Projecting vertical

[Francesco Palombi]

Hi everyone,

 

I do mostly photography and for an installation I'm planning to project some super 8 videos i'm planning to shoot.

 

My question is, can I project them vertically?

 

I don't have a super 8 projector and I've never used it, so I've no idea if that can be challenging.

 

Thanks,

 

 

Francesco

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

The projector should be kept in the normal position and use a mirror mounted at 45 degrees to project upwards.

 

Jean-Louis

[Francesco Palombi]

Hi Jean-Louis,

 

my bad. English is not my first language. For vertically I meant "portrait format" oriented video.

 

Does it make sense?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Francesco

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

I suppose you could do it with the projector laying down on its left side.

As long as do not block the air circulation to the ventilator grill.

 

Jean-Louis

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Does it make sense?

 

Hi!

 

I understand what you want to do. But it doesn't make any sense to me as Super8 is 1:1.33 and hence nearly square. So it wouldn't make any great difference whether you project this way or another...

[Andries Molenaar]

Use two (surface) mirrors, project on one and onto the other, rotate them both a part of total 90 degrees for portrait and of course make them project on the screen ahead.

[Andries Molenaar]

Hi!

 

I understand what you want to do. But it doesn't make any sense to me as Super8 is 1:1.33 and hence nearly square. So it wouldn't make any great difference whether you project this way or another...

Or mask off the sides. A sideway letterbox :)

[Roberto Pirodda]

if i have understand correctly what you want to do, you must shoot with your camera rotated by 90 degrees, otherwise you will get vertical horizon-landscape

[Mark Dunn]

Use two (surface) mirrors, project on one and onto the other, rotate them both a part of total 90 degrees for portrait and of course make them project on the screen ahead.

You can't rotate a projected image with flat mirrors alone, only reverse it.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Mark Dunn

[Dom Jaeger]

You can't rotate a projected image with flat mirrors alone, only reverse it.

 

True, for rotation you need to use something like a Dove prism:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_prism

 

But as Joerg mentioned, the nearly square S8 frame turned sideways is hardly portrait. A fairly simple method to get a more vertical projection aspect ratio is to shoot and then project with a 2X anamorphic lens turned 90 degrees (so that it compresses and later uncompresses vertically). This is what Tacita Dean did for her marvellous Tate installation. A 4:3 horizontal frame would become a 4:6 vertical one, some masking of the sides could make it more portrait still.

 

Or simply mask a normal frame, but you'd lose a lot of image area.

 

For an installation that may be running for a while I don't think turning a projector sideways would be a good idea.

[Francesco Palombi]

Thanks everyone.

 

Coming from photography the Super 8 frame turned, for me make kind of a big difference. Just look at 4x5 photography, vertical and horizontal pics.

 

 

Mmm anyway this sounds tricky..the use of a prism i guess would bring too much attention to the viewer, unless I can kind of hide that.

The tape I guess I just have to give it a try and see how it looks.

 

Thanks

 

 

F

[Joerg Polzfusz]

IMHO the main problem would be the heat:

Normally the hot gets blown out of the projector to its left side and then floats up:

However when the projector gets rotated, the hot air gets blown out to the bottom and then returns:

This shouldn't cause a problem when projecting a single reel. However when you do this in an "endless loop" for an installation, I fear that the projector and the film might get too hot.