Kodak's marketing strategy for super-8

[npcoombs]

You know, you have to wonder sometimes: this is how Kodak 'plug' Super-8 film on their website

Rediscover the look and feel of the past with this easy to use and inexpensive flim.

Hardly sounds progressive does it. Exactly how are their Vision stocks 'the look of the past' and who on earth would want to pay such money to 'rediscover' the past?!

[reflex]

Rediscover the look and feel of the past with this easy to use and inexpensive flim.

Hardly sounds progressive does it. Exactly how are their Vision stocks 'the look of the past' and who on earth would want to pay such money to 'rediscover' the past?!

Troll.

Small format film is most certainly a look from the past. 99.99941% of the public uses camcorders, digicams, and mobile phones to capture moving images. The other sixty thousand of us use a forty-year-old technology called Super 8.

[sooper8fan]

whoopdi-frickin'-do....another topic about Kodak's marketing for the small format. Can't wait to see how many people start crying over the loss of K40 again........

if you have a better idea for Kodak to cater to the needs of the Super8 filmmaker, contact Kodak.

[Angus]

Kodak are marketing the format to the people they think most likely to buy it...namely pros who want a "retro" look for a production.

We may feel it has other qualities, even better qualities, but Kodak has clearly made a decision to concentrate on professional shooters using negative stocks.

time will tell whether Kodak is right to do this...or not...

Those of us still shooting super 8 because we feel it is better than a camcorder have been drowned out by the media machines of the camcorder manufacturers and the convenience of said devices.

I can only think of one format which has made a mainstream comeback following near anilihation at the hands of a newer one....vinyl records. While they're no longer in the supermarkets the choice and availability is better now than 15 years ago. However vinyl is the exception which proves the rule

[npcoombs]

Reflex and Sooper8man, you can both fuck off with your irrelevant, snide remarks.

As John has repeatedly stated s8 is for film school students and as a gateway to 16 and 35mm: in terms of getting to grip the negative stocks that transfer to pro production. This is not exactly expressed in 'rediscover the look from the past'

[reflex]

Reflex and Sooper8man, you can both fuck off with your irrelevant, snide remarks.

As John has repeatedly stated s8 is for film school students and as a gateway to 16 and 35mm: in terms of getting to grip the negative stocks that transfer to pro production. This is not exactly expressed in 'rediscover the look from the past'

Like it or not, Super 8 looks old-fashioned. The registration jumps and weaves and more often than not, the grain is the size of marbles.

It is a gateway to larger formats because it doesn't behave like video, making it an excellent learning tool for those who will one day step into the world of 16 and 35.

[npcoombs]

Like it or not, Super 8 looks old-fashioned. The registration jumps and weaves and more often than not, the grain is the size of marbles.
.

This has not been my experience: but then again I didn't pick up a decent camera and use neg stocks in order to capture the 'look of the past'

[sooper8fan]

npcoombs wrote:

Reflex and Sooper8man, you can both fuck off with your irrelevant, snide remarks.

looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning...who are you talking to anyway? There's a sooper8fan on this forum and there's a super8man as well.......get the name right, bitch.
incompetent turd.

npcoombs wrote:

Hardly sounds progressive does it. Exactly how are their Vision stocks 'the look of the past' and who on earth would want to pay such money to 'rediscover' the past?!

so what are you saying? you don' tlike the look of the V2? You don't like the price? It wasn't all that you had hoped and dreamed your films would look like? What? Go shoot something else then and cry your river someplace else.

[timdrage]

Kodak's marketing strategy for super-8

1. Make Super-8 cartridges
2. ???
3. Profit!

[sonyrelic]

What happened to Kodachrome?

[Angus]

What happened to Kodachrome?

I guess it didn't "Rediscover the look and feel of the past" quite the way Kodak want us to.

[Dr_Strange_Love]

Rediscover the look and feel of the past with this easy to use and inexpensive flim.

Hardly sounds progressive does it. Exactly how are their Vision stocks 'the look of the past' and who on earth would want to pay such money to 'rediscover' the past?!

Troll.

Small format film is most certainly a look from the past. 99.99941% of the public uses camcorders, digicams, and mobile phones to capture moving images. The other sixty thousand of us use a forty-year-old technology called Super 8.

Haha, nice figures but I still expected more people to go for super 8...I was probably just naive. 8)

[Arislan]

Single 8 is the superior format but that died out even faster than Super 8 outside Japan.

[sarmoti]

Geeese! Girls, you're all pretty!

BTW: Kodak's marketing strategy is not nebulous, it's pretty clear:

1) Manufacture S8 carts,
2) Market it and sell it to aspiring (students, semi-pro) filmmakers first, keeps them from only choosing the electronic adquisition path now (DV) and in the future (Digital Cinema). If pros buy it for a retro look great, but it doesn't really matter
3) Make absolutely no REAL profit (in the context of a large corporation).
4) Since these people are now hooked on film sell them 16mm and 35mm products next and make a profit.

[Evan Kubota]

"3) Make absolutely no REAL profit (in the context of a large corporation)."

And 16mm does? With the student discount, Tri-X 7266 is under $15 USD for 100'. In terms of emulsion area, that would be enough to load 4 carts of S8. Buying 4 carts of Tri-X with the student discount would be around $36. Either Kodak takes a big hit on 16mm stock or the actual raw stock is proportionally much less expensive than the plastic casing for S8 carts. I somewhat doubt the latter is the case. I wouldn't be surprised if Kodak made more profit per item from S8 than 16mm.

(Obviously the plastic cartridge does add additional cost, but the 16mm 100' loads come on metal reels... those aren't free. The plastic boxes also require additional production cost.)