EACH SHOT COUNTS

Why George shoots film:

I spent ages trying to recreate the look of film using digital cameras, 
with technology like vsco on a huge rise everyone wants their photos to
look like film, so why not just shoot the real thing and spend way less
time editing. In an age where everyone is constantly glued to their
screen - we don’t take the time to look up.

Everything feels rushed.

Film photography slows down time and stops you from rushing and helps
you to focus on the basic elements of photography. Each shot counts. You
have to wait for the right moment in time - allowing you to breathe and
absorb the atmosphere. The restriction of the number of images you can
take limits you, you only take the photos you really want because the
limitations make you think and care more about the subject you are
shooting.

I spend way less time editing due to the fact i’ll only shoot 36
photos if it’s 35mm, 10 if it’s 120mm or even just 1 if it’s a 5x4
sheet, as opposed to going out with digital and taking 300 photos and
picking 2 that I like. Not having a screen between myself and the
subject stops people from asking to see the photos, therefore I can just
relax and have fun, creating more of an intimate relationship.

The film:

We were shooting on a bunch of different cameras, The Impossible Project
gave us some of their new black and orange duochrome film to try out on
a polaroid 600. At first I wasn’t sure of the drastic effects of using
such an unusual film, but it gave a really dreamy look and everyone
loved the photos. Using instant film gives a great dynamic to a shoot, 
allowing people to see live results and even take away a memory from the
shoot with them.

The rest of the film we used was a variety of 3 different film sizes, 
35mm - the usual common type of film used, 120 - medium format film, a
much bigger negative so higher resolution, and one sheet of 5x4 - the
old fashioned massive camera which costs a lot but gives you unsurpassed
quality, even much more so than digital.

We used colour film for these, 
and I chose my fujis pro plus 200 for the 35mm which is a rare film only
produced in america, i chose this because I knew it had really amazing
green tones which would work well with the space. The rest of the film I
used was portra 400, the most common film in professional work due to
its great balance of tones and amazing ability to perform in any
situation.