Enamored of the super-compressed output from a Sony DSC-T1 digital still camera, director Jason Reitman blew it up to 35mm for Thank You For Smoking. We asked (via email) why he did it, and how his editors handled the task.

While the majority of the film was shot anamorphic on Kodak 35mm, we experimented with a variety of alternate mediums – mostly during the television segments, often using the cameras that were located on the stages we visited (e.g. The Dennis Miller Show). We also used an older video camera when we shot the hotel safety video and the airline safety video (cut from the film; check out the DVD).

That said, the most unusual format choice we made was the use of MPEG during the montage trip to Los Angeles. The concept came out of a video I shot of my wife Michele in NY using my Sony [DSC-T1] digital still camera. The outcome was quite lovely. I found the dancing pixels reminiscent of the grain of Super 8. My DP, James Whitaker, and I did a test, blowing it up to 35mm. We found the MPEG held up on the big screen and appeared quite charming. We kept the camera handy and shot footage on multiple days both in LA and DC.

The tricky thing was converting it to the 24-frame project and finishing it, but Robert Malina made it happen magically. I must plead ignorance to how it all happened logistically. Editor Dana Glauberman and I had a fun time cutting it all together. I fell in love with a three minute version of the montage that eventually got cut down to sixty seconds. Again, check out the DVD.

In general, Whitaker and I wanted to create a warm joyful look for the film that gave the audience permission to laugh from the beginning. We never wanted the audience to feel like they were watching some message film that would hit them over the head. As far as capturing realistic looks within the different mediums, it came down to using various video formats, then following it up with work at Digital Filmworks, who converted the clips, and Efilm, who colored them. I will say that I‘ll probably not watch as much C-Span as I did during the post process of TYFS ever again.

The MPEG footage was shot on a Sony DSC- T1. It is a little point-and-shoot camera that has a video function. So when the director hands you this palm-size still camera and tells you that he shot a scene on it, you kind of scratch your head. The manual says that the video is 30fps but in reality it is 25fps – but even a PAL project in the Avid would not recognize the frame rate. So VFX supervisor Paul Bolger and I came up with a plan to transfer the files to DigiBeta, keeping a digital path so we could keep them looking the same as the director shot them. These MPEGs had a special kind of "flicker" that I think Jason liked. This became our new online master. I used this to put into the Avid, and at the end we used the DigiBeta to make files for the DI house. This was a similar process for the other forms of video used in the film.

Most of the film was shot on 35mm film, but we also shot on a few other formats to create the different looks that Jason wanted. The multiple formats did not really affect my work process as an editor – I just had to get used to looking at a jittery image rather than a smooth image, simply because most of the other formats were a video image (30fps) being put into a film project (24fps).

The only advice that I really have is to have fun with the different formats, and don't be scared of them. At first, I was nervous about using several formats, but there really was no reason to be. Once I started working with the material, I essentially forgot about it and just cut away. It all worked out great and we have a great film to prove it.