Jay Holben

Michael Mann was one of the first filmmakers working in Hollywood to embrace the digital. After earlier experiments with HD in Collateral (2004) and Ali (2001), Mann resolutely opts for the digital format in his 2006 Miami Vice. In this interview, Miami Vice’s cinematographer Dion Beebe explains that the choice of digital came not from practical concerns but through an experimental search, guided by Mann’s intent of the film. The interview bears witness to this turning point in film history where digital cinema still had to come to terms with itself, still had to start believing in its own possibilities.