Super-8 Cities Global Documentary Project released

NathanCoombs · January 14, 2007

Dear All,

I am very happy to say that the long delayed Super-8 Cities Project DVD is now available!

There are some great films on there. Not only that, but I think all the films have come together as a collection very well.

The DVD has a professionally printed cover and 8 page booklet, with a discussion of their film by each director and technical specifications, including: camera, stock, shooting ratio and telecine details.

The discs themsleves are printed also - so no hand written DVD-Rs here!!

Films included on the disc are

Manchester - Heart of Glass - Giles Perkins

Singapore - Identity - Gavin Lim

Amsterdam - Paradise - Pelle Koornstra

Barcelona - A Friday in Barcelona - Albert Vandel

Exeter - Exeter- Nathan Coombs

Sydney - Meet Me in the City - Mei Lin Sun

New York - Hector Mann's Song 7 - Kiko Andraka

Weston Super Mare - Genius Loci - Sean Martin

Seattle - Seattle - Steve Hyde

Dunkirk - The Carnival of Dunkirk - Freddy Alliotte

Some of these directors are incredibly talented and I think that my film is probably one of the weakest of the collection!

There are also three other film and the trailer included in the xtras section of the DVD.

Please check out the new website:

http://www.workhorse.tv/super8cities.html

Prices, postage costs and payment details on the website. Looking forward to feedback!

Edited January 14, 2007 by NathanCoombs

Alessandro Machi · January 15, 2007

When I clicked on your link, the initial image loaded right away, but then my computer froze for over a minute while the backdrop loaded. Just thought I'd let you know.

Running time, it's really a good thing to list the total running time of your DVD. Some of the white text near the bottom gets lost in the backdrop.

I don't recall you soliciting anyone from this forum for your festival, was that just an oversight?

NathanCoombs · January 15, 2007

When I clicked on your link, the initial image loaded right away, but then my computer froze for over a minute while the backdrop loaded. Just thought I'd let you know.

Running time, it's really a good thing to list the total running time of your DVD. Some of the white text near the bottom gets lost in the backdrop.

I don't recall you soliciting anyone from this forum for your festival, was that just an oversight?

I guess the site is bandwidth heavy - lots of high quality graphics.

The main selection of the DVD is 55 minutes, with 20 minutes of films in the extras section.

I can't remember if I advertised for collaborators on this board, but I did so on filmshooting.com and ShootingPeople. And its not a festival as such, it is a collaborative project of original pieces which will be submitted to festivals as a collective piece.

Alessandro Machi · January 15, 2007

The main selection of the DVD is 55 minutes, with 20 minutes of films in the extras section.

A heroic effort no doubt.

NathanCoombs · January 16, 2007

A heroic effort no doubt.

Now we just need some heroic purchases :)

Why no bites so far? As far as I know its not often that a feature length collection of super-8 shorts is commercially released!

Alessandro Machi · January 16, 2007

Now we just need some heroic purchases :)

Why no bites so far? As far as I know its not often that a feature length collection of super-8 shorts is commercially released!

I think there is a connection between advertising and sales returns on sites such as this one. I don't know the official number but this site has over 10,000 members. Probably not every one checks in every month but probably a sizeable portion do. Ads appear on the side of this site continously but unobtrusively. I don't know if anyone in the super-8 community that offers primarily Super-8 services or products has ever advertised on Cinematography.com.

I'll have to assume it's more expensive here, but I also would have to assume the activity is also greater, there is an excellent mix of forums and subforums that create an overall well traveled website. Additionally, in terms of premarketing, I bet you could have landed a couple of filmmakers from this forum and had ongoing updates to wet the appetites of other regular members.

I have found that over the long haul, products do sell. Of course if you were to advertise on this site you would need to make a certain amount of sales per month to justify it. But if you meet that goal the advertising can only help plant seeds in other people who may want to buy it down the road. Eventually someone writes about the DVD and interest picks up. If I had a super-8 DVD to sell I wouldn't hesitate to advertise it here unless the cost was prohibitive.

As for myself, I am trying to figure out if I want to enter anything in the Rutgers Super-8 film festival, which has a Friday deadline this week. The fees are 40 bucks per entry plus fed-ex is going to set me back another 30 bucks and I just purchased a couple of super-8 cameras.

Alessandro Machi · January 16, 2007

By the way, Steve Hyde is a regular contributor to Cinematography.com and is one of the Super-8 filmmakers featured on the DVD.

nathan coombs · January 16, 2007

I think there is a connection between advertising and sales returns on sites such as this one. I don't know the official number but this site has over 10,000 members. Probably not every one checks in every month but probably a sizeable portion do. Ads appear on the side of this site continously but unobtrusively. I don't know if anyone in the super-8 community that offers primarily Super-8 services or products has ever advertised on Cinematography.com.

I have found that over the long haul, products do sell. Of course if you were to advertise on this site you would need to make a certain amount of sales per month to justify it. But if you meet that goal the advertising can only help plant seeds in other people who may want to buy it down the road. Eventually someone writes about the DVD and interest picks up. If I had a super-8 DVD to sell I wouldn't hesitate to advertise it here unless the cost was prohibitive.

Advertising for the DVD doesn't really add up financially. Even with the 'free' marketing of forums interest seems to be pretty low so far. Although I expect it to pick up as a few reviews and festival screenings appear.

The new Small Format will have a 4 page article on the project which should help inform people what it is all about!

Matthew Buick · January 16, 2007

Hey! I might do something like this about Newcastle upon Tyne.

nathan coombs · January 16, 2007

Hey! I might do something like this about Newcastle upon Tyne.

I will be announcing the sequel project soon if you want to get involved with that.

Matthew Buick · January 16, 2007

ABSOLUTELY!!!!! :)

Matthew Buick, from Newcastle, previously known as Monkchester, prevously known as Pons Aeilus.

Alessandro Machi · January 17, 2007

Advertising for the DVD doesn't really add up financially. Even with the 'free' marketing of forums interest seems to be pretty low so far. Although I expect it to pick up as a few reviews and festival screenings appear.

The new Small Format will have a 4 page article on the project which should help inform people what it is all about!

I think it depends on how many DVD's you would have to sell per month to break even (after the cost of making the DVD is subtracted). I think you could sell 5-6 a month on this site if the ads were up all the time, I don't know if that is break even territory for you or not.

Alessandro Machi · January 18, 2007

I don't know how many film festivals you plan on entering, but The Rutgers Super-8 Film Festival is one you might want to consider entering, although the deadline is basically send out today by fed-ex priority or tomorrow in person by noon.

Or, why not offer to donate a couple of copies that they can give out as prizes, perhaps to the honorable mention films. That film festival is really a great contest to be a sponsor for because they leave the names of the sponsors up year after year on the awards page.

Check it out.

http://www.njfilmfest.com/super8.html

There may not be time to be a sponsor for this year, or maybe your timing would be perfect since the prizes are not announced for another month.

nathan coombs · January 18, 2007

I don't know how many film festivals you plan on entering, but The Rutgers Super-8 Film Festival is one you might want to consider entering, although the deadline is basically send out today by fed-ex priority or tomorrow in person by noon.

Or, why not offer to donate a couple of copies that they can give out as prizes, perhaps to the honorable mention films. That film festival is really a great contest to be a sponsor for because they leave the names of the sponsors up year after year on the awards page.

Check it out.

http://www.njfilmfest.com/super8.html

There may not be time to be a sponsor for this year, or maybe your timing would be perfect since the prizes are not announced for another month.

Hi Alex, thanks for the recommendation. I think I am just too late for this one and the festival will probably require NTSC copies not available yet. One of the contributors (a fantastic filmmaker) Kiko Andraka also recommended me this festival.

To be honest, will full-time work and this project I am stretched to the limit right now. I will just be concentrating on UK festivals - I hope that either Steve Hyde or Kiko will promote the project in the USA.

Alessandro Machi · January 18, 2007

Hi Alex, thanks for the recommendation. I think I am just too late for this one and the festival will probably require NTSC copies not available yet. One of the contributors (a fantastic filmmaker) Kiko Andraka also recommended me this festival.

To be honest, will full-time work and this project I am stretched to the limit right now. I will just be concentrating on UK festivals - I hope that either Steve Hyde or Kiko will promote the project in the USA.

If you actually have significant inventory already made, doling out a half dozen as honorable mention prizes would probably be a wise move. By the way, I don't mean to imply that even if you offered the DVD's they would actually be accepted, However I am suggesting that IF they were accepted as honorable mention prizes to the filmmakes of the Super-8 film festival, the giving of those would be credited on their web page for perhaps several years, so a one time donation would over time, easily result in several thousand (and well beyond I'm sure) hits in which your prize is listed along with the other sponsors who donate.

However, at the moment apparently you don't have NTSC versions available so that would preclude this from being a relatively painless option.

Are you going to be able to do high quality coversion from PAL to NTSC, or is that going to be a painful task you are not looking forward to?

By the way, I just clicked on your signature link and it is not working.

nathan coombs · January 18, 2007

n't have NTSC versions available so that would preclude this from being a relatively painless option.

Are you going to be able to do high quality coversion from PAL to NTSC, or is that going to be a painful task you are not looking forward to?

By the way, I just clicked on your signature link and it is not working.

Prizes are something I will consider when things have calmed down a bit . Good idea.

The NTSC version requires the DVD to be completely reconstructed. Pretty long winded and painful.

Thanks, I'll check out the sig.

Alessandro Machi · February 20, 2011

Hey Nathan, I searched the super-8 forum archives to find a couple topics about your super-8 cities global documentary project. Hopefully you will be notified by email that a new comment was added to this topic. Check out this Economist documentary contest. Documentary winners end up on a PBS special.