Conclusion

The aim of this advanced negotiated project was to investigate super 8 as a medium and the unique emotive effects of the format.

As an investigation this project hasn't achieved the aim of conducting a wide scope comparison of various super 8 formats, due to the rapid decline and scarce availability of super 8 stocks. This problem was overcome by using 35mm photographic film formats to compare and contrast the colour profiles of Kodak and Fujifilm and proving that different companies did offer something different, just as 35mm photographic film does today. However I feel the most important and striking outcome of this investigation was the digital film versus analogue film discussion, which compared Ektachrome 100d film stock to widely available applications that aim to recreate the look of super 8 film. The comparisons in this part of the investigation were striking and proves that digital has quite some way to go before it can completely shut down the film stock production lines.

It has become evident that if super 8 was widely available at lower prices with faster processing there would be a resurgence in super 8 usage. However these are the very reasons what seems to put people off from using super 8. Everything people use today has to be instant and has to be affordable, and super 8 is no longer those two things.

There has been a big shift in the identity of super 8 as a format. It has gone from being at its height, the every man's camera for home made amateur films, to a format now accepted by industry professionals in the film industry as an emotive tool to help tell a story. Its inclusion in popular media is used as blue print to create a feeling of nostalgia.

The feeling of nostalgia stems from the fact it is, a format, commonly associated with home made movie making, and this is why super 8 has featured more prominently in cinema over the past twenty years as it is now virtually extinct as a home movie format with the introduction of DV tape camera recording technology and now SD HD "Handycams" and DSLR's. No doubt in a generations time we shall see snippets of DV footage used a tool for nostalgia.

Therefore, in summary, the future of super 8 is bleak. During this project I got to know someone who processes and develops super 8 footage; the last person to do so in the United Kingdom. He informs me that he would expect Kodak (the last major company to produce super 8 film) to cease production of super 8 film by 2018.

The argument between digital (left) and film (right) remains an interesting one.

It could be argued if film was to have a future super 8 would be it. Super 8 has never been known for its high quality as a format where as recently in film there has been an argument between the quality of digital versus the quality of film. Super 8 cannot be added to the equation of this argument as the fact of quality sets it apart from the likes of 16mm and 35mm; now losing the battle against cameras such as the Red Epic and Arri Alexa. If super 8 has a future it lies in a niche market or for it to be accepted as part of the Lomography movement in SLR camera photography. Personally I dont think the future of super 8 has yet been determined even though the future of 16mm and 35mm are in doubt. 

Camera's such as the Red Epic may pave way for the ceasing
of 16mm and 35mm production but not necessarily Super 8.

Although popular amongst amateur and professional film makers alike, it simply isn't used widely enough to generate any profit from it, as it catered for a market it no longer has. Super 8 may or may not have long before it becomes extinct however the bright vivid and coloured images it has produced will live long in memory.

The Finished Film...

Below is my finished super 8 film for this advanced negotiated project...

I am fairly pleased with the outcome of it however at one minute twenty-five, it is a lot shorter than originally planned. This is due to a couple of reasons. Firstly when initially filming outside, or when I thought I was filming outside, a lot of the footage clearly wasn’t exposed when the film returned from processing. My only explanation for this was that the camera was not catching the sprockets on the film, and therefore the film was not winding on at the time of filming. The problem is that the timer on the camera corresponds to the camera rolling and not the film. So I thought I was filming a lot more than I actually was, and because of this I’m missing quite a few scenes originally planned in the shot list.

Another reason why there is a lack of footage is that the scenes exposed onto film were a lot shorter thank intended. The clips are quite short as action was taking place before the camera was feeding the film at full speed. The lengths of the footage were also affected by the batteries in the camera, which were low and should have been replaced prior to shooting. This fluctuated the frame rate of the camera, making some clips longer than desired, and others shorter than wanted.

The other problem with the footage when it returned was that a lot of the footage was under exposed and unusable. There were some clips that were shot at a bowling alley, adding another scene to the film but the camera and film just couldn’t find enough light to correctly expose the footage. The lens on the model of camera I was using was not interchangeable and therefore I was unable to use a lens with a lower f/stop. The only way this problem could of been overcome was to use a lower frame rate on the camera. But judging how under exposed some of the images were, even shooting at 18 frames per second would have produced under exposed images.

Therefore the main reason for the problems with under exposure was a lack of light in the environments used. The footage was shot on a fairly cloudy day and anything filmed indoors was far too dark to use. Consequently the biggest mistake in the production of this super 8 film was a lack of attention to lighting.

Aesthetically I am very pleased with the footage. Even though as previously mentioned the footage was shot on a very overcast day, the colours in some of the shots are very vivid and live up to the high contrast nature of super 8 film. I also think that the organisation and selection of shots correspond to the narrative well, and capture the theme of nostalgia; a theme originally intended to be achieved in the aims of this film prior to filming.

As I’ve stated, the major flaw of this production is the length, however this is a risk taken when filming super 8. In this case it was using the best of the three minutes of footage that came back after processing, but unfortunately in this instance only fifty percent of the three minutes of footage were good enough to use in editing the film.

If I were to re-produce this film I would have filmed on multiple super 8 films to have a wider scope of footage to play about with in editing. Some might say a digital copy should have been filmed in conjunction with the super 8 footage as a back-up however that is something I never intended to do as I wanted to make a super 8 film, not a digital replication of super 8.

I feel as if this project has summed up what super 8 is all about. Its one big risk, because if you get it wrong, you can have paid out a lot of money and achieved nothing from it. However if done correctly, what you can get back can be very rewarding. Both of these circumstances apply to my work as there was a fifty percent cut between what was good and what was bad.

The apprehension in not knowing what your footage will come back looking back is a nervous experience and I feel the practice of super 8 makes a better film maker, as you become a lot more careful in what you shoot and sparing with our film, in contrast to the un-limitless memory of digital film.

Magic Bullet Looks

Following on from the 8mm iPhone application comparison to super 8 film I furthered my research into "Digital Super 8" by looking into plug-ins for editing software that replicate the super 8 look. The best of these filters I have come across is magic bullet looks.






I believe this plug-in renders footage much more accurately compared to the 8mm camera application for iPhone. The colours in the images stand out a lot more than the footage I shot, however the colour depth and saturation could still be a little higher. The jumpy frame rate within the footage also makes the film credible. The footage is also nicely finished off with a super 8 styled 4:3 border.

The only items this footage lacks is noise/grain, as well as the scratched effects you get on super 8 film. The images in this are quite clear and lack the gritty effects you sometimes can get with super 8 film. And although the border emulates the shape found on super 8 film the image overlayed on top of the film lacks any motion you get around the frame when projecting super 8 film reels.

Digital Super 8

Due to the continuous decline in the production of super 8 film stocks there have been various attempts to re-create the look of super 8. This can also be said of 16mm and 35mm film. As digital now propels itself as the industry standard format in film many people opt to shoot on digital purely because it is more convenient however can digital replicate a film look?

8mm Camera is an application created by Nexivo which aims to replicate the look of super 8 for footage shot on the iPhone. The application allows users to select and toggle some of the camera and look preferences, with options to change the lens of the camera, which creates gradients and changes the frame design around the footage. The application also allows users to change the film stocks, with options for X-Pro, Noir, 60's, Siena, 1920's, 1970's and Sakura looks. There are also toggles which allow you to add frame jitter to the footage when shooting as well as turn sound on and off.

To see how this digitally produced footage compares to real super 8 film I have shot and edited the footage below using this application. The camera was set to the "60's" film stock in the camera preferences; being the closest match to the Kodak Ektachrome stock which was used to shoot my final piece for this project.


None of the footage below has been graded or enhanced. 






The first thing to note about the footage compared to genuine super 8 footage would be that the frame sizes of the footage are different. The original super 8 footage was exposed at 480 x 270 whilst the digital super 8 footage came out 960 x 720. Although in post production you could add a frame to replicate 4:3 the original aspect ratio of super 8, this would make things tricky when shooting as there are no guidelines for 4:3 on the viewfinder for the 8mm app. Also, as the "jittery" frame rate effect follows the edge of the entire dimension of the footage it, the effect would once again have to be added in post production.

As the grain and scratches on super 8 film is completely naturalistic and appears in a variety of patterns and on different areas of the film at particular points, the 8mm application for the iPhone is unable to re-create this effect, as it purely uses a video overlay which is applied on top of the footage you record. Therefore the grain and scratches in this footage is looped and appears in the same form. This also applies to jitter effect in where the focus of the images turns soft automatically, even though the user might not be zooming to focus on a different object at the point in filming where the effect automatically enables itself. Another effects that also occurs is the light flares which burn in the corner of the screen. Again this effect always occurs in the same place and does not fluctuate in position.

The frame rate jitter effect also allows you to spill frames onto one another, however in super 8 projection this wouldn't happen sporadically unless the frame size of what was being exposed would was changed or the frame rate slowed or sped up during filming. This is because in projecting super 8 or any other formats of film, the cells are aligned prior to projection so the frames would not leak at the bottom or top of the frame sporadically.

The most important factor of the compassion between digital and analogue film is the colour detail. For me I believe the images captured by the 8mm digital application do not even come close to replicating the images exposed onto super 8 film. Super 8 is known for the highly saturated colours it produces and high amount of colour detail. Compare the footage shot using this application to super 8 film and the colours in the replication are very faded and lack the amount of high contrast you see with super 8 film. The colour palette in general is very dull in the iPhone replication footage. The colours are all very brown and purple like, where as the footage shot on super 8 is much more true. This observation can be justified in comparing the skin tones on each pieces of footage. Despite advances in digital and the possibilities it offers, digital doesn't render skin tones as faithfully as film and it misses the depth and texture of film, and this becomes apparent when you look at the reds, blues and greens of the footage.

Being a objective as possible, can digital replicate super 8 film? No. Well, at least not yet. If it were able to, it would need improve the overlays for the effects it adds to the footage captured by adding longer variations in grain, scratches and light spills and instead of offering an option for frame jitter, allow users to adjust frame rates. The most important thing that requires improving though is the colour detail of the images the digital camera captures. Although the camera is just an 8 mega pixel mobile phone camera the colours need to be rendered to be more vivid with more contrast.

"For all my career I have tried to emulate film with video with various degrees of success, but I have never shot film. The biggest problem is the expensive 16mm film, processing, telecine costs a lot of money. Even Super 8mm is a fair bit, about £30-40 here with processing and telecine for around 3 minutes or so depending on frame rate. So not cheap." - Phillip Bloom

Although aesthetically digital cannot replicate super 8 like for like, its great practicality as a medium cannot be matched by film. Filming super 8 can be a nervous but at the same time exciting process as you cant look back at what you have just filmed. You must wait up to 3 weeks for the footage to be processed and there's no guarantee it will come back how you might expect it to. With 8mm camera you can immediately go back and review the footage you have just shot and see what you may need to re-shoot, where as film is not as limitless to re-shoot as digital and therefore you have to be much more sparing and careful when your shooting film, which can be seen as good or bad.

There is no comparison between the two mediums when it comes to cost. Taking the device the films are shot on out of the equation, a 50ft roll of Kodak Ektachrome costs between £10 to £20. On top of this cost the film can cost between £25 to £50 for one roll of film to be processed. The application which renders the footage for iPhone super 8, 8mm camera, costs a mere £1.49.

In terms of permanency, digital files never lose quality, film does, however super 8 film can be telecined at an extra cost, creating a file which wont degrade over time. Digital files are also a lot easier to store and organise than film reels which in super 8's case, quite easy to misplace and lose.

In summary to this comparison between digital film and analogue film, its not possible to say whether one is better than the other. Each have their advantages and each have their disadvantages, though if this was a study on can 8mm camera replicate super 8, Id say the answer would be no. It creates something that resembles super 8 by using the characteristics of super 8 as effects but in terms of quality of images it produces I dont think it can be regarded as a like for like carbon copy of super 8 film. Above anything else this is a discussion of practicality.

Comapring Kodak Elite Chrome to Fujifilm Velvia

To understand more about the difference between film stocks this post investigates the difference between Kodak and Fujifilm by comparing and contrasting Kodak Ektachrome Elite Chrome 200 and Fujifilm Velvia 50. The two 35mm films feature the same colour profiles of the formats for super 8, which makes this study easier to relate to super 8 as Fujfilm have now ceased production of super 8 film.

Kodak Ektachrome Elite Chrome 200 35mm - Shot on the Praktica MTL-3

In shooting this film I encountered a few problems as you may tell from the amount of blank, over exposed frames in the scan of the Velvia negatives. Shooting Velvia is a very tricky process as the ISO setting for the film is 50. This means longer exposure times, which makes it very difficult to judge the correct f/stop and shutter speed to use. On top of this problem, due to the low ISO of the film, the camera I used had shutter difficulties and seemed unable to follow the shutter speeds set. This meant a lot of the images too were over exposed. This is why there are fewer examples of Velvia compared to the Kodak film.

Fujifilm Velvia 50 35mm - Shot on the Olympus OM10

Although more noticeable from going to regularly shooting photography on a DSLR than on 35mm film, a characteristic that both of the film stocks share is the how highly saturated the colours are, which add a sense of surrealism to the photographs. They both, as like with super 8, ooze colour detail.

Although a green colour cast is more associated with Fujifilm Velvia these examples seem to show a more yellowish looking cast, possibly from the bright conditions and low sun when the photographs were taken. Though the green emulsion more commonly found with Velvia is only noticeable on direct comparison of the two different film stocks. Its effect of pushing the greens higher is not over powering.

As discussed in previous posts the Velvia stock really picks up cooler colours well, which is why it is most commonly used and associated with naturalistic photography. As you can see the Fujfilm Velvia appears more saturated in the blue to green spectrum and moreover tends to bring these colours out and emphasise them over all other colours. The film therefore, is ideal for photographing predominantly green scenes, which may include meadows or forest landscapes, or if the stock were to be picked for a certain genre of film it would be more fitting for the cool look you can associate with thriller films.

The Ektachrome film seems more saturated in the yellow to red spectrum, with a warmer palette of colours. However in the darker photographs the film gives off a purple, brown cast in the images, which really doesn’t look that great at all when photographing country landscapes, something the Fujifilm Velvia excels in. As a result, the film is a good choice for photographing warmer scenes. Another item the Ektachrome struggles with is the tone of the sky. Compared to the Velvia stock it renders blue with a yellowish cast, where as the Velvia film has a much more deeper and vivid tone in the blue of the sky.

Both of the films retain shadow detail equally well. Velvia however generally tends to tone darker areas down, though this is known as one of its unique characteristics that is often mistakenly misinterpreted as an incorrect ISO rating and therefore renders shadows in a more solid manner. It also seems Velvia holds highlight detail noticeably better than Ektachrome.

In contrasting the skin tones on each of the negatives it seems apparent that the Ektachrome is much more accurate at determining colours to represent skin colour than Velvia. This could be said as the film is known for its warmer colour palette, which adds the right amount of red and orange to accurately recreate skin tones. In compassion the skin tones in the Velvia film are too pale and really lack in any skin tone colour detail. This observation can be further justified when looking at the tones of the sandstone in both examples. The Kodak film renders the red and oranges much more deeply than the Velvia stock, which lacks the vividness of the Ektachrome footage.

I feel although the negatives that came back from this test were not extensive in the examples shown, this investigation does demonstrate that different films create different looks, and that different films should be used and implemented in different situations in accordance with the environment they are to be used in.

The compassion between these two film stocks shows that Kodak Ektachrome is a stock that renders warmer scenes better than Velvia, and that Velvia renders cooler colours better than Kodak. Therefore I would suggest Kodak is more of a summer film and Fujfilm is a film better suited for the winter. However, although Velvia can capture naturalistic photos better, Ektachrome must be used if you want to photograph realistic portraits with accurate skin tones, but there are no rules in photography to say photos should be accurate representations of what you shoot, which therefore gives artistic license to whoever is behind the camera.

My Film

For this advanced negotiated project I intend to create a short super 8 film which ties into the themes, practices, codes and conventions of super 8 all discussed within this blog.

The piece shall be a two minute super 8 film shot on Kodak Ektachrome 100d colour reversal film, one of the few super 8 films still being produced in the world. This daylight balanced super 8 stock which is know for producing brightl high contrast images will be used to produce something a bit darker than you'd expect to see within the super 8 genre, like in Tarnation, reviewed earlier within this blog.

The camera I shall be using for this will be the Nizo S560. Manufactured between 1972 and 1974 in West Germany, the camera allows super 8 to be shot at frame rates of 18fps, 24fps and 54 fps and it comes equipped with the option of automatic and manual focus. My particular model has a Schneider Kreuznach 56mm (8x zoom) f1.8 lens. The camera also has two-speed power zoom, reflex viewfinder with split-image viewing, TTL metering with full manual override, variable sector fade shutter, automatic dissolves option and also a function for time lapse shooting.

Nizo S560

The film itself will depict a young woman who has been lost in an accident. The narrative will follow snippets of moments the viewer remembers of her in super 8, reminiscing about his memories of her. This will show her in acts of fun assumed to be with the filmmaker as well as footage of how the person remembers the woman. This footage will be contrasted with the flashing hazard lights of a car which gradually brighten but fade in and out slower and slower as the memory of her is lost.

The aim of this production will be to use various super 8 techniques in the narrative of the film. The medium will aim to show the event is both in the past and a memory of the events depicted. In addition to this, the use of the character engaging with the camera and breaking the fourth wall will add to the feeling of it the film being a home movie whilst the cutaways which include the hazards of the car flashing will be used to juxtapose against the happy images making it a more conventional film.

Although all the scenes of the film will be lit naturally by the environment they take place in, the choice of which time in the day certain shots will be filmed are to be used in conjunction of what sort of mood they wish to replicate. The shots of the woman will be filmed in daylight whilst the hazards of the car will be shot at night.

This idea for my film will aim to create a nostalgic look back on someones life using a medium that I believe is best placed to capture that mood, however I also wish to use the medium to try and juxtapose happy feelings related to nostalgia to that of sadness.

Tarnation

"Your greatest creation, is the life you lead"

Tarnation is a dark and haunting autobiographical of Jonathan Caouette and his enduring and gruelling relationship with his mother. It is a collection of VHS, Super 8 film and photographs twinned with snippets of answer phone recordings and short films directed by Caouette. Tarnation is an independent production shot on home movie equipment and edited in iMovie on a budget of just $218.

The films avant garde style depicts montage of clips. Its non linear form begins in 2003 where Caouette learns that his mother, Renne, a diagnosed schizophrenic, has overdosed on a prescription of lithium. The narrative then depicts the struggles of Caoutte’s upbringing in a family blighted by trouble and turmoil; endured by him and his mothers remarkable relationship.

Tarnation re-invents the idea of what a documentary can be. It could be said to be a film 20 years in the making, with footage shot by Caouette from the age of 11.

“I conceived the film as a new way of looking at documentary, as though it were imitating my thought process, giving the audience the experience of seeing what it was like to be inside my head.” - Jonathan Caouette

Super 8 as a medium was always invented for amateur film makers and more specically as a format for home movies and the inclusion of this in Tarnation is ideal as it captures the essence of home movie making perfectly.

You might often associate home movie making with images of happiness; smiling faces on family outings and celebration where as Tarnation depicts a much more darker tone of home movie making which in super 8 comes across quite haunting as it juxtaposes to it conformity.

The nature of the film stock is to capture brightly coloured and saturated images where as Tarnation contrasts that identity and replaces is with distressing images of sorrow and despair. This use of home technology captures the emotions of the narrative in its rawest of forms.

With Tarnation being a true tail, the use of super 8 technology to create this film add to its genuine story and forthright way it addresses the audience. There are no reconstructions or staged action it is emotion captured on film in the heat of the moment, with no evidence of a planned out narrative.

The somewhat naturalistic choice of the medium of super 8 captures the emotion of the story it portrays in a raw form which is completely truthful. This format proves itself as a medium of nostalgia due to its connection with the family home. Whether this be used to capture something happy or sad in this occasion is up to what the filmmaker shoots.

Super 8 in Feature Films Continued

Continuing on from the last post, which featured how super 8 has been implemented into feature films, this post features the 2010 Richard Ayoade release "Submarine". This coming of age comedy follows the character Oliver Tate and his achieve his desperate goal to find love.

The film in general is very stylish with a wide array of different techniques used in camera and lighting. The film also uses super 8 footage as cutaway during the film. The film titled "two weeks of love making" depicts Oliver and the young girl he has met playfully running across a beach, play fighting and kissing one another. The fits the stereotype of super 8, evoking a sense of happy nostalgia through happy faces and antics.

An interesting thing about this super 8 footage is that both of the characters appear in the film and the camera is following them. So you would have to assume that the format has been used intentionally as a stylistic choice to depict the mood of happiness and love and not as a self made documentary shot by the characters within the film.

This use of super 8 again evokes a feeling of nostalgia, however in this example, what we see in super 8, is how the characters look back on those memories.

Super 8 in Feature Films

Although as mentioned previously in the last post super 8 is a format that is most commonly associated with amatuer and home movie making. However it has also featured in some feature films as a cutaway to achieve a particular style or mood.

One film which utilizes this is the 2009 release Carriers, directed by Alex and David Pastor. The film uses super 8 at the start of the film depicting a family day out at the beach. The mother, father and two children run around and playfully act to conform to the happy stereotypes associated with super 8 family film.

Its a warm sunny day with brightly saturated colours and warm glows that enhance the happy actions of the characters. The film is also jumpy and scratched which too adds to the amateur nature of the film and dated feel of the what is taking place.

This then interestingly gradually switches to the modern day. The 4:3 aspect ratio slowly expands horizontally and the camera tilts upwards to the sky to reveal a match cut between the two shots of the sky. The camera then completes a 360 flip to reveal a four by four car traveling down a dessert surrounded road.

The purpose of the super 8 film in this movie is to juxtapose between good times and bad times. Happy and sad. The characters strained relationship is manifested from the situation they find themselves in and the breakdown of their family.

This footage is referenced to during certain points in the film when the characters reminisce of how things used to be at a location they eventually return to. Therefore the use of super 8, in this film in particular, is used to capture a certain mood and use it to juxtapose against something else, in this case a strained relationship between two brothers.

Although the characters never sits down with a projector and watch the film together, the director uses super 8 as a format of nostalgia. The actions in the family movie are played out in the mind of the characters in super 8; such is its relationship with nostalgia.