Thursday, 20 February 2014

Super 8mm Film



Above is some test footage I found on Vimeo from the Canon 1014 XLS camera, this is the camera I would like to use to shoot the Super 8mm footage. 



This is another example of the footage from the Canon 1014 XLS.

I've looked into purchasing one of these cameras and at the moment its down to wether I can afford to buy one, if I can't obtain one then I'll look into purchasing a cheaper alternative camera from Canon like the 310 XL. A company called 'Gauge Film' sell the film stocks, process it and telecine the footage, this will be the company I will be using to deal with our footage.


UPDATE

Today I went into stores to see if they had any Super 8 cameras and it turns out that they have 5. I spoke to Mark Parkin briefly and he told me that Lynn at stores would be able to tell me about the cameras they had and could give an in depth decryption of each camera. I went to speak to Lynn, I then took some photos of the cameras she showed me so that I could go and see what results they produced by borrowing through Youtube and Vimeo to find videos like the ones above.

Here is a list of the cameras that stores have to offer, and which one I plan to use.

Braun Nizo S 800


This is now going to be my camera of choice, I've researched some videos with this camera with the 64T 100 Ektochrome and Vision  500T and 200T. I chose this camera over some of the alternatives for a number of reasons, according to reviews and reading up on its specifications I've learnt that the lens of a high quality and offers a varied focal length with a powered zoom and manual zoom, the camera can shoot at there different frame rates 18, 24, and 54, I like the sped up jittery look to the 18fps it has a dated aesthetic which would fit the era of the start of the film (1950' -1960's). After looking about on Ebay its clear that this camera is more expensive than the others that stores showed me giving me confidence that this camera will produce better results, and after holding the camera the build quality surpasses the plastic ones. The automatic zoom feature is something I will confer with Tom Newsham about, the zoom to me seems very organic its not seen in current films but as this Super 8 footage will serve as documented shots from the characters childhood the zoom would be something that would be used by the operator back then, this contrast with the footage from the F5 in the actual film will create an interesting sense of layers to the piece as a whole. In terms of film stock the Ektochrome offers more contrast with the Vision film offering a flatter image with more latitude. I feel that the Vision film may be a good decision as if the image feels too flat then we can always add contrast in Final Cut Pro without ruining the footage though I wold rather leave the processed footage as it comes, which is why the Kodak Ektochrome could be a better choice. I will discuss this with Tom Newsham the director of photography before making a final decision to see how he feels aboutt each film stock.



Beneath is a video showing the different Super 8 film stocks from Kodak and how they differ in colour, grain and latitude.

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