2004 was a fascinating time for cinema. You could no longer count on the movie you were watching to be shot on film as Hollywood began transitioning slowly into the digital era. One of the first major blockbusters to utilize digital cinematography was Michael Mann's Collateral. But instead of using the medium to shoot with greater ease, and then disguise the digital quality of the footage, Michael Mann chose to fully embrace the "weakness" of digital in order to create the look he was going for on Collateral. The result is a movie simultaneously ugly and beautiful.