E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSDirector Paul Bunnell sits down to discuss his latest film, "The Ghastly Love of Johnny X." It's likely to be the last feature ever shot on Eastman Kodak Plus-X 5231, a legendary stock used in iconic films like Schindler's List.
I recently sat down with director Paul Bunnell to discuss his latest film, “The Ghastly Love of Johnny X.” It’s a historic achievement partly because it’s likely to be the last feature ever shot on Eastman Kodak Plus-X 5231—an iconic film stock used in movies like Schindler’s List.
Plus-X is the stuff of legend for filmmakers like Bunnell, and its essence is built into the fabric of Johnny X. Not only was it shot and printed on black-and-white without a digital intermediate, but the production’s fate depended on gathering enough Plus-X from around the world to finish the movie, a feat Bunnell tackled with the help of his Kodak representative. So the journey to finishing Johnny X, spanning the better part of a decade, became interlaced with Bunnell’s struggle to find the last of the Plus-X—a second layer of drama embedded in the making of this film. “I mean we don’t do movies like that anymore,” Bunnell says. “It’s the end of an era.”
He describes Johnny X as a “mad concoction about juvenile delinquents from outer space who are banished to planet earth.” It’s part sci-fi, part juvenile angst, and part melodrama. But most of all Bunnell hopes it will provide some good, old-fashioned fun at the movies. Your next chance to see Johnny X will be June 14 at the Oak Cliff Film Festival in Dallas.
Leave a Comment:
Good Ole Plus X. Developed it at home. Made some great pictures back in the day.
I still believe in the quality of a good negative and the delight of bringing an image into the light after working in a darkroom.
There is a "snap" in the image from a negative that is missing from the digital medium.
With all the inconvenience of mixing chemicals, working the film through the chemicals at the proper temperature and time plus the amount of water needed to rinse the film I think the world is at a more convenient place but not necessarily a better place with the loss of Plus X.
Good for him. Specific film choice is key, and a dying art. for my student zombie flick I got my hands onthe last 5218 that Tony Scott used for the movie Domino and had them cut to 16mm and reverse processed the same way to get that funky green sickly look. Now if I can just get the rest of that film ressurected...