Tom Cruise and I geeking out over the actual Beaumont VistaVision camera Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki used to film Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s DIGGER. This ended up being a 10-minute conversation with Tom Cruise and I geeking out about shooting on film and the history of the VistaVision camera. Will share more soon. The VistaVision camera is really special. Designed around 1953/1954, the film mag sits flat, as the Kodak film stock runs through the camera exposing 8 perforations of film real estate. In a normal 35mm camera, the mag sits up, as the film runs through vertically, exposing up to 4 perforations of film real estate. That’s why when you watch classics like John Ford’s The Searchers or Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, North by Northwest or To Catch a Thief, you can feel the large format and depth of those images. Because you’re getting double the film real estate, you have higher clarity and less grain. It’s why you can see shots of wide landscapes in perfect clarity. It’s such a special format. For comparison, a 65mm IMAX camera also has a horizontal mag as the film runs, also horizontally, through the camera exposing 15 perforations of film real estate. Therefore, when you think of a regular 35mm 4-perf camera, then jumping to a 65mm 5-perf camera, then jumping to the VistaVision 8-perf camera and then to a 65mm IMAX 15-perf camera, you can see how the image/grain quality changes in each step. It’s why formats are so special. You can experience films differently, physically & emotionally, in the multiple formats. What’s unique to VistaVision, is getting this gorgeous 1.50 aspect ratio with the 8-perf negative. It’s an astounding, tall and beautiful image. It’s the same format Paul Thomas Anderson used on One Battle After Another. When shooting in this format, you have so many options to release in IMAX 70mm, 70mm and of course, VistaVision. Film formats aren’t for show or a gimmick. They are an integral part of narrative storytelling. Filmmakers use it as a tool to tell the story in the best way possible. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m an analog guy. It just feels alive in a way that I can’t explain. @Tom Cruise #tomcruise #digger #filmmaking #cinematography #vistavision - @kevinmccarthytv