Results of the “Is It Film or Digital” Contest

Now is the time you’ve all been waiting for. The results from the contest I posted last week. As a quick review, last week I posted this video:

Your mission was to determine what percentage of the video was shot digitally (then graded to look like film) and what percentage was actually shot on 16mm film (if any of it). Here were your choices:

• 1/3 of the shots were digital, the rest was film
• The indoor shots were digital, the outdoor shots film
• All but FOUR of the shots were digital
• All the shots were digital
• All the shots were film

Here was the breakdown of the results:

As you can see, no one voted “All film” (which is why there are only four parts of the pie instead of five). The correct answer was indeed D- All the shots were digital. Not one frame of that video was shot on film. The cameras used were a FlipHD and a Canon T2i. Congratulations to our winners (randomly selected from the correct entries): Tim Sarquis, Andrew Rodger and Eric Scrivner. They each will win a copy of Crumple Pop’s Retrograde plugin by Red Giant. Many thanks to the Digital Convergence Podcast for co-sponsoring the contest with me, and of course to Crumple Pop for offering the prizes.

I thought I’d share with you some selected comments from those who voted. Be sure to listen to this week’s episode of the Digital Convergence Podcast to get more insight into the contest and results. Here are some selected comments:

• Dude! Loved the Paris film. What 16mm camera did you use? (this was actually the excerpt from a text message I got from a colleague who I know shoots some projects in 16mm film).
• Personally I thought about 57% of the ‘movie’ was 16mm film. the rest was digital. but i must say, it was very difficult to tell – they mix together so well. great job!
• I saw too much of what looked like rolling shutter/jello/jitteryness for me to believe any of it was film. Well graded though.
• The [four] 16mm shots are: 0:24 (overlooking city), 1:56 (zoom of interior space), 2:15 (through fence), 2:18 (pan of courtyard).
• I would have guessed it’s all acquired digitally, but there are a few of the shots looked a little like they may have been shot using a (I’m guessing) handheld spring wound Bolex or eymo style 16mm, due to the shutter angle and lens characteristics, so I’m going to guess “C” All but FOUR of the shots are digital.
• I think it was all shot digital and then given the look in post. Well done though, if I am right.
• All shots are digital. That’s how good Crumple Pop is.

Thanks to everyone who played along.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, I used the Retrograde plugin for the 16mm look. I also used quite a bit of their OverLight plugin as well.