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Most independent directors can't afford to shoot on film, though they would rather do so. But many don't even know the actual difference between them. If you knew the differences, you could compensate to make a video production look more like film. Or you might be glad of the differences and that you're shooting a no-budget film on video.

The differences break down to the look of the finished movie and operation of the cameras. Each individual visual difference isn't as important as the sum of them.

Depth Of Field

In easy terms, depth of field is the range of distance that is in focus at any one time. Keeping many things at different distances in focus is not where the difference between film and video lies. Depth of field isn't a problem if you want everything to be in focus, the difficult part is to keep an object at a very specific distance be the only thing in focus. This can be mitigated with extra equipment but there are consequences of its use.

Grain Patterns

Film is made up of celluloid coated with tiny bits of light-sensitive material. They aren't spread evenly and from frame to frame the pattern differs slightly. A video camera captures images using a light-sensitive chip which is an electronic equivalent of a single frame with an even layout of light-sensitive bits. With film, shooting a static object will result in a series of frames that seems identical but on a minuscule yet perceptible level will all be completely different. Video, on the other hand, will have recorded frames that are much more near identical. This gives video a less lively quality which isn't obvious to most on a conscious level but can contribute to the overall "cheapness" of the look of a movie shot on video.

Saturation

Film records many more elements than video and can be made apparent by developing them in a different manner. A film can be significantly brightened without losing image quality, amongst other attributes. Video on the other hand only records precisely the color it sees and can only approximate brightness increases with software and even this can significantly affect image quality. Beneath the existing color you see on a frame of film hides the potential for brighter or deeper color without the use of software, just normal developing techniques with a little tweaking.

Resolution

This is the single most cited reason why people would rather shoot on film. Film is generally able to more accurately reproduce an image than a video camcorder. Video has a finite number of pixels on its chip to perceive light and recreate an image whereas 35mm film has way more and varies from frame to frame (many of which remain unused). Still the image of film at it's best cannot yet be met by any video camera, though the gap as of late is fast closing. 35mm films has something in the area of 12 million pixels where a full HD camcorder has just above 2 million.

Although the most obvious differences from a beginner's perspective, they aren't the only factors to weigh when deciding what to shoot a feature on. See part two for the breakdown of the operational differences of shooting movies on video versus film.