Experimental Super 8 Short from Greece: Athens & Hydra on 200T

[Aris Gavriilidis]

Initially intending to simply test out some Kodak 200T in my Beaulieu 4008 ZM, inspired by a longtime film collaborator of mine flying over to Greece for a visit, I eventually turned the spontaneously captured footage into a narrative - albeit experimental - short. From a cinematography standpoint, having only shot 50D in this format before, I aimed to explore whether or not the stronger 200T grain would be excessive and therefore distracting instead of flattering within the overall image aesthetic I was aiming for: otherworldly but inviting, a visualisation of an urban setting with Mediterranean elements that felt charming - but just out of reach, like the coveted vacation we hear about in the voice-over. I set out to also infuse the piece with certain fashion-film elements too, since I could see myself wanting to shoot this kind of work down the line, hence the Narrator’s vibrant, silky outfits on which I leaned on, in conjunction with the locations and light, to add a sense of glamour & elegance.

 

The material was processed and scanned by Mutascan (now Helscan) and delivered as flat 4K ProRes 4444 files, which I then white balanced manually (because I shot without an 85B filter) and graded in Davinci Resolve within an ACES timeline. I discovered that 200T has far more highlight latitude than I expected. When working on a shot of palm trees against the sun which I had accidentally shot 3 stops over after metering, as in a rush I forgot to close down the iris, all the seemingly clipped information in the sky was easily pulled back, requiring minimal correction with the HDR highlight wheel to remove a slight yellow cast. Certain shots were also stabilised after the grade using the Motion Tracking controls of After Effects and the final edit was done in Premiere.

My most important discovery on the technical side of shooting Super 8, was that on a format this small, it’s a terrible idea to shoot Tungsten-balanced stock in daylight without the 85B filter, because the resulting blue-coloured grain cannot be timed out...I had actually read about it on this very forum, but I didn't realise how pronounced this coloured grain would be until I witnessed it on the scans. Regardless of this cinematographic misstep, I'm elated by how this short turned out and I'm looking forward to continuing to capture vibes from my homeland in magical Super 8!

[Kamran Pakseresht]

Wow this is great! I have a 4008 ZM 4 that I have been experimenting with, and like you, I had only shot on 50d previously, which I was very impressed with when comparing to 16mm. I just purchased some 500T to experiment with the grainier side of things.

This looks very good and I'm not sure if it's how far stocks have come or or how far scanning has come but I could watch a whole feature on super 8 without really being taken out of the story by the grain.

How did you find working with the camera? Did you use the stock lens? Did you use the motorized system for zooming/focusing mostly? Were you using the mechanical auto-exposure system? I really think the auto exposure system on that camera is such a cool feature to watch work.

Were you using a tripod on some of these shots? Did you just attach it to the bottom of the handle grip?

Also thank you for the information on the filter - I did not know it was still required these days and had assumed you could remedy any issues in post related to the color temp of the film.

This was a very cool experiment and thank you for sharing it.

Edited January 18 by Kamran Pakseresht

[Aris Gavriilidis]

Thank you for watching Kamran!

I believe that other than the modern Vision3 stocks and the sophistication of the scanners we now have, achieving good quality on Super 8 has a lot to do with the lens, in this case, the Schneider Optivaron 6-66mm f/1.8. I guess you could call it a "stock lens" in the sense that it's the preferred one by most users of this camera from what I've seen so far. It's certainly superior to the Angenieux 8-64mm which is the one my camera came with before I switched to the Schneider, due to being unimpressed with the Angenieux's sharpness. I'd also like to add that I removed the reglomatic tubes upon receiving the lens, so all the zooming and iris control is done entirely by hand. I used a handheld meter, a Sekonic L858D-U, but the readings always lined up with the camera's internal one so I'd have no problem trusting that one as an alternative. It would certainly make for faster shooting!

I love working with the 4008, my only gripe is how uncomfortable the grip is due to being so short. It's particularly uncomfortable when walking around the streets with the camera at hand to my side. It always feels like I'm about to drop it! I know there's 3D-printed extensions for the grip, so I'll probably grab one of those.

Believe it or not no tripod was used for any of the seemingly static shots! What you saw was achieved purely by motion tracking within After Effects, albeit it was a tedious process that didn't work for every shot. I used two track points and it took a good amount of trial and error before I could find spots in the frame that the software would register as "stationary". The inherent graininess of 200T often caused the motion tracker to suddenly lose its target and jump around. There were more than a few instances where for a couple of frames, I had to manually move each point back on the target area. But as you saw, it worked wonders in the end for specific shots. By no means is it a substitute for a tripod though!

Glad you enjoyed my little film, thanks again!