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.