012 A Retro Grade New Year’s Special (part 1)

On this special New Year’s Day episode of Retro Grade, we discuss the 2012 documentary Side by Side. This is the first part of a two-part episode about the film. Featuring Keanu Reeves, the documentary is about the rise of digital filmmaking technology in the film industry, more specifically about film cameras and the creation and use of digital sensors to capture images.

The reason we wanted to watch this film for the New Year is because 2020 was a historic year for the film industry. With Warner Brothers announcing that their entire 2021 film slate will be releasing in both theaters and their streaming service, HBO Max, at the same time, this decision is one that will be felt in the industry for years to come. In order to try and see where this decision might lead to, we decided to visit another shift that the industry had to go through not too long ago, the switch to digital technology in both production and distribution. Watching the film, we couldn’t help but see certain sentiments that are being echoed today by some of the most famous filmmakers, and we wanted to see if could see the predictions they made back in 2012 about digital technology and see if we can use those predictions to see where the industry might go from here.

With special guest filmmaker Christopher Mims, we dive into Side and Side, and see if we can get a clearer image of what the future holds for this industry.

Available on:

Spotify: HERE

Apple Podcast: HERE

Stitcher: HERE

Google Podcast: HERE