I'm in need of a Super 8 with endless Loop... help?

[Olivia Skalkos]

Hi people, I am currently managing an exhibition in London that will run the whole month of Feb, and we need a projector that supports super 8 film, and can play on loop... i have done a bit of research, and am starting to understand that this is no easy task, and only very few people have information, advice and knowledge that might help us out.

 

The film itself is 3 minutes long, and was processed out of the country, does anyone out there have some advice for me, or perhaps a projector that I can borrow/ rent/ buy that might suit our needs? Any information and tidbits will help, I am such a novice!

 

Looking forward to hearing back from some of you, fingers crossed!

 

Cheers,

Olivia

[Mark Dunn]

Endless loop units were made from some projectors. I'm thinking of the Elmo unit for ST projectors which took a 400' roll. Super-8 equipment, was never really a rental item in the way that 16mm. was so you may have to put out a wanted notice on the various forums.

Potentially with such a short film you could rig up a suspension system on rollers, but there's no way a single copy is going to survive for days on end without damage.

There's this one on ebay right now

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ELMO-GS800-SUPER-8mm-SINGLE-8-STEREO-SOUND-PROJECTOR-Boxed-FREE-Sound-Films-/261691695696?pt=UK_Photography_VintagePhotography_VintagePhotoAccessories&hash=item3cee0a6250

[Andries Molenaar]

You need a display copy/copies of the film to be shown. Running it some 10 hours per day for a month will wreck your original.

 

You will need two or more projectors of the same brand and model for easy replacing when something breaks. Rental projector have no-looper conditions for good reason :) If there is no soundfilm then don't use a sound-projector. Find a model which can put the lamp on a reduced voltage. This will save the lamp from burning up too soon and it will save the film itself. Keep a stack of lamps at hand.

 

You might want to check if the machine set-up can use a movement detector and thus only run it when there is somebody in the neighourhood.

You will need a looper. There is one modern fancy thing of which I don't have the website at hand.

There are universal things from yesteryear. Like the NORIS attachment and also there is a spool set from GePe. How well these will do in a museum set up?

 

Homebrew might work too. Fix a large flat (8mm depth) upstanding plexiglass box beneath the projector and more of these types. Don't expect the projector to shove the film up whole day long.

Edited December 14, 2014 by Andries Molenaar

[Andries Molenaar]

You will need a looper. There is one modern fancy thing of which I don't have the website at hand.

Found it: http://looper8.ch/

 

In my experience shipping from Switserland is a real put off. And not to forget the import/export troubles as they are not in EU.

 

But maybe he has a partner in UK

Edited December 14, 2014 by Andries Molenaar

[Anthony Schilling]

There is a projector that uses loop cartridges. A friend of mine has one that we used for a show once, but i don't recall the name.

[Bill DiPietra]

I gather transferring it to video is not an option...

[Aapo Lettinen]

Maybe you could have multiple copies of the same film made and add them after each other to the loop. Would lessen scratching and breakdowns

[Andries Molenaar]

Maybe you could have multiple copies of the same film made and add them after each other to the loop. Would lessen scratching and breakdowns

 

That would put more load on the projector which is already under duress

 

The info section is really useful: http://looper8.ch/english/useful-info/