The curious case of creating an old movie look with digitally shot films

Now this is my complete opinion here but I thought the "old movie" style scenes in the beginning of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button were completely awful. I'm talking about those scenes with Elias Koteas and the clock. The fake film scratches, shakes and light surges seemed to be on a constant 5 second loop. They whole bit is sloppy and fakey. I know the movie was mostly shot on Viper, (with some un-named pieces shot on the Sony F23 and other shots on 35mm). Whether they shot those scenes on Viper or 35mm, the FX took me out of it. (although the make up and FX on the Pitt and Blanchet were top notch).

On the other hand, the 4.5 hour CHE, has been publicized by the indie-filmmaking scene for being shot all RED. However, the printed 'playbill' you get if you go see the long version clearly credits AATON as the supplier of 16mm cameras right under RED's logo and credit. The B&W scenes in 'Part 1' at the UN, were most likely shot 16mm. The grain is legit and noticeable and there may be even some slight old-film style effects and heavy contrast added in post, but it looks completely real, like it was ENG footage from the 60's.

Milk is another recent movie that does a good job at mixing actual 16mm stock footage with shot 16mm and 35mm using subtle visual transitions between the formats.

Of Course, you could argue against the C.C.O.B.B look by bringing up Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror , which was shot with a Panavision Genensis and then effected up the wazoo in post with scratches, burns, fades, tears and anything else they could think of. Somehow, they completely pulled this off and although you probably wont ever see a movie that really is damaged that bad, it looks completely legit, like it could have happened to that print.

I guess my point in all of this is that both film and digital footage can be used to create an old film or damaged film look. Sometimes it'll just look great if you shoot it nativly on film (Che, Milk), sometimes it'll work if you shoot digital and effect it later (Planet Terror), and sometimes it will look like ass if you shoot digital and let your intern with Windows Movie Maker do your old movie effects (Benjamin Button).