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An interesting question


Daniel Kreger

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Hi. 
I just got into analog film making recently and I’ve had an interesting thought.

I know there is a way to convert super8 into digital, because of course there is, but is there a way to convert digital into super8?
I had this thought when I started looking into primitive vfx with super8, but why bother to etch an animation into the tape with a microscope when you could use modern solutions to do it 5 times easier. I know that in a sense this is a stupid idea, why bother using super8 in the first place?- but I feel this could produce really interesting results by blending analog and digital together.

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I shot film titles on S-8, for a recent project. For the still title cards I photographed a series of backlit cells. But, I had trouble with the end credits scroll and reverted to shooting motion graphics off a 2K screen. It worked fine and there wasn't any "roll bar" like you used to see off a TV.

Maybe in your case, designing motion graphics and then filming a screen works fine.

To further your "primitive" animation idea, you could also try exporting the motion graphics frame by frame and then printing those images. I did a test of this, shooting each page single frame and it took a much bigger effort than I had time for.

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I've done this before using a Super 8mm XL type camera.  You will most likely have to play around with the refresh rates on the monitor you're using.  LCD types will work easier nowadays than the former Tube types but I was still able to get acceptable (for me that is) image quality for what I was attempting.  If you're end product/project result is to be on Super 8mm film, especially for projection, then why not experiment and see what works.  I do suggest trying a few different settings, make sure all stray light is off the screen, keep detailed notes so you can alter or repeat the results, and you don't need to waste an entire cartridge of Super 8mm film for this.  Just shoot some short tests, and then use the rest of the cartridge for other things to film. Best of luck in this!

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You can get digital outs to 16mm and 35mm but they are rather expensive. Like $150 per minute with sound. But you wind up with a negative and a positive so you can make more prints from it easily.

Here's a great company for a lot of specialized film needs:

http://www.videofilmsolutions.com/digital-intermediates--printing

 

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