De jagade - Short Super8 film

Emil Soderman · March 25, 2008

Hello there!

Some of you might remember me asking allot of questions on these boards concerning Super8 filmmaking. Id like to thank you for all the great info and many tips and tricks! You might also remember my friend Simon and a few mail based interviews, thanks allot for all your answers!

Anyway this is what all your help resulted in, an 8 minute short shot on Ektachrome 64T, 7 rolls if I remember correctly. We used a Beaulieu 5008MS after discovering our 4008 was out of order. Unfortunately we didn?t have time to test shoot the 5008 and after getting it to digital we discovered the motor of the 5008 was pulling to slow resulting a around 19-21 Fps instead of 25. Well we had to sort that with slowmo in post, but all in all I?m very happy we made this movie.

So enjoy! here's a link to Blip.tv

(I recommend you watching it in the original .mp4 format if you got the time to let it load)

FLV: http://blip.tv/file/770600?filename=Sacruf...DeJagade936.flv

MP4: http://blip.tv/file/770600?filename=Sacruf...DeJagade936.mp4

Cheers!

Rolando Fernandez · March 25, 2008

Very nice, what type of lighting was used ?

some kind of arc? for backlight.

64T looks good!

Bengt Freden · March 25, 2008

Hey Emil,

What a great short film! Dynamic, intense cinematography, with dramatic low-key lighting, and very well edited. The story is well told and the sound is used very well to enhance the dramatic flow of the narrative. Also, very nice and smooth camera movements, especially in the beautiful 'dolly-shot' sideways in the cellar, and jittery, disturbing shots in the car chase, when the action and drama calls for it later in the film. The actors are doing a great job in building up the tension (with the odd exceptions of the general in some short scenes) - they seem very focused on the task, which adds to the realism.

I can´t believe this is shot in Ektachrome 64 - it looks a lot sharper than other short films I have seen with this low-speed reversal stock. Did you sharpen it somewhat in post? It looks as though you had shot this with a faster stock - the quality is outstanding (I watched the .mp4 file), especially in the close shots, like the ones of the general. The picture is so incredibly steady (except for one shot where they are hiding beside the road, where they are waiting to hitch a ride with a car) - it looks just as good as Std 16mm, in my opinion. The colors are clean and very natural looking, with perfect saturation and contrast. The exposure with this reversal stock is dead-on, perfect! Reversal usually doesn´t leave you much room for errors in the exposure. Did you use it without the 85B filter all the time, with the Tungsten/B-lighting? The colors are perfect, especially the skin tones.

Furthermore, if you used only seven rolls of 64T, that is just above twice the amount of material needed in the final cut! That is really impressive! You must have 'nailed' most of the scenes in the first takes, then? Bravo - good planning.

Did you need a lot of light to light the actors? Did you use the fast f=1.4 Optivaron 6-70mm? The focus is perfect almost all of the time, considering the sparse amount of lighting and the relatively short depth of field in the close and telephoto shots (except perhaps in the close shot of the general´s boots and cigarette).

The vignetting in the wide shots in the cellar doesn´t bother me - I think it rather adds to the eerie, confined and claustrophobic feeling of the whole sequence. (Is it a wide angle lens attachment or is it just a vignetting lens shade?) I also like the low, wide camera angles a lot, especially in the scene with the military doctor giving the girl a syringe shot. The intercutting with her face, torn in anxiety, is very effective. The sound is great in this sequence, too, with her muffled screams, as it is in most of the film. Did you use 'wild' sync or did you use lip-sync in some scenes? The 'foley' effect sounds are very well done (steps, the rattling of the closed door, etc) and the whole sound mix is very clean and well-balanced throughout, with a dramatic music sound-track that underlines the tension and suspense - this music is well-chosen; it reminds me of the theme from "Jaws". The rifle shots are in perfect sync and the firing effects and sand ripples are very well done. Where you using real, sharp ammo or blanks in the rifles? It is also very impressive that you got help from the Dala regiment military in the making of this film - you must have had a very well-made script or story-board from the beginning?

I can imagine that it must have been a severe problem, if the camera was 'under-cranking' the speed. You have really done a great job of adjusting the speed back to normal - it seems very natural. Did you experience sync problems in the scenes where the actors are having a dialogue? In the climactic scene at the end, where the feeing couple is finally stopped by the general, the sound is in sync all the time and the gun shots are perfectly matched with the action, when the girl shoots the general - for an instant, we don´t know who has been shot. It´s a 'classic' dramatic tool and it is very well used here. The girl´s dialogue is muffled or lost in parts but it doesn´t impair the story-telling much. The last scen, where the boy and girl comes together and kiss, seems almost a bit comical and out-of-place - I wouldn´t have minded a more sudden or dramatic ending, more in line with the rest of the film.

All in all, a great cinematic experience - thank you so much for sharing!

All the best,

Bengt in Stockholm

Tony Terziev · March 26, 2008

How come I cant see it? :s Im using Firefox.

Bengt Freden · March 26, 2008

Hey Tony,

Are you on a Mac or Windows platform?

If you use a Mac, try the latest version of Safari (ver. 3.1) - it works like a dream on my four years old eMac, now running the amazing new 'Leopard' OS X 10.5.2 system software.

If you are on a PC, try downloading Netscape or Microsoft Explorer.

You have to watch the film via the .mp4 link to be able to see the full quality.

Good luck!

/ Bengt in Stockholm

Emil Soderman · March 27, 2008

The lighting used is mainly 2x Blondies at 2kW and a 1200 ARRISUN for much of the backlight and such.

We also used 1 redhead kit and 2x 400w HMI.

Your right! The lens we used was the Schneider Optivaron 1,4 / 6 - 70 mm

The under-cranking was a big problem actually, was very unfortunate we didn't have a CLA'd camera

Yeah 7 rolls all in all, its possible but would be allot better whit 17 rolls! :)

All of it was synced in post, so no sound recordings what so ever on location, we used a few long nights in the studio for ADR.

Thanks allot for the positive feedback, really nice to hear!

Getting very eager to try some more Super8 filmmaking

Simon Bjork · March 27, 2008

Thank you Bengt for the kind words.

It's funny that you mention the editing. The thing is, we lost a lot of material due to camera problems and had to cut around several scenes. What is missing is scenes with the the general, different camera angels in several scenes, and some action footage from the train station shoot-out.

The ending was different in the screenplay, but due to weater and time we had to make this ending. I kind of like it, it's very cheesy, but I think it fits the genre of the film. The original ending had the boy and the girl ride away on a motorcycle in the sunset.

By the way, some of you might remember me from e-mail interviews for a Super8 dissertation. This film is part of the reserch for that.

Cheers!

Michael Lehnert · March 28, 2008

Hello Sweden!

Sorry that I stumble over this thread just now (have been off doing stuff) with lots of delay. I am glad that your work has come to frutition in such a great way. The E-64 is looking much better than it's reputation - something I discover alot recently. Maybe the seniority of the material and the know-how tweaks at the labs get much more out of this film stock than when it came out originally.

I am currently watching the clips on slow Wintel box, but over the week-end, I shall find the time to watch them on my Macs. Surely a delight!

Thanks for posting all this, guys,

-Michael

P.S.: Any plans about usage of those interviews yet?

Erik Vilhelm · March 28, 2008

Nice work guys! Especially I liked the backlight in some of the scenes at the train station.

Simon Bjork · March 29, 2008

Thank you all for the positive feedback. It's always nice to hear.

But what about things you didn't like? It's important to know so you know what to improve on next time. The "fast motion" in some scenes for example (due to camera problems) - did it distract you from the story?

Michael, nice to hear from you again! I've been terrible busy the last three months so I haven't found time for the interviews. But I will! Hopefully in april. They should be read by everyone intrested in Super8 filmmaking. I'll e-mail you when I know what to do with them. Hope you enjoy the film :)

Simon Bjork · April 12, 2008

Michael, did you find time to watch the film? Cheers

Michael Lehnert · April 12, 2008

Simon,

I am soo terribly sorry but I am all over the place at the moment, so cinematography.com stuff has been treated badly in the recent two weeks by myself. Please accept my honest apologies for that. Not only do I still have to shoot some pics of an A 512 for Chris at Super 8 Today for inclusion in my upcoming article there, but I also need to prep the Nizo pro pictures for the next-after-next issue - all by tomorrow. Plus finish a further article series about 7 more Super 8 cameras by end of next week - plus there is something called "daily business job" as well :D . I even have a backlog of threads in which I wanted to post or which await a reply from my. I am currently going " :wacko: " :) , but getting on top of stuff, though!

I will watch the hyperlinked file tomorrow evening, so will be posting a reply / critic / laudatio / applause / ferocious critique on Monday or Tuesday. My word on it! B)

Have a great week-end, Simon, and again my apologies for keeping you waiting unnecessarily long due to my bad time scheduling right now, yours,

-Michael

James Hudson · July 2, 2008

I really liked the colours in the cellar scene, the greens of the soldiers uniforms looks great. How did you light that scene with soldiers, doctor and 'operating' table

One slightly negative criticism- the muzzle flash from the guns and smoke from the bullets landing looks really bad. Ten year kids on youtube can do better!

The up and down wobbling seems to be a bit of an issue, is that the camera, or the telescine? Can stuff like that be fixed in post?

I have a 5008ms and am really encouraged by this. Is this your first super 8 film?

Anyway, well done sir! And apoligies for the proliferation of exlamation and question marks.

Emil Soderman · July 3, 2008

Thanks for your reply James

The cellar scene was very much Red heads if I remember correctly.

At least on the general + Soldiers there?s a redhead at ceiling level pointing down on them.

And some backlight from the practical work light behind them.

The doctors lighting is, i think a red head from camera right + a redhead or 300w for the shadow on the wall.

After that its pretty much just blasting the red head straight at him.

Or did we use a blonde instead of redheads on the doctor? I?m not sure, sorry.

Come to think of it, we might gave bounced some light from the ceiling as well.

My memory isn?t all that great I?m afraid.

Yeah I agree the muzzle flashes aren?t very good, limited time I guess.

10 year old on YouTube? Yeah maybe, haha.

The camera wasn?t serviced properly which might have added some to the instability.

Yeah you can stabilize it in post, but I wouldn?t want to lose that kind of resolution on something already of low res.

So we decided to roll with and claim it would add to the charm of Super8!

Yeah this was our first Super8 attempt. Get your 5008 out and shoot some, its allot of fun!

Cheers!

Chris Burke · July 3, 2008

How was it transfered to video? Via what telecine or scanner? Was any color grading done at that phase? All in all, I can't find anything I dislike. Very well made. I can't wait to see what you do next. Keep up the excellent work.

Emil Soderman · July 4, 2008

Thanks for those kind words Chris!

It was telecined here in Sweden by ?Uppsala Bildteknik? with a Flashscan machine .

No grading was done during telecine.

Just got a 4008 serviced, hope we got to use it soon!

Richardson Leao · July 4, 2008

i had some s8 films scanned by uppsala bildtek and they also turned out great. It's a very good and reasonably priced place.

James Grahame · July 6, 2008

Clever film. It's actually quite amazing that you were able to shoot a dark and moody nighttime film on E-64T. Why didn't you choose a faster film like Vision2 500T neg? Was it because of the additional costs of transferring negative film or camera limitations?