Hello Super 16mm, its been years. And I mean years. I’m a proud graduate of Temple University (in Philadelphia). Without giving my age away, all I’ll say is when I was at Temple U most of us still shot our senior thesis films on Film. Temple was (and maybe still is?) an Aaton Super16mm school. I learned how to load mags on aaton a-minima, LTRs and XTRs. We were a state school, so no fancy ARRI 416s for us, just the good old Aatons work horses!
I’ve been waiting for the right project to come around to shoot on film. A lot of projects have been using mixed media, including 8mm, 16mm and Super 16mm, but I knew I wanted to find a project to solely shoot on film. Long last came the opportunity to Direct/DP sweetgreen’s fall video campaign, staring world renown Chef Dan Barber (of Blue Hill and Chef’s Table fame).
Early on in preproduction we decided we didn’t want the videos to look like Chef’s table, which Dan is so well known for, so I proposed shooting some Super 16mm to change things up! Everyone agreed that sounded rad. However, we had 7 videos to shoot, and I knew (timing / budget) we couldn’t shoot them all on film. So instead we used an ARRI AMIRA with Standard Speeds for most of the production, and then reserved the Super16mm (In this case an Aaton XTR with the Canon 8-64mm T2.4 Super-16 Lens for the must have shots). In total we shot 7 rolls of film, mostly Kodak 50D and some 250D.
By the end of editorial, Super16 had made its way into each edit, really helping to create some wonderful contrast with the ARRI AMIRA footage. I also got my wish of making a purely film FILM by shooting enough material with Dan Barber to create a 100% Super16mm film profiling his philosophies.
Picture Farm Production handled both production and post on this project. The Dan Barber Anthem pieced was colored by Kath Raisch @ Company 3.
One last note on film. Kodak recently opened a new lab in NYC and its less then 2 miles from my home (and also in Queens!) We were able to drop film off, have it processed, scanned and ready in 24 to 48 hours. With the new Kodak lab as a resource in NYC, I’ll be pushing to shoot more and more film!
And thanks to my wonderful AC Gabriel Pimenta for his knowledge of the Aaton XTR. It was a pleasure.
SWEETGREEN x DAN BARBER
Chef and co-owner of Blue Hill, James Beard award winner, author of The Third Plate, and farm-to-table frontrunner Dan Barber on how millennial appetites for authenticity are shaping a new food culture.
Shot on Kodak Super16mm 50D / 250D Aaton
XTR, Canon 8-64mm T2.4
Director/DP: Andrew David Watson
Production Company: Picture Farm Productions
Client: Sweetgreen
Editor: Isabel Freeman
1st AC & Additional Opt: Gabriel Pimenta
Colorist: Kath Raisch @ Company3
And here are a few of my favorite screen garbs:
