Coen Bros may switch to digital after Inside Llewyn Davis

Bad news for bros who like celluloid out of the New York Film Festival this week. According to ThePlaylist, the Coens have intimated that they’ll be making the move from shooting on film to digital for their next film. And because they’re almost never apart and are often quoted collectively, I like to imagine the Coen Brothers giving all of their statements with Ethan standing on Joel’s shoulders inside a giant trench coat.

It looks like Joel and Ethan Coen are moving away from film and into digital. And if you ask the filmmakers, who saw their “Inside Llewyn Davis” screen for press at the New York Film Festival [last week], it’s something they’re half-heartedly embracing. “I have to say I’m not wildly enthusiastic about the idea,” Joel told press. “This movie was shot on film for a couple of reasons. We were working with a DP whom we had done one small thing with in the past. [DP] Bruno [Delbonnel] had also not shot anything with a digital camera before, and we discussed that would be one more complicated factor in our relationship with a DP. It’s all a hybrid thing now because it all goes into a box, it goes into a computer, and gets heavily manipulated. But it’s probable that the next one we shot will be done digitally.”

Hmm, I don’t know about drawing the conclusion that Inside Llewyn Davis will be their last movie on film based on the quote that it’s probable that their next one will be digital, like ThePlaylist has, but I wasn’t there, so maybe there’s something else they said that isn’t quoted.

In either case, I’m not a filmmaker, but based on my own experience with digital, my advice to the Coens would be that if you’re shooting digital, the main thing you have to remember is to never show the pictures to your girlfriend. Because then she’s gonna be all like, “Wah, I don’t look good in this one, take another,” and the next thing you know you’re taking ten pictures like you’re Annie goddamn Leibovitz when all you wanted was a quick snapshot before hitting the open bar in the first place, TINA. Chicks, man.

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