Super 8 - Now and forever!

[MovieMaker]

Dear Users of this excellent forum!

I recently stumbled over this website and finally got the confirmation that I´m not allone in the Super-8 universe.

As I´m located in Vienna / Austria the Super-8 filmmaking scene is very small - that´s what I thought. Just went to a small dealer of photographic equipment and been told that he just sold over 30 projectors the last 3 weeks :lol: . This after a period when no one seems to be interested in the small film gauge anymore! Few minutes later I bought some K40´s at another dealer, and the second I pronounced (or better mumbled) "Super-8" another customer entered the store and ordered Super-8 film too :lol: :lol: ! So what!? Isn´t it just time to be more self-confindent about our passion and look others straight into their eyes and say: YES, I´m using Super-8! NO, it´s not only an amateur format anymore and YES it´ll be around for a long time from now.

I started as a young boy when my grandmother gave me the money to buy a small Nizo camera at a time where video was already on the horizon and everyone told me to go for the "new and better" way to make movies. Months later I got my first projector and when I saw my "masterpieces" for the first time on the big screen (or better: bedsheet) I was grabbed instantly by the magic of film.

I went on to work in the film business, later started my own company and did mostly documentaries on video due to bugetary restraints. Several weeks ago I pulled out my second Super-8 camera (Nizo 6080), projected some old homemovies of mine (partly jittery, scratched and silent :oops: - but those great colors and picture quality!) and got struck by Super-8 lightning again. I instantly forgot about my Canon XL1 and MVX1i and started cleaning and lubricating my old movie cameras (also the Beaulieu R16 for which I built a battery pack over the last two days) ready to shoot some new footage over the next weekends. By the way, I bought a Bauer T525 projector and other Super-8 items on eBay too..... somebody stop me!

Not that this would be enough, I opened my own film webshop too and the feedback was and is great. Specializing on hard-to-find items like clappers, movie clocks and so on lots of people asked for movie making equipment. That´s why I want to build a special "Movie Corner" section where filmmakers of all kind find their needed items.

I write this not to make cheap advertising for my business but to encourage all Super-8 filmmakers young and old to stick to or even discover this wonderful format (again). I will further expand my enthusiasm about offering Super-8 items to the big (and again growing) community all over the world and maybe one day we´ll be facing new camera and projector gear again. As long as we are supporting (and using!) Super-8, that dream is still within reach... :!:

[avortex]

Thanks for the post, Moviemaker!

I use a lot of video for my bussines too, but I love the look and the way of working with super8.

I started using it at the age of 13, and after a video period, I returned to super8 thanks to internet and pages like this one.

For me, super8 is not only a film format: it's a different way of filmmaking too...

[Old Uncle Barry]

8O Quite right!
Do not be ashamed of telling people you use S8.
Just recently I was at a motoring event adding to an on-going project on S8 standing shoulder to shoulder with a national TV crew who were also covering the event.They were mildly suprised to see that I was using this 'obsolete' format.That shows their ignorance but wait,there is more!

An incident occurred which I shot in its entirety and they embarassingly said they had missed it!
"Did you get that?" asked the cameraman
"Yes" says I
"Do you think we could use your footage" says he
"Yes,how much do I get paid?" says I
"Er-nothing,just a screen credit" says he
"Good bye and have a nice day" says I,and I walked off,leaving them very disappointed.If its good enough to be asked to use my footage then it is good enough to be paid for.That will teach them for almost ridiculing this 'obsolte' format!