Whatever your personal opinion on Quentin Tarantino, it’s pretty obvious the man is a true believer in the power of cinema and its ability to craft a story. That faith came across wholeheartedly with his appearance at San Diego Comic Con and his sincere defense of the decision to shoot in analog, and specifically 70mm, for his new film, The Hateful Eight.
"I'm looking forward to my movie breaking that notion that 70mm is for travelogues. 'It's to shoot Lawrence of Arabia, desertscapes and mountainscapes.' No. When you shoot 70mm indoors it's more intimate. More vivid and vital. It's not just for shooting scenery. It's for shooting great drama,” the director explains. There’s a clear embrace of nostalgia with what he’s trying to accomplish. Not only did Tarantino make the decision to film in high-resolution film, The Hateful Eight was also shot using Ultra Panavision, another super-wide format that has remained an artifact of old cinema. "It's not that they used these same type of lenses on Ben Hur. They used these lenses on Ben Hur. They only made one set of them."
This reverence for the craft prompted questions about his rumored retirement from film, explaining that if things progressed to a point where he could no longer shoot in analog, he would rather not shoot at all, "The thing I don't like about digital projection is it's just HBO in public," Tarantino says, "If that happens everywhere, then I can just move to television."
