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Crew rig a Panavision film camera on a scaffold platform on a set.

Learn · Essay · Technology through time

What was normal, what replaced it, what was kept alive.

Every generation of crew learns tools the last didn't have. Some tools declared finished are still in daily use. We work at both ends.

Technology and R&D Shot on Film

From celluloid to AI

  1. A crew member holds up a clapperboard in the rain beside market stalls on a location shoot.

    1895

    Film is shown to a paying audience in Paris. For a century, film is the only medium

  2. A crew films on a pavement outside a coffee shop.

    1927

    Synchronised sound arrives in features, and the sound department is born

  3. A crew member carries kit across a car park in front of the Pinewood Studios building.

    1936

    Pinewood Studios opens in Buckinghamshire

  4. A technician inspects a large cine lens by a window.

    1954

    Panavision is founded, and anamorphic widescreen lenses change the frame

  5. An operator in a wearable support rig crouches low with a fully built cinema camera in a corridor.

    1975

    Steadicam frees the camera from the dolly and the tripod

  6. A crew member watches a monitor during a classroom shoot.

    1980s

    Video assist: a monitor beside the camera lets the director see the take

  7. A cinema camera mounted on a stabilisation system on a workshop bench, a technician behind.

    2002

    Major features begin to shoot on high-definition digital video

  8. An ARRI camera on a stabiliser sits on a carpeted bench in the white test room.

    2013

    Digital overtakes film among the top-grossing features, and the DIT joins the camera department

  9. A technician handles a 35mm film camera at a bench lined with film cameras in the test room.

    2012 onward

    Film survives a slump. Labs and stock come through, and directors choose film again

  10. A crew member in hi-vis points towards an LED wall beside a crane-mounted camera.

    2019

    LED volumes move virtual production from experiment to routine

  11. Silhouetted figures sit in director's chairs in front of a curved LED wall showing a beach.

    22 Nov 2023

    The CoSTAR National Lab is announced at Pinewood, with a large-scale virtual production stage

  12. A technician works the wheels of a remote head at a control desk under coloured stage light.

    18 Mar 2025

    Sony announces OCELLUS, a marker-free camera-tracking system

  13. A fully built cinema camera on a tripod in the test room.

    15 Sep 2025

    A Panavision XL2 35mm camera is field-tested on the gimbal and exoskeleton with Kodak, as MR Helix R&D

  14. A tracking vehicle with a crane arm on a stage in front of an LED wall, crew and visitors around it, at the Pinewood Futures Festival.

    Jan 2026

    At Pinewood Futures Festival we build and run the unit where prototype camera-tracking units Sony OCELLUS are tested on the MR Helix gimbal and exoskeleton

  15. Silhouetted crew move a camera rig through green-lit haze on a stage.

    2022

    Generative AI arrives in previs, VFX and post, with the old questions of consent, credit and sign-off

  16. A black, light-tight room with a single door open to a bright corridor.

    Sep 2026

    Shot on Film, our 35mm project, goes ahead with Kodak, Panavision and Digital Orchard

Select a picture with a play button to watch.

And film is still alive

Kodak Released A New Film Stock: Kodak Verita 200DIn Depth Cine · original on YouTube

Labs, stock and cameras came through the switch to digital, and directors and cinematographers still choose film for the look and the discipline.

At Pinewood, film and the LED wall share one lot, and sometimes one unit. Our 35mm project, Shot on Film, keeps it in the hands of new crews.

A visitor examines a film camera body up close on a stand at the BSC Expo.A stabilised cinema camera build with a wooden handle in the kit store.A compact camera package with wireless video and a lens, on a bench in a workshop.
A trainee looks up from the camera on a stage, a colleague behind her.

WHAT WE DO WITH IT

We put new kit through a working day, with crews learning it as it is proved.

Technology and R&D

Sources and notes
  • The rise of shooting on film since 2012: Cinelab on the resurgence of film, and Definition's "Long live celluloid".
  • 2021: the StoryFutures Virtual Production Skills Report documented the skills gap in virtual production.
  • CoSTAR National Lab: announced by Pinewood Group, 22 November 2023.
  • Sony OCELLUS: announced by Sony, 18 March 2025.
  • Our position on AI is on AI in production.

Film or digital, in practice

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Last reviewed 9 November 2026