35mm Film facts

While investigating facts about 35mm Film, I found out little known, but curios details like:

The Hitchcock film Rope consists of only 11 long shots and it would have been fewer shots if cameras could have held more 35mm film in 1948

Werner Herzog learned all he needed about filmmaking from an encyclopedia entry. He then stole a 35mm camera from Munich Film School "out of necessity", and proceeded to make his first seven films with that very camera.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 19 of the best facts about 35mm Film I managed to collect.

1. Tommy Wiseau used a 35mm film camera and an HD video camera side-by-side when shooting The Room because he didn't know which format was best and couldn't choose one.

2. The term, video "footage", originated from early 35mm silent film which was measured in literal feet and frames.

3. Quentin Tarantino owns an vintage cinema house in LA where he only shows his favourite films in 35mm film exclusively.

4. You would need 87 megapixels to have the image resolution of 35mm film

5. 35mm film is equivalent to 156 megapixels

6. Thomas Edisons Frankenstein (1910) is the earliest known film version of Mary Shelley’s novel. For many years, Frankenstein was considered a lost film until it was learned that one solitary 35mm print had survived in a private collection.

7. 4k TV's still lag behind the resolution of 35mm films at 6k and IMAX films at 18k

8. HBO's series 'Westworld' was shot entirely on 35mm film

9. After 74 years of production, Kodak stopped selling 35mm colour film in 2009.

10. Tommy Wiseau used a 35mm film camera and an HD video camera side-by-side when shooting his cult hit "The Room" because he didn't know which format was best and couldn't choose one.

What is true about 35mm film?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

Werner Herzog, the famous director, stole a camera from a film school to start making films. Later he said: "It was a very simple 35mm camera, one I used on many other films, so I do not consider it a theft. For me, it was truly a necessity. I wanted to make films and needed a camera."

The very first GoPro camera used 35mm film. - source

Quentin Tarantino Owns A movie Theater That Only Shows Double Features In 35mm or 16mm Film - source

Several of Werner Herzog's early films were shot on a 35mm camera that he stole from the Munich Film School, a school which he never attended. He readily admits to the theft, but also justifies it with the significance of the films he's made with the camera and his right to artistic expression.

Adult film pioneer Howard Ziehm, the director of the first adult 35mm movie - “Mona, The Virgin Nymph” - to achieve national distribution in the United States, attended MIT. - source

Due to the pan-and-scan print of the film House of Bamboo, viewers believed DeForest Kelley had a small role in the film, but after the film received a new 35mm CinemaScope print, it turned out he had been in the whole film, but was just off to one side and was panned out of frame.

A standard 35mm cinema camera goes through film at over $78 a minute.