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.