A Bizarre Experience

Post by **tfunch24** » Sun Dec 08, 2002 4:38 pm

Recently I talked to somebody I knew from college. I described the ten-minute short I'm working on, and he was surprised when I told him I was shooting on Super 8mm. He wanted to know why I was shooting on such an "esoteric format." I gave him my reasons and he seemed satisfied. However, when I explained that I was shooting silent with intertitled dialogue, he looked at me as if I were crazy, telling me that "it's the nineties. Get with it! Shoot sound!"

That pretty much ended the conversation.

Tom

Post by **Old Uncle Barry** » Sun Dec 08, 2002 7:02 pm

You shoot a film how YOU want to shoot a film.NOT how some uninformed ignorant wannabee tells you how it should be done.
Carry on with your chosen method.You will not be disappointed.

Post by **David M. Leugers** » Sun Dec 08, 2002 11:00 pm

One of the most overlooked advantages to shooting film instead of the video "format of the moment" is that film lasts. I have every foot of every film I have made since 1973. It can be projected and viewed as if it were shot yesterday. The importance now to my family is immeasureable. Lots of footage I shot with my lowly film camera, when other family members were shooting with the latest video cameras, is now the only footage that exsists in a viewable (useable) state of deceased relatives. I fully expect that whatever high definition gee-whiz video format exsists in the future I will be able to take my original films and make transfers. For me film has the feeling of doing something worthwhile instead of something for the moment. The sound of talking heads is overated anyway. You can make beautiful films that are more about images with sound being a background of music to accent the images. Point is you can do what youwant and not what the masses expects you to do. Enjoy the film experience, let the video snobs go their way.

David

tfunch24 being lazy · Sun Dec 08, 2002 11:20 pm

Oh, I agree completely and that ignorant idiot's prattlings did not bother me in the slightest. I just thought I'd share the experience; I'm sure my fellow S8 (and R8) shooters have had similar experiences.

I'm not going to change because some idiot tells me to get with the program.

Tom

Post by **BolexPlusX** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 3:24 am

Yep,
I have a good friend that's into audio recording in a big way and recently I've been talking to him about how I can do sound tracks for my films. In a moment of innocent sincerity he said to me "Have you ever considered using video?" What exactly did he expect me to say? "Oh!, kind sir!, I have never heard of this wonder and you have enlightened me!"

Let's face it, these days if you run across somebody shooting Super-8 it's a choice, not because 20 years ago they bought 350 cartridges of K-40 and still have 65 left!

Oh well, he did help with the sound problem!

Post by **Cheezy** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 11:09 am

It's funny that when you tell people you wanna shoot Super8 they ask you "why don't you shoot video" just because they know you can't record sound on your super8 and it's not as easy as video, and blah-blah-blah...
As far as I know, people that use 35mm don't record sound on the camera either... but nobody tells them to use a video camera! Why not then?

Film is just beautiful. Even the worst piece of film in the worst film camera will always look better than the best video. Even the most ugly scene will look cool on film, compared to video. And film lasts. Not only does it lasts longer in time, but it's "written" for ever, until you burn it. Video is rewindable, eraseable, reuseable... thus, ephemerous.

Post by **David M. Leugers** » Mon Dec 09, 2002 4:49 pm

Right on guys! Tom I guess I was on the pulpit preaching to the masses, I know by your posts that no "video genius" could sway you from the film making path. I too have many such experiences. I imagine the few stout large format still photographers suffer from the same type of "advice" from others. Like us, they can just smile to themselves knowing the effort required to work in their chosen format has its own rewards in the final product. 8)

David

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 3:17 am

And the much broader point here is that you have to live your life the way you want to, not how somebody else dictates the way that they think that you should . Societal norms always put pressure on people but if you have the balls to live in a way that is true to yourself you will be much happier and discover things beyond your wildest imagination. Break those chains and free yourself from the prison of current society!

Post by **Cheezy** » Tue Dec 10, 2002 8:45 am

Some people still think Super8 is that jittery and grainy home-movie-style film type. Some say you cannot work professionally with such inconvenient and unreliable cameras, and try to talk you into using 16mm instead...
But I heard about the same five years ago when I wanted to shoot a music video with miniDV, rather than digibeta or else...
I usually pretty much enjoy to prove everyone wrong with the results

Post by **ricardoeko** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 5:44 am

I wrote a manifest that i read here in my country, Portugal concerning the super8, and the cinema in general, but unfortunately it is written in portuguese, i'll translate it soon anyway. Well, about your film, you have the camera, the film, the idea and the courage right? So film it, don't listen to that type of people, don't even answer them with your words but with your films.

Post by **Old Uncle Barry** » Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:21 pm

8O
Remember also that Super8 has stood the test of time.Film shot thirty years ago will project anywhere in the world today,and for that matter will transfer to any electronic medium you wish.
Bet all these digital gizmos will be obsolete long before thirty years has elapsed!

Filmshooting

A Bizarre Experience

A Bizarre Experience

Film

The super8 manifest