That's not an American thing that's a movie/TV making 101 thing, it's for lighting reasons at night, I guess it's this person's first day watching movies.
Those aren't film, they're tape. Film is what's in the camera or shown through a projector and are visible to the naked eye. VHS, Betamax, and video2000 are magnetic tape formats that aren't viewable with the naked eye. Regardless, "on film" is still a universally acceptable term for "on the recorded video" no matter the format because terms stick around in industries
Bonus trivia: not all older videos were shot in “film”. That is why some 80’s music videos on YouTube look great, while others not so much (other things being equal). The “film” ones can be re-scanned at a higher resolution and retain a lot of the original detail if the originals are around.