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I love Super 8 film!
14 years ago
General
I love super 8 film but its so damn expensive to shoot and develop. I was tinkering around in Sony Vegas tonight and trying to get that super 8 look. The video isn't really anything, just some scrap stuff I had. I was more concerned about the effects. Its amazing how such a simple old technology is so hard to copy with today's technology.
Digital video is amazing, allowing us to record as much as we please, wherever and whenever we want. We try to capture as much of our lives as we can with this technology but I think this has hurt us in a way. We have gotten spoiled. To record something is just a simple click of a button with out concern of the importance of the subject matter but to film something is entirely different. Film is expensive, always has and always will be, so when something is being filmed it better be important. When filming, so much more effort is put into every second trying to capture everything just right. With digital video we lose that drive to capture the importance when recording.
Film also provides a wonderful tactile quality to it that digital can never achieve. Its something real that you can hold in your hands. When I watch something on film I get this feeling of realness. Everything you see on the film actually happened in front of that film through a lens. It may get old and faded, scratched and dirty but it just gives the film more charm.
The only fairly cheap Super8 now is Black and White, Kodak's only color stock is their Ektachrome which is not cheap to buy or process. Costwise it is almost preferable to shoot on 16mm for color work, as the resolution is superior and processing/transfer is roughly the same. My figures aren't super current as I haven't shot 16mm since 2009, but yeah, it's all going digital now unless you dig the film look.
Also, I sadly didn't like Super 8. It made me want to watch ET again before they went back on it and pooped on it with digital enhancing like they did with Indiana Jones Trilogy. I joke, Speilberg and Bay had a buttchild and call it Super 8. Sorry if I sound like I'm being a douche, but it kind of goes into what I'm saying.
Ever seen the movie Dr. Strangelove? That movie is a black and white movie... they were plenty capable to make color movies the day that movie was made, but they didn't want to, they wanted the old feel to it :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKkF8c3rz5M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97o0Fj8CnrM
and the very last one I got to shoot on Kodachrome-40, which is not just out of production but also impossible to get processed anywhere in the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tKwtjx5UZg
Now if you want to talk about movies, you should chat with Protius. He shoots 16mm! If you will be at Mephit Furmeet he usually goes to that, but he also goes to Ocean City.
Film effects are simply just too difficult to apply to digital photography, just shooting with film is far easier than going out of your way to try and replicate them.
One reason i absolutely adore Fuji Velvia 50 and 100 film. It produces colors far better and more accurate than any digital camera today, with the bonus of being about as sharp as todays highest end professional cameras. Link
One major reason i'd love to get me a Canon AE-1 Program 35mm camera is that i grew up shooting film, and to be honest, i really do miss those days, not to mention it's a gorgeous camera at a very attractive price. C: Link
Digital, for example, expresses an immediate or futuristic, not-quite-real aesthetic, great for modern-horror and heist films. Super 8 is a classic, grainy, wonderful stock, which is why Walking Dead looks so good - it's shot on that.