Quentin Tarantino Roadshow on 70mm Film

The famed director has produced a film, The Hateful Eight, entirely on actual silver gelatin film. Filmed on 65mm celluloid and to be shown in 70mm, the movie uses the 2.76:1 format of a long disused Ultra-Panavision lens retrofitted to modern cameras. The width is twice as wide as the usual movie and the widest format for motion pictures. The colours and grain on this ultra-wide format are uniquely those of film. The roadshow will be featured in only a few hundred movie houses in the States starting Christmas Day. Another long lost tradition, the roadshow itself is a swank event with extra footage, an intermission and well dressed movie goers - a real social event around film.

Check out the Fandango Featurette (YouTube) on this Tarantino Western:
 

Log Books for the Film Photographer

A Kickstarter campaign for the Galaxy Handbook, a log book for film photographers, is underway. This log book is inspired by a find of the 1910 expedition to Antartica, the Terra Nova, a British expedition named after its supply ship, led by Robert Falcon Scott. In 2013, a photographer's log book from the expedition was found and restored by the Antarctic Heritage Trust in New Zealand. Every Galaxy Handbook purchased through Kickstarter will include a $5 donation to the group. The book will feature photos from the doomed expedition. It has many features for a wide variety of film photographers, including spaces for view camera photographers, darkroom work, and professionals and amateurs alike. Check it out.

If your film camera is new enough, there is an automatic means to log exposure information. Some late model film cameras from Nikon, Canon and Minolta record EXIF data. The Meta 35 project provides a way to program and download EXIF data and more from these cameras. It is possible to tag scanned images with the data or use the data later to log exposures.

Impossible 8x10 Colour Instant Film

The Impossible Project has done it again. Now, a colour version of its 8x10 instant film is available for purchase. On sale for only $18 a frame in multi-pack purchase. If you are one to hold off from large format photography due to the difficulty obtaining colour prints, now is the chance to dive in. Compared to Kodak Portra 8x10 sheets at almost $16 a sheet or Fujichrome Provia 100F at nearly $25 a sheet, it is fairly competitive (comparisons at B&H Photo as of November 12, 2015).

Impossible claims: "Tones are accurate, contrast is rich and vivid, and the finish is clear and sharp." The film uses a second generation chemistry and comes with a glossy surface. The film is rated at ISO 640. An 8x10 Polaroid processor will be required in addition to an 8x10 back. Impossible redirects to CatLabs darkroom resources for these parts, it may be possible to find them on eBay or other sites.

Addendum

According to an interview with one of the Impossible Project founders, the reason that the project is producing 8x10 format instant film instead of, say, 4x5 film, is that Polaroid dismantled and stored the equipment for 8x10 project, then apparently forgot about it. This meant that the 8x10 equipment was saved, while equipment for other large formats was lost. More coming on this topic.