Apple Thoughts: The Curious Case of a Movie Shot Digitally

"Among the unusual circumstances surrounding the making of the film is that film figured so little in it," Cellini reports. "Although nearly every major Hollywood movie of this size and budget is still made on film, "Button," except for some high-speed and underwater sequences, was shot digitally on high-definition Thomson Viper cameras directly to hard drive, without ever touching tape, then captured into Apple's Final Cut Pro for editing."

While movies shot entirely digitally may be a bit far off, it's pretty amazing to think that the industry has progressed so much that most of their footage can be shot directly to a hard drive instead of much more expensive film. Even if you look at it from just a cost perspective, this is going to enable producers and directors to shoot more footage, get better angles, and do easier edits. All of this is good news for film buffs and production studios alike.