Stephen Floyd

Well, it's not all that different from photography. I did photojournalism before I got into filmmaking. Most of the stuff, as far as F-Stops and ISO, are the same or similar. The only thing you can't control is shutter speed. If you are filming on the beach, an ND filter is deffinitely reccomended. A gray card will also help you with lighting, or just any shirt or towel that is about 85% gray. And bounce boards could assist you, as well. You could even color them for a desired effect (just take a red or green or whatever sheet and staple it over a large piece of sturdy cardboard and you are done). Hope that helps.

I think good lighting makes a bigger difference than the type of film you use. I just did a project and used both, plus-x for outside and tri-x for inside. Nobody noticed. The only discernable difference was between the shots that were well-lit and those that were not. But to answer your question, I do not think there is a way to make tri-x look like plus-x, since it comes down to the difference in the size of the grains. Science won't allow it.

I'm confised. I thought the point of people using 8mm was so they could end up with the low-resolution, dated feel it provides. Besides, making a camera capable of longer reels and higher resolution would not be helpful without a company that can produce longer reels and higher quality film. Film like that would probably cost as much as 16mm, so there would be no point in making a whole new 8mm camera. The limits of this medium have been pushed about as far as they can go.