It’s not inaccurate to say the car video space is awfully crowded these days. It seems like everybody with an iPhone, a Reddit account and a pipeline for cars is out to make it big on YouTube. So much so that it’s rare to see anything truly original anymore. Enter Future Classics, a new video series shot on Super 16mm film. I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.
The channel is the brainchild of Swiss-born, Los Angeles-based (it’s where the good cars are) director Elias Ressegatti, and the first three episodes went live today. Here’s one about a Datsun 280ZX, a car that finally feels like it’s becoming cool again:
This one is about a cheap 1998 Mercedes C43 AMG, moody and shot at night with plodding synth music like a sequel to Drive:
And then this is about two guys who opened their own speed shop and specialize in 240Zs, though a nice BMW E24 6 Series makes an appearance:
Though the concept of highlighting great vintage cars on video is nothing new—Petrolicious has been doing that for years now and they excel at it—these have a different feel from being shot in 16mm film, which gives us that grain we so seldom see in our digital era. For the cars here, it feels wildly appropriate.
But unlike Petrolicious, this series is gonna be less about rich old dudes showing off their 911s. Elias says the goal is to “focus on ‘working-class’ classic car owners and their rides... unloved ones, the mistreated ones, the base models being modded to twice its original horsepower.” He says he grew up with an enthusiast father who “lacked the money to indulge in his car dreams,” and now he wants to shoot people who are chasing the dream too.
I can get behind that mission, and I’m eager to see what they come up with.