Question

John Ford's The Searchers is a classic American Western. Discuss how the cinematographer's choice of film stock affected the film’s overall look and feel. How did this differ from the traditional Western genre film?

Answer 1

The traditional Western genre was popular for providing films in low budget because it yielded a choppier picture of low quality. The Searchers break away from that trend and use a different stock and format. It was unique at its time as introduced its viewers with a new type of film stock known as Vista Vision. The new technology made the film to be much larger and vibrantly colorful. There was sper and more visually film that viewers could enjoy on bigger screens.

The stock of the film was more durable in comparison to traditional Western genre film. The stock allowed for better archiving and exquisite quality of the film as the John Ford’s The Searchers stock does not fade, shrink, or breakdown the way many other 35mm negatives do. Vista Vision film stock also created another new experience as allowed the viewers to see the artists being filmed on the scene. This feature was not existing traditional Western genre as the camera would have to shift from actor to actor or omit them entirely from the scene. Consequently cinematographer's choice of film stock affected the film’s overall look because now there was more preference to color film stock and an expensive 35mm would become a staple in subsequent films. Moreover changed the preference of the viewers also.