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.

Experimental Super 8

Due to its cheap comparative cost set against film formats such as 16mm and 35mm, super 8 has been used by many artists as a film format not just to film on, but also experiment with it.

This example of abstract super 8 by Fred Pelon seemingly uses old processed film reels. The film stock has been molded, as in left to develop in fungus with cheese, as well as soaked in various alcohol mixes to achieve its colour distortion, then put into the projector again and slowly pulled through while projecting and filming the projection with a digital camcorder. Due to the slow pulling of the film, the partly molded emulsion parts burn and bubble during the telecine process.

The example above is of double exposed film, a technique in where the double exposure of film combines two images in to one.

This technique of distorted super 8 is something that has been used in feature films, though much more subtlety. Although in 35mm, the 2007 release Planet Terror by Robert Rodriguez has a scratched film effect which was achieved by delicately running the film effect through sand paper. The film also expands and warps in times of discomfort intended to further disorientate the audience (as seen at 1.02 in trailer).

The editing of the film itself can be used as an effect to distort viewers and once again juxtapose against the conventional connotations and associations you would make with the super 8 format.

Super 8 Music Videos

To see how super 8 has been implemented over the years as a medium this post will look at a few selected super 8 music videos. Super 8 is most commonly associated as a medium for home movies however it has been know to be used for various other works, including film which shall be looked at a later date.

This super 8 film directed by Art Boonparn is of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart performing the track everything with you. The majority of this footage has been shot inside at night and due to the lack of tungsten light and use of incandescent light the films saturation is not as high as you'd might expect with super 8. This also applies to the footage shot outside in where the grain further continues to increase in intensity. Though the bouncy footage, choppy edits actions of the film make it authentically super 8 and fun. 

Sedative by Babyshambles. Shot with Pete Doherty's personal 8mm camera, this self-produced video is jarring, disorienting and tattered in an aesthetically pleasing way. The selection of film is shot at different locations at different times to add to a wide variation of clips. The stuff at the beginning seems very over exposed and its disorientating effect might be intentional to the narrative of the songs lyrics of drug consumption.

"Sedative,
it's a sedative,
it was my hero,
and I had a hit..." 

The colour palette of the video constantly varies from bright overly exposed film to afternoon glows and dark night snippets of footage. The indoor footage also is quite different with a morning blue and purple palette lighting the environment of the cats. Personally I am very keen on the footage at night. The background has a bright lime green colour whilst the foreground is light brightly with the white light of the scooters following the camera.   

This video really tests the limits of the camera and film which in this case copes with the variation in lighting environments comfortably displaying little sign of annoying noise. 

Directed by Moses Berkson, this footage of the Fiery Furnaces performing Naval Nurse is what you would most expect from a super 8 film. The colours are heavily saturated and ooze with vibrancy. A common trait that it encapsulates is the vivid deepness of the blue in the sky in contrast to the land which are separated so clearly between either side of the horizon.

An interesting part of this video is the footage seemingly filmed beneath the surface of the water which is something I personally have never seen with super 8. I never imagine this would be possible either with the cheapness of super 8 camcorders and the era they were produced. This either could be achieved by using a product such as the Ewa Marine underwater bag or water tight super 8 camera which are very rare to come by.

The Eumig Nautica was one of the few super 8 cameras to be able to shoot underwater.

If there was a music video award for dedication this would be it. Holly Throsby, What I Thought of You. Shot by twenty people over the course of thirty years, singer-songwriter Throsby delivers a fanciful journey through time with plenty of warm, grainy Super-8 celluloid. This video varies in stocks, location and time providing us with a vast array of colour palettes, exposures and stories.

This video is one of few with snippets of black and white celluloid. The footage looks studio shot with is cast of shadows and silhouettes which evoke memories of film noir and their dark shadowy cinematography.

This montage is encapsulates super 8 wonderfully with a mix of dark, dull and grainy stock to more bright, colour saturated and clear stocks all displaying a vary in styles and subsequently moods.

Mansard Roof by Vampire Weekend is the bands first ever music video and has as well as filmed been stylized with text credits and the beginning aim to evoke a feeling of nostalgia. Again as you'd expect with super 8 the film is heavily colour saturated and in this case casts a warm orange glow with low height of the sun in the location.

My favorite part of this example is the use of lens flare which strikes across the screen at select parts in the video. Many modern day productions see this flare and as a nuisance where as I see it a very nice and aesthetically pleasing defect of not having a lens hood over the camera; too adding to the amateur style of super 8.

Lastly is my favorite example of super 8 in music videos. The 1986 release Ask by the Smiths. From a technical point of view its rubbish, but what makes it special is its amateur manner. A group of people gathered together, dressed differently and acting to the music and lyrics and relating to what the lurcis say. 

"Shyness is nice, and
Shyness can stop you,
From doing all the things in life
That you' like to..."

The footage is an array of madness from its contents and look. Jumping from colour damaged green cast looking film to wonderfully crisp and noise free film. Though this has a point, switching from moods of the real world which is dark and miserable to the world the protagonist dreams of, warm and happy, filled with colour and vibrancy. 

Fuji Velvia

Velvia was a brand of colour reversal find produced by Japanese company Fujifilm. As a film stock, Velvia was well known for its very high level of colour saturation and image quality. Introduced in 1990 as a competitor to Kodachrome its sales rocketed creating somewhat of a commercial battle between Fujifilm and Kodak in the industry standard for high definition colour film.

Compared to Kodachrome and Ektachrome its colour representation is understood to be far more brighter however due to its much more higher colour saturation in compassion to Kodak's the image representation is much more unrealistic. With this new colour representation, finer gain, faster film speed (x2 faster) and a more convenient development process (The E-6 process) Kodachrome sales dropped dramatically; eventually leading to the ceasing of its production.

This is my favorite example of Veliva super 8 film. Velvia, like in this example, has highly saturated colours in daylight with a high contrast and sharper picture. Compared to Kodak, Fujfilm has a more cooler palette of colours in its image representation, making it more popular with naturalistic pieces of photography and film. This Kodak and Fujifilm comparison shall be discussed further in this blog. Due to high saturation of Velvia it is considered overdone by some photographers. In particular those who don't primarily shoot naturalistic pictures. Its tendency to oversaturate skin tones makes it not suited for portraits, as it gives pink or brown skin a red colour cast.

Like with many of the super 8 formats Fujifilm was discontinued in 2005 due to a decrease in demand, and also the fact that it was a niche format for its different style of colour representation. However some small companies do still produce it;

After the discontinuation of Kodachrome by Kodak, this caused a serious problem for many amateur shooters, since some Super 8 cameras can't adjust themselves to the film speed of other Kodak film. Many perfectly good cameras were suddenly unusable. Spectra Film & Video in North Hollywood has a solution: Fuji Velvia 50 daylight balanced color reversal film in Super 8 cartridges. Velvia exposes properly in cameras designed for the old Kodachrome film. It also offers extremely fine grain and vibrant color reproduction.

"The picture obtained from this film is quite impressive. And, as a reversal projection film, it still maintains the "vintage" look we all love. Reversal films have a unique, surreal color and contrast that cannot be duplicated in any other medium. People relate the reversal film look to past experiences because news reel footage, documentaries, sports footage, home movies and more were all shot with it as recently as the 80s." - Spectra's President, Doug Thomas 

 The result...

A nice re-creation of a stock that no longer exists. As you can see the saturation of the colours is very high and accurate of the characteristics of Fujifilm Velvia. However one part of the image representation that has changed is that the Velvia stock that Spectra produces has been reconfigured to have a better balance of lubricant to minimize jitter.

In summary to this post Velvia crossed over two era's in super 8, the first was as a competitor to Kodachrome, providing an alternative in style and practicality whilst it also had to compete with the release of Ektachrome, the format which later became the successor to Kodachrome. Although commercially it was never as successful as Kodak its style caused a craze in still and motion picture film making, which now seems to of been re-discovered in the current rise of Lo-fi photography and companies emulating old super 8 film stocks.

Ektachrome 100D

As mentioned in the previous most the last colour reversal film still to exist is Ektachrome 100D. I thought I'd share some footage I have previously shot on Ektachrome 100D.

This footage was shot around two years ago for a project made at college. The aim was to recapture life in Britain 50 years ago, emulating Kodachrome and the the first British Pathe films captured and processed for colour projection.

The film was recorded and sent for processing in Germany where once returned was projected and filmed onto HDV. The film was purchased through a company called the Widescreen Centre in London, one of few shops to still sell Super 8 in the United Kingdom.

Again the great thing with super 8 film stock like in this example is the richness of the colours. The quality of this isnt the best as it has been recorded onto HDV however you can pick out the deep contrast of the colours and accuracy of the colour. 

"Reversal film for motion imaging has a powerful ability to emulate reality and bring a story to life. Film is about depth; it's about nuance of color, flow of movement. Super 8 Ektachrome 100D Color Reversal Film delivers the power of film. Whether you are a Super 8 enthusiast or a cinematographer, you will enjoy the strikingly saturated color performance, the neutral gray scale and the accurate skin tones found in this Super 8 product." - Kodak

Interestingly Ektachrome 100D is a daylight balanced film, and therefore has different exposure characteristics than other films in the Super 8. Automatic handle this difference through the notched film cartridge. However, many older manual cameras that were designed for use with tungsten-balanced films utilize an internal filter that converts daylight illumination to a tungsten balance. When using 100D Film, this filter is unnecessary. 

 

Ektachrome

The successor to the now ceased film stock Kodachrome was the release of Ektachrome from Kodak. Like Kodachrome is available in many different formats which range from;

• 35mm 400ft Core
• 16mm 100ft Spool
• 16mm 400ft Core
• Super 8 50ft Cartridge

Ektachrome was first developed in the 1940's, intended to be a successor to Kodachrome so amateurs as well as professionals were able to process there own film stock. Kodachrome was a very intricate method to process so the introduction of the E-6 process would allow amateurs to purchase and develop their own film It would also make colour reversal film more practical in much more larger formats.

national geographic picture

Kodak announced in 2009 that Ektachrome 64T and 100 film would be discontinued. One of the last motion picture film known to of used Ektachrome was the 1999 release Three Kings; a film which used a cross processing process in C-41 colour neagtive chemistry to give the film its unique appearance.

Cross Processing - The process of deliberately editing/processing film for a different look to its original appearance.

In February of 2011Kodak announced the ceasing of production of Ektachrome 200. The only Ektachrome that is currently in production is Ektachrome 100D colour reversal film.

This example of Ektachrome 100D is one of my favorites. Although the footage is dated as being shot in May 2010 the aesthetics of the film make it look like something from 30 years back. The film as Kodak say themselves delivers intensely saturated colours, accurate skin tones and a neutral gray scale; attributes that can even be rare in modern digital camcorders. The film also captures the lighting of the environment beautifully. The colour palette is extremely warm with saturated yellows and oranges which juxtapose and contrast nicely with the deep blueness of the sky. Its colour representation is incredibly vivid.

Compared with Kodachrome the release of Ektachrome was more a successor of practicality than aesthetic improvement. The colour accuracy of Kodachrome was improved with the release of Ektachrome however is longevity is worse, with colours fading on film faster than the previous stock Kodachrome.

Kodachrome

In response to the previous post I thought it would be a good idea to investigate into the film stock the footage was exposed onto. This aims to understand the film stock and what sort of images can be produced on it, determining the advantages, weaknesses of the stocks limits.

"Kodachrome,
They give us those nice bright colors,
They give us the greens of summers,
Makes you think all the world's,
a sunny day."

- Paul Simon

The footage on the super 8 film in the previous post was captured on Kodachrome II. Kodachrome, manufactured by Kodak is a colour reversal film which is more commonly found on 35mm photographic film. This produces a positive image on a transparent base which is then processed to produce transparencies or diapositives instead of the more common negatives and prints. Reversal film is used in super 8 and super 16 formats as well as some other motion picture film formats to yield a positive image on the camera original, avoiding the expense and slight degradation of image quality resulting from using negative film, and copying to a positive to produce a print for projection.

London Piccadilly, Kodachrome Photograph, Chalmers Butterfield, circa 1949

Kodachrome was the first comerically succesful colour film stock which used the subtractive colour method compared earlier additive "screenplate" methods like Autochrome and Dufaycolor. It went on to become the oldest surving brand of colour film, manufactured for 74 years in many formats to suit still and motion picture cameras including 8mm, Super 8, 16mm and 35mm for film cameras. It was also used for many years for 35mm, 120, 110, 126, 828 and large format still photography, specifically for images for publication in print media. 

 Subtractive Colour - The use of paints, dyes and inks and natural colours to create colour by absorbing some wavelengths of light and reflecting or transmitting others. This action is the basis of photographic filters, films and colour papers.  

As a stock Kodachrome is known for its dark storage longevity in archival resources, so much so that the majority of Canadian material is archived onto Kodachrome as it can be transferred into different formats with no worry of backwards compatibility with original prints on film stills. However with the introduction of competing film such as Fujichrome and Ektachrome (also released by Kodak) which use the E-6 process, a more simpler, quicker and more importantly less expensive was of processing, Kodachrome lost much of its market share from the 1980's through to the 1990's.   

E-6 process - The photographic process for developing Ektachrome, Fujichrome and other colour reversal slide photographic film.    

Differently to transparency and neagtive colour film with dye couplers incorporated into the emulsion layers Kodachrome had none, these were added during the processing. Without these the emulsion initially layers would be thinner, causing less light scattering, allowing the film to record sharper images. the processing of Kodachrome was a tricky process and wouldn't be able to be completed by amateurs, something Ektachrome could.

"If you have good light and you’re at a fairly high shutter speed, it’s going to be a brilliant color photograph. It had a great color palette. It wasn’t too garish. Some films are like you’re on a drug or something. Velvia made everything so saturated and wildly over-the-top, too electric. Kodachrome had more poetry in it, a softness, an elegance. With digital photography, you gain many benefits [but] you have to put in post-production. (With Kodachrome) ,you take it out of the box and the pictures are already brilliant"

- David Friend 

Kodachrome is no longer available however its memory and legacy lives on through the images it produced. The images are high in contrast and super rich in colour and although we have lost it as a stock, its longevity ensures we can enjoy its images for sometime,

Super 8 Moods

One of my favorite examples of super 8 is this video found on YouTube. Its Super 8 family footage dated from 1969 which has been telecined using a Canon HV20.

Ive worked with super 8 before and personally love it as a medium. The colours like in this example are very saturated and stand out with such vibrancy which aesthetically makes it so pleasing to the eye.

I also love the fact that so many super 8 films are shot hand held which gives off this informality; often depicting, like in this example happy family day's out which works really well with the warmth of the colours you can get with super 8 film stocks.

Even the jerky manner of the frame's going through the projector add to the innocence of it all, which also adds to the nostalgia. It as a piece of technology and medium captures the date when its from perfectly. Its interesting to see how different types of footage recapture a date or era better than other and I believe super 8 is one of those mediums.

It interests me that footage like this only depicts happiness, I dont think Ive ever seen a super 8 film which has contained dark themes and this is something I will look into. Could the mold be broken, and if so would the juxtaposition of bright saturated colours work with more darker themes.

A Change of Heart

The last and first post of this blog detailed the investigation I wanted to undertake for this advanced negotiated study. In nutshell it was to investigate the emotive and semiotics effects of the film format super 8. I aim to still study the aesthetics of super 8 film as a medium but now look at super 8 on a more technical view.

I wish to study the cinematography of super 8 by testing and analyzing the different film stocks of super 8. This shall be achieved through the analysis of;

• The colour profile each of the stocks produce, whether some stocks produce warmer or cooler looking colour palettes. 

•  The quality of each stock; examining the grain or clarity each stock produces.

•  The performance of each stock in different light conditions and how they perform in natural and artificial lighting environments. 

• The emotive effect created by each stock by conducting primary research into how each stock can create a different moods. 

• Analysis of previous super 8 works in popular media and how they convey the narrative they are trying to tell.

As super 8 is rapidly becoming more and more unavailable and soon extinct it shall be hard to obtain a wide selection of film stocks so much of research will rely on past examples of super 8 however some Kodak stocks still exist and shall be tested and investigated in this project.

Introduction

The aim of this advanced negotiated study module shall be to investigate into how different technologies can be applied to different genres of film making and how different technologies can juxtapose against connotations often related to a particular medium.

The outcome of this project is to create a super 8 short film that identifies film making can be depicted using a variety of mediums to tell stories in different ways. This study shall be linked to an investigation into abjection applied to cinema and film technology which examines how different images disturb people on different levels. This also examines how different film making techniques can enhance a cinema viewing experience. This study will examine previous examples of popular and niche media that both conform and break the rules of conventional cinema and how each example achieves its genre.

As well as examining previous examples through secondary research the blog will also conduct primary research into the connotations of different film technologies and how they may suit a particular genre better than another. This investigation shall be affiliated to the genre of horror.

To further study genre I shall investigate other various elements that make-up genre including the mis-en-scene which is closely affiliated to cinematography. 

The final task of the project shall be to create a short test film piece using super 8 which shall be then used  to be screened for the investigation into abjection and how it as an unconventional piece of technology can applied to abjection further, adding to the disturbance of the viewer.