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Super 8 feature


GeorgeSelinsky

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I think that super8 does work out, on the whole, cheaper than 16mm - like for like - negative.

 

Obviously if you are prepared to shoot K40 then this is extreamly cheap, but I generally only use this for home movies, although I love the look.

 

Matt

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Also there was someone in Austrailia or NZ who posted some frame grabs last year.

I believe the title of that film was "In His Image",which I've seen on ebay along with "Lost Tribes"."Image",I believe is a 1930's period film.

Marty

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Also there was someone in Austrailia or NZ who posted some frame grabs last year.

I believe the title of that film was "In His Image",which I've seen on ebay along with "Lost Tribes"."Image",I believe is a 1930's period film.

Marty

Yes that's me/mine! The film is called In My Image Check out the page for the film it was shot on K40 using a Beaulieau 4008ZMII crystal synched at 25fps. There's heaps on the web page, but I'm happy to answer any other questions. I'm even mad enough to consider doing my next feature on Super 8 too :D (seriously!) but reports of faulty cartridges are starting to worry me (we were plagued with heaps on In My Image - and of course you don't know they're faulty till after they've been developed!) I'm not trying to cast aspersions on Super 8 - but in fact just the opposite - I love it but if anyone wants to do serious work in it this problem has to be fixed once and for all.

 

As for Super 8 vs 16mm there's quite a lengthy thread about it here

 

Here's the poster for my film (can't resist)

 

IMIposter.jpg

 

 

Scot

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OK,so the title is "In My Image",my bad,I stand corrected.What kind of cartdridge problems did you experience?I shot a pretty good bit of S-8 back in the 70's and never experienced any cart problems.Well,actually I had one,but was really a problem with the camera that caused the cart to jam up.

I'm wondering if cart problems are happening more recently for some reason and if this will cause more filmmakers to shoot single 8,DS8 or single strand roll super 8 like the Wilcam and the Beaulieu 9008(?) uses.

Marty

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  • 2 months later...

Downix mentioned Sleep Always briefly above but I thought I would take a moment to describe it further. We shot Sleep Always on Ektachrome VNF 7240 (now being discontinued, sadly) with widened-gate cameras (we call it super-duper 8). It's an 81 minute drama which played in a couple of festivals this past December (in Spain and New York) with hopefully a few more to come.

 

There is lots of information on our website including a link to an article that appeared in Kodak's In Camera magazine last year. For German readers you can also find lots of information in the November 2003 issue of Schmalfilm magazine.

 

We don't have a film print - it's a tape finish. Our DVD's were pressed from a glass master and are available to purchase from our site as well as http://www.moviemarkdvd.com and www.wittner-kinotechnik.de

 

It's an extremely low-budget movie, partially thanks to super 8 origin but also in the way we approached it, but we like to think it looks pretty good. You can check our IMDb page where some viewers have posted reviews: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404434/

 

I wouldn't hesitate to shoot another feature on super 8 but the decision would be based entirely on the story and whether the super 8 look suits it. If I was expecting the movie to play on the big screen I would have second thoughts for sure, but theatrical release is such a different economic beast that we were never thinking of that - probably would have stopped us in our tracks. Because we were aiming for the small screen we didn't hesitate to shoot super 8 and we think it holds up well in that environment.

 

Given the reality that most low-budget independents will never play the big screen, I am surprised more people don't consider super 8 for image capture.

 

Cheers

Rick

www.friendlyfirefilms.ca

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Hi,

 

I had two carts of vision 200 jam recently. Same camera ran K40 and Ektachrome fine. Kodak replaced the stock but it's cold comfort really.

 

Phil

What camera did you use? People should note that the neg stock is pretty tough on the older smaller cams designed with reversal in mind!

Olly

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Hi Phil;

Even my Nizo Pro had trouble with neg! It was very unstable in the gate, I ended up buying a cannon 1014xl as it was the most recent and decent cam I could find, it did OK with the neg but even then the difference between neg and Reversal in terms of image stability was quite a bit. Just wondered if maybe the trouble was camera based as opposed to a Kodak thyng.

Either way hope it dosent happen again for ya ;)

olly

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Hi,

 

Well, it's unlikely to happen again as I have no plans to shoot any more, beyond possibly using up the replacement 200 I got. I shot this because I may have a freebie transfer lined up for it but usually the £300 to £500 an hour plus whatever setup for super8 is simply not affordable to me.

 

Phil

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hi guys and john P -

regarding the "bit time", I'm surprized no one's remembered that Neil Young's film, which was just in town here in Seattle at a real movie theater, was shot entirely in SUPER 8.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379307/

J. Hoberman from the Village Voice says about it "a bargain-basement musical extravaganza directed by Neil Young under his nom de wobble Bernard Shakey, Greendale is the season's least expected avant-pop funk-fest?blown up from Super 8, entirely post-dubbed, and splendiferously primitive."

 

which shows two things, in my mind:

1 - a famous person can shoot a feature in s8 and get it distributed (guy maddin is another example)

2 - anyone can shoot in super 8, just like anyone can shoot in super 16, and may or may not get their film distributed and/or in festivals, BUT, they've got a much better chance if the story/design of the film matches the format. Like Maddin's work does.

 

EH

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Kung Fu Rascals came out in the early 90's, one of the best looking Super-8 films ever made. The director of that film has since had a Hollywood career of some note.

 

"Game of Survival" came out in the early 90's looking real good also. Directed by a current professional DP!

 

And of course, perhaps the grand daddy of them all is Mirk Pirro's A Polish Vampire in Burbank, which actually aired on USA up all Night back in the early 90's but allegedly was not renewed because of the rash of green super-8 filmmakers who called USA asking them to look at their super-8 film. :unsure:

 

And these films were all made before desktop editing was even a speck in Steven Jobs eye.

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