Mitchell Perkins

...and of course the simple key to avoiding the picture/sound 18 frame separation, is to shoot a little in-camera-edited 3 minute short. It's a bugger when you hit that transport button by mistake between shots though....:) Mitch

No thing wrong with musing! This is a big old project you are contemplating....whew! I was thinking you were a bit late, with Kodak dropping reversal in Super8 for good, but what's this about bulk film from China? Mitch

Well there was Alexis Kanner on Kings And Despearate Men....maybe not the best example heh. http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/viewFile/1185/1255 Have you tried this? http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=cinematographer+as+auteur&oq=cinematographer+as+auteur&gs_l=hp.3..0i22i30.867.7796.0.8207.25.19.0.6.6.2.482.3373.0j16j2j0j1.19.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.5.psy-ab.XsrB2xds1P4&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43287494,d.dmg&fp=11f78b203957c300&biw=1218&bih=906 Basically if you remove the money from the equation, and make art for the high it brings, pick up a camera and make a film, you are an auteur. Hollywood separates the tasks to avoid costly mistakes due to too much pressure on one individual - it costs more to pay more people but not as much as a re-shoot caused by the DP/operator/loader loading the film backwards whilst thinking about the lighting setup heh. The phrase "nobody will see your film" is outdated with the emergence of internet streaming. Anything you've ever heard about the "film business" applies strictly and only to those who go into the ~business~ of making films. Everyone else is wonderfully free to approach filmmaking in any way they see fit. Awesome! Mitch

Try filmshooting.com, small gauge forum. You'll have to register. If the link provided does not take you there from the url bar, put it in google and open it from there. Recently if I put the address in the url bar I get "nothing here". I believe sound film was discontinued due to environmental issues - something about the glue...? You can, or could, buy soundstriping machines for silent film. The striping is done after the film is processed though, so you won't be recording sound with your sound camera. You may be able to find old sound film but depending on the emulsion, processing may not be available...in fact almost certainly not. Capturing sound separately is so much more versatile, plus you can make a cut and not have the sound change 18/24 frames later. You don't need crystal or any other kind of sync, unless your actors speak in continuous streams for 3 full minutes...and even then you can shift the audio on the NLE timeline. Mitch

Hi all, Just thought I'd let you know our SuperDuper8 feature film "Sleep Always" is up on youtube. Finally decided to CC it....ten years later. So now it looks like it always did in my mind's eye. Inky blacks! I also brought it into a 16:9 project so it will no longer be window boxed in a 16:9 monitor. Feedback welcome.... Mitch

Drag!...in future though, speeding up the film by that 2fps is the way to go I think. Run time at 20fps will be shortened by 20 seconds per 50 feet of Super8 film. An even 3 minutes. Motion captured at 18fps and projected at 20fps appears normal. At 24fps, a little slo-mo. Mitch

Hi Jay, If you can remove the back of the projector, and if it has speed pots, you can point the video camera at the film screen whilst running the 8mm film and adjust the speed of the projector until the flicker goes away on the video camera monitor. If your camera has a cmos there will be a ghost bar slowly travelling up or down the image, (since the units aren't locked it won't stay in one place long), but it will only be noticable during low density/washed out scenes. Failing speed pots you can cut a dimmer switch right into the power cord of the projector. Best if the projector has one of the universal power cords like for computers, as then you won't wrecking anything integral to it. It's a hacky solution but super cheap and it works. Obviously you have to set the projector to 24fps and dim down. If it won't quite dim/slow down to 20fps, try jamming the speed selector between 18 and 24fps - that will reduce the "start speed" before dimming. This last may not work on all projectors. Then again, 24p might work :) HTH, Mitch

Hi All, I am trying to lcate anyone who worked on or has any information on the 1972 film "Mahoney's Last Stand" aka "Mahoney's Estate" aka "Downtown Farmer". The DP was Harry Makin. I called him 20 years ago about the film, but didn't follow through. I'm going to try to contact him again elsewhere, but maybe he will see this. Harry? :) I first saw the film 30 years ago, and never since, until it re-surfaced on youtube 6 months ago. The picture quality is tragic, old VHS or something, but I have sourced a DVD copy for myself which I'm hoping will be better. I can't help wondering (really, a lot) whether any original elements/prints exist, because a remaster would be wicked. Failing that I'm interested in any anecdotes or memories...anyone? Mitch Perkins