Why does 35mm film look so great at large sizes?

Question

I’ve been thinking about this recently. I’ve noticed many old music videos and television shows. Specifically old Beatles music videos and old Twilight Zone episodes have been remastered for Blu-ray with almost no imperfections whatsoever. My question is, how is it that something shot on 35mm film can looks so clear when transcribed to digital? How is it that it can project so large on a screen when the film itself is so tiny?

Thank you

In: 7

Answer 1

film has tiny grains of silver or other chemical that change color when exposed to light and treated with other chemicals.

silver can form really small grains, smaller than hair, so you can easily get 4K of them in the 35mm width.

then you just need a very good scanner to turn those grains into pixels.

Answer 2

film has tiny grains of silver or other chemical that change color when exposed to light and treated with other chemicals.

silver can form really small grains, smaller than hair, so you can easily get 4K of them in the 35mm width.

then you just need a very good scanner to turn those grains into pixels.