Help on promoting the Super8 Format

[supa8]

Hi
I will be interviewed by the National television next week for a 30minute program about Super8.
My interview will be a few minutes long and I will get the opportunity to talk about the format, why it is great, who uses it, the reasons to use film over video, etc.

I would be very grateful if someone could help me in that respect and help me sum up and article the various arguments in favour film and indeed Super8.

I am not against video, on the contrary. I just believe that film can achieve results and looks that even HD video will not equal. In other respects, video can be very handy too and digitized film allows to get the best of both world in my opinion

Thanks for your help

[BAC]

You could talk about how useful it is as a teaching aid. I have found that with digital I didn't pay as much attention to what I was doing. Now I pay close attention to lighting, exposure, framing etc.

What program is it and when will it be on? I would really like to watch it.

[supa8]

True thanks.
Other points I can think of:
-It is an affordable film format, which allows amateurs, students, up and coming artists and filmmakers to shoot celluloid.
-It's a qualitative approach rather than a quantitative approach.
-You put some thought in your shot as opposed to shooting hours of material than needs to be editing down later. Actually, how many people really bother editing down their digital videos?
-It is very rewarding to get a film back from the lab and to see the results then.

[slashmaster]

Don't forget about films longevity. You can't make videotape and digital last as long as film without touching it! Or at the very least it hasn't been done yet.

[supa8]

good point
keep them coming guys

The program is called Nationwide and will be aired on RTE, which is the main Irish National TV channel.
Provisional air date: 25 June 2011 @7pm

[BAC]

good point
keep them coming guys

The program is called Nationwide and will be aired on RTE, which is the main Irish National TV channel.
Provisional air date: 25 June 2011 @7pm

For those of us in the US that have 600 channels of crap but no RTE it looks like we can watch it online.

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1099260

[Wade]

Film is definately the archive medium of choice for visual media. Film lasts 100 years. Electronic formats have each become obsolete in about 10 years.

Film still has a look to it which electronic media have not been able to replicate.

Some DPs argue that film (color negative) has far more latitude than HD.

Some DPs say shooting film is less cumbersome than shooting HD, and the overall cost of using film is less than using HD.

You can go to a Kodak promo at http://motion.kodak.com/US/en/motion/Pr ... /index.htm

You can click on testimonials there of why industry people prefer film. It will probably give you lots more ideas why film, not specifically Super8, is advantageous. For example, Chris Baffa who shoots Glee on 35mm film (click on Television) is articulate about using film.

[PyrodsTechnology]

super8 , despite small format , is always cinema, video not !

[jpolzfuss]

Hi,

for me the main reasons are:

• With video, I simply push a button - and later I have to remove 90% of the material because of problems with the light, because the scene was boring, ... . With film, I'll think twice before starting the camera. Hence only 10% is garbage.
• With film I can really touch, cut and glue the final image, while in digital video everything is only emulated and needs a computer.
• When I shoot a video, everyone expects me to see the final result 30min later on the internet. (And I normally don't get any responses to the videos other than "what editing-program did you use"). With a film-camera, they'll give me up to three months before they want to see my movie. And as they'll have to come to my flat (social aspect!), I can see their faces and reactions while and after having seen the film.
• As I'm shooting reversal film, the results are unique, copy-protected and will age with me. For artistic reasons I like this (even though another part of my brain somehow always complains as it wants to make a back-up copy ).
• So far I can still project all of my films. However some my friends can't see their videos any more as they lack the appropriate player (VCR/VHS/Video2000/...) or as their hard-disk crashed (without having any back-ups or with having unreadable backup-DVDs).

Jörg

[Will2]

I think the broadest appeal is emotional.

I got back into film after I realized all the videos from the 80's and 90's I was editing looked sterile and home movies from the 70's look warm, nostalgic and "homey." More of what you remember in your head vs. an exact representation of the real thing.

Super 8 especially has a rustic aesthetic that conveys an emotional response that you don't get from the best consumer HD camcorders. Seeing kids playing in a yard even without sound on Super 8 is a better than real looking video image of the same thing. It's very lack of crystal clear precision is it's greatest quality.

When I started shooting 35mm movie film, I realized that the image was getting too good. While I can do more with 35mm film in post, it really wasn't that much more better than a really well shot, modern, high-end digital HD camera.

But Regular 8mm, Super 8mm and 16mm have that "filmic" quality that simply comes from it's imperfections.

We all know the other excellent qualities of film because we use it, but if you're converting someone from video, I think the emotional appeal would be the strongest argument.

[grainy]

Great comments here, all I can add is something I noticed recently when projecting a super 8 film in the middle of a bunch of DV shot films -- the grain of film makes it look like something is "moving", whereas video feels like it could stop or start and it wouldn't make any difference.
This may be due to our understanding of computers vs. "movies".

Also, the super 8 grain provides its own texture, which all living things have, and I think this adds a quality to the image that is not inherent in video.

I also think it's important to say that all formats are good and valid, it's just a matter of what inspires an artist: paint vs. photography, wood vs. glass, digital vs. analog. It's an age-old question - people just like to use superlatives, but one really isn't better than the other. Just different.
G

[slashmaster]

I just thought of something for the films you buy and not the ones you shoot. I still have yet to see a reg 8, super 8 or 16mm with an FBI warning that you have to sit or fast forward through. If one ever did it would be so easy to cut it off! It can be done with VHS but you have to take the cartridge apart. I don't know how to do it with DVD or blu-ray.

[woods01]

We can all wax poetic about it and preach to the choir here but ultimately the person selling it is YOU. You're not going to be able to reference this forum when your interviewed. So collect your thoughts on what the appeal is to you. Why do you like it? What kind of films are you making? Home movies? Experimental loops? German art-porn? How do you think Super 8 enhances the work that you do?