. It brings the unexpected. It forces you to limit your takes, to know what you want before you turn the camera on. It demands a clear, strong vision, because you can't afford to be vague.

At a time when capturing an image is effortless, and generating one with AI even more so, choosing film is an act of radical differentiation.

But there's another path that interests me just as much as film: an iPhone.

When I shot the Fay Archive campaigns in Alaska, Canada and Japan, I used a compact, lightweight camera. Because a lighter approach allowed me to capture the moment, to be authentic, to avoid staging what needs to happen spontaneously.

iPhone quality has reached extraordinary levels today. But what audiences are looking for isn't technical perfection. It's empathy, immersion. The feeling that what they're watching is real.

Film and iPhone. Two extremes from a technical standpoint. But as an approach, they're the exact same thing: zero compromises, bold choices, no middle ground.

The more everything becomes accessible, reproducible, generatable, the more radical choices become the way to say something.

Is the media world moving backward and forward at the same time?

Marco

PS: If you haven't seen it, check out this episode of The Studio, Seth Rogen's comedy series on Apple TV, about an executive dealing with a director who wants to shoot on film. It really made me laugh 🙂