Ed: Can you feel me on the hook ? 'cos I know you're there....
In this instance, we would try to persuade them (see below) that there is a better method. If that failed, we would refer them to someone who we know could handle Super 16.
I really don't give a stuff if the director has a coronary - although I might drop him a note to suggest a better diet and lifestyle.
Most high-end digital video can be easily graded in post-production these days to make it look like some other medium. In fact, we did a shoot on digiBeta last year which was matched into Super 16.
The tumbling of the costs for "post" in recent years mean that directors are quite happy to spend some time grading their shots. (More time on bum in edit suite - could be a cause of the coronaries ?)
I find it fascinating that Hollywood is now shooting a lot of its movies on HD video, post-producing on computer and then transferring the final product to 70mm celluloid for distribution.
Talking with John Coyle at Cineflex, he says most of the movie helicopter shots are being done on HD now. We just need another 12 months of "trickle down" effect, another drop in price and size, and HD gyros will become affordable. (Currently $400,000 - I think there's one in the UK at the moment and Arena are due to take delivery of their's later this year).
My point is - if video is good enough for Hollywood, why not for all other moving image output ?
Can I bow out of your baiting now ?