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Most impressive S8mm video you've seen.


Zachariah Shanahan

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Thanks for the kind words. I scanned about 26 hours of Super-8 film for OUR NIXON. Much of it was badly shot, out-of-focus, and about 15% of the footage existed only in very poor quality S-8 contact prints, which are both mushy and contrasty, with blown out whites and blocked up shadows. (It's quite obvious in the film -- if there's no detail in the whites you can't get it back.)

 

There are several Kinettas in the US, and others in South America, Europe, and the Middle-East. In the US, some are owned by archives that don't do outside work, one is owned by a company that does large projects for government and educational institutions, so only Movette in San Francisco and (opening later this month) Kinetta Archival do outside work.

 

Kinetta Archival does 3296 x 2472 scans from any format, and will be adding 5K scans later this year. They also do grading, DCP packages, and restoration. You can reach them at archival@kinetta.com

 

Rates are very affordable, too.

 

Jeff Kreines

Kinetta

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Thanks for the kind words. I scanned about 26 hours of Super-8 film for OUR NIXON. Much of it was badly shot, out-of-focus, and about 15% of the footage existed only in very poor quality S-8 contact prints, which are both mushy and contrasty, with blown out whites and blocked up shadows. (It's quite obvious in the film -- if there's no detail in the whites you can't get it back.)

 

There are several Kinettas in the US, and others in South America, Europe, and the Middle-East. In the US, some are owned by archives that don't do outside work, one is owned by a company that does large projects for government and educational institutions, so only Movette in San Francisco and (opening later this month) Kinetta Archival do outside work.

 

Kinetta Archival does 3296 x 2472 scans from any format, and will be adding 5K scans later this year. They also do grading, DCP packages, and restoration. You can reach them at archival@kinetta.com

 

Rates are very affordable, too.

 

Jeff Kreines

Kinetta

Thanks for appearing here!

I contacted every possible method of getting a Kinetta scan a few months back and gave up. Tried MASSARTS etc. The last place I hovered around was As'Image in Paris but I saw nothing on their website where they claimed to use it.

 

It's great to know that a new place is opening up!

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The Kinetta scans of Super8 demonstrate the feasibility of shooting Super8 in a way that isn't just for a nostalgic vintage look, but on the contrary, shooting Super8 for a fresh and youthful look. Much of the way we read Super8 is by how it has looked through standard definition scans. It has been the scans which have produced the vintage look more so than the film. Something similar occurs with silent era films - not only through the transfer to video, but often doing so at the wrong rate (eg. 24/25 instead of 16).

 

I saw a restored print of a Charlie Chaplin film a few years ago now and it was just stunning to experience the film in the way that audiences would have originally experienced it, all those years earlier. It was extremely beautiful, it was as if it had just been shot yesterday. It was so fresh and alive and invigorating. Not vintage at all. It was life.

 

Watching the Nixon transfers is the same thing. Even if on vimeo. It's as if it was just shot yesterday. There's life there.

 

It is so surprising because for so long we've been told that there isn't any point transferring Super8 at anything much more than SD. How completely wrong that has turned out. The more pixels you use the better it looks. Information theory needs another look - or at least that theory which transfer systems have been using for the last thirty years..

 

C

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That is my all time fave 8mm short subject and I am an thrilled you posted it because it had been taken off Vimeo long ago. I had no idea it was on YouTube.

 

 

Wow, that's great looking footage . Who was the DP ? Camera(s) used ? Stock ?

 

 

I did find it posted on Vimeo , too :

 

 

 

 

 

 

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