Old school time travel

[David M. Leugers]

Having not projected original 8mm film for about a year but have seen tons of it transferred to DV, it came as a pleasant and reaffirming experience to thread up the old projector for a night of home movie time travel over the Christmas holidays. The difference between a film projected onto a 4ft wide
silver screen versus even a large HD TV viewing of a DVD is stunning. Kodachrome and B+W images of life with our kids 20-25 years ago gave us a beautiful dream like voyage to the past. The program was all R-8mm film, shot on Bolex cameras and projected on a B+H Filmo Picture Master projector.
What struck me was the absolute rock steady image on the screen for every frame. This was 25 year old film, shot with a 50 year old camera (I still use) and projected with a 70 year old projector! Even the 4-X reversal footage looked fabulous. With all this talk against film grain, makes me wonder what is the big deal? If the image is sharp and looks good, no one notices or objects to the grain. 4-X should have been unusable in R-8mm, but it really had it's own look and ethereal beauty allowing sweet natural light images shot indoors. I miss it. Those with a family, do yourself a favor and shoot home movies on film, just hang around and you'll be glad you did.

[S8 Booster]

Hi David. I have to to agree with you in every aspect only difference is that i have only used S8 for this purpose. for reasons i have not watched my films on screen for more or less 5 years or so. a few months ago a gathering with my new wifes family came up to watch all my film material projected. none of these had ever seen real moving film or it projected and they wanted to see it all - over 2 days actually - unstoppable.

they were all stunned by the image size and outstanding image quality and colours on colour film of course. even if they are used to big screen HD TVs and pro films this showing apparently made a big impact on them.

for the first time watching my films projected i never dropped a thought on grain, as if there wasnt any - earlier i allways kept an eye on the grain but it never struck me during this seance. the imagery was in control and it ruled.

i do not know how things really progresses all over but watching these films again on screen brings a certain calmness to it all - as if a mission is completed but there is no talk of termination - at least it appears like this to me.

and, as earlier mentioned - the audience were stunned.

shoot.... more film...

[David M. Leugers]

Bravo! It is really incredible that the small images of S-8mm and R-8mm can look so great on the big screen. It needs to be seen via good projection to really appreciate what the small format film can deliver. Like your relatives, those who have not seen it before are in for a very pleasant surprise.

[Will2]

Good to hear. Especially when younger folks get to see film projected.

If you really want to blow them away even more, shoot some 16mm Ektachrome 100D. Wow. The colors and sharpness projected are stunning.

I even had a work print done of some negative 16mm family stuff just to see it projected and it looks great too although not quite a vibrant as the Ektachrome.

Kodachrome in 16mm is also amazing because I've never seen a transfer do Kodachrome justice; even on a Spirit. Ektachrome transferred can come close if it's done well but something about the Kodachrome process and film itself doesn't lend itself to scanning well.

[rlorenz2]

Yep I'm 25 and first thing I do when I get my processed film back is run in through the projector

A few times last summer we setup the screen in the back yard and had movie night with a few friends... good times

[David M. Leugers]

Will

You are so right about 16mm Kodachrome. Plus-X also. I really treasure the footage I have and wish I had been able to shoot more 16mm. I haven't shot 16mm E100D but I am sure it is awesome. Even in R-8mm it looks awful good
on the screen. On thing about 16mm, to really see the difference and appreciate its resolution, an 8ft wide screen image is a must. Lots of fun.

[carllooper]

Grain itself is not a problem.

As everyone should know, when watching any reasonable film, you will begin to not notice the grain, very quickly. This is because the brain is more interested in the image than the grain, and quickly separates the two out.

However the grain, whether you see it or not, represents a limit on the amount of information that is being conveyed to your brain.

But the relationship between grain and information is non-symmetric.

You can't increase the information as a function of just removing the grain. Most grain removal decreases the information more. Better to leave the grain in there methinks.

But if you can increase the information by some other function, (as is possible) a side effect is a decrease in grain.

Now you might lament this decrease in grain. But if you add grain back in again (for artistic purposes) that will just reduce the information.

Carl