super8 vs. digital filmmaking

[Fugazi]

Hi everybody,
I?m going to hold a speech about super8 vs. digital filmmaking in a course about digital media and economy. So I?m looking for some really good arguements. Can anybody response to that? I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Max

[Alex]

We have some interesting pre-existing topics on this subject...hopefully they will turn up shortly (they were lost when Hostboard I became the new and improved Hostboard) please check back in.

[BolexPlusx]

For me it's not just the end result but the journey. I enjoy the film making process that S8 takes me on down to the last detail.

I don't care that an electronic medium is instant gratification because getting processed film back in the mail is always a great feeling. I swear I've never had one sit in the mailer more than an hour after I get it.

I also like the strategy of cutting a couple of rolls of film into a hundred pieces, and somehow maneuvering it back together in a beautiful form.

I don't care that the per unit costs are cheaper for video because the amount I spend every year on film and processing is tiny by the standards of many people's hobbies, and more than made up for in cheap therapy after a day out in the real world.

Most of all, I just like Super 8. It's the same medium I made primitive little films with as a teenager 20 years ago, and now with more life's experience and the mellowed attitude of middle age it's a real thrill to pick it up again and do things much better.

I'd try digital video, 16mm, 35mm and even 72mm if somebody was foolish enough to let me at it, but in the end it's good to come home to my old friend.

[Alex]

The Super-8 Resurgence continues.

I was buying video stock for my editing studio..and two young guys in their early 20's came into the store two buy some 10 minute VHS stock so they could make copies of their demo reel.

One was an actor, the other was a director of Music Videos...

I mentioned Super-8 and their faces lit up with acknowledgement. Perhaps they'll visit here in the future.

[siltec]

Part of the human condition is to look forwards and backwards concurrently. Very often this can be beneficial as new materials make old ideas work, hang gliders, or work more effciently, sailing ships.

Digital video has taken out of amateur film making at least, the onerous element of editing and presenting, while failing to enhance the production experience. Personally I get a great deal of pleasure in creating the film, especially with a mechanical clockwork camera, but I found the editing and cutting a pain, and sound was really beyond my pocket. ProFilm actually capitalise on this by selling film which is digitised as part of the processing package.
No doubt there are plenty of individuals who enjoy the physical editing process, and the communal projection of the final film. Good luck to them, but I suspect they are a minority within the wider interest.

MovieStuff in a cottage industry way are providing a relatively affordable telecine facility, again enhancing my observation that it is the creative activity with film that is the prime interest.

So, maybe, there is a market for a device that can be used with a digital camera, which with appropriate software transfers film to the digital image. It is really a question of how many people out there would pay, say $100 for a device to transfer their old home movies on.
Maybe even Kodak could get in on the act and sell new cameras again, this time returning the film complete with the digitised image on a CD or DVD.
Sorry about the extended waffle, it is what one does when you start thinking in front of the computer.

[BolexPlusx]

What strikes me is that when photography was first invented, somebody must have thought that within a generation nobody would be painting pictures anymore. Yet here we are edging up on 200 years later and people are still using oils and watercolors.

Why would somebody sit for hours and paint a picture when you could point a Nikon and snap a perfectly nice photo? It's simply because the audience and the artist find something in the painted picture which speaks to them. As much as some artists do wonderful things with still photography, others will still sit down with palette and brush and paint pictures. While visual art is the goal in both cases, one does not obsolete the other.

It's the same thing with Film and Video. They are different media which take a different route to a different goal.

I would kind of hope that those of us who enjoy making films on film would stop looking over our shoulders for the video induced end and keep to the business of making films and sharing them with others. If we attract enough new filmmakers this way, the end may never come.

[cameraguy]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by BolexPlusx:

I would kind of hope that those of us who enjoy making films on film would stop looking over our shoulders for the video induced end and keep to the business of making films and sharing them with others. If we attract enough new filmmakers this way, the end may never come.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

I simply shoot Super 8 as a hobby. i don't have aspiriations of being the next Speilberg. I like the look of Super 8, I like the sound of the motor squeeling away knowing in my head that the little bugger is stopping 24 times every second to expose a frame, I like physically handling the film wearing cotton gloves cutting it up and splicing into a story, to me staring at a computer screen to edit a film just isn't in the cards projecting is such a blast seeing a 8 foot wide picture which looks amazing. Call me an idiot if you like but Super 8 is and always will be my hobby even if a digital camera comes out that can perfectly mimick the look of Kodachrome.

As long as an oddball company (like Foma) can still make film it really does not matter if Kodak quits the film market. The expense of making new cartridges could kill the cartridge format but theres always Double Super 8 and Regular 8 which is easy to spool up. There are enough 9.5mm, regular 8mm and DS8 diehards out there to keep enough demand for some kind of film to be made for quite some time.

[Fugazi]

never heard of Foma before...

[Alex]

In the May 06th issue of Time Magazine, there is an article that starts out with..."The Death of Film"

Ominous sounding right? Then on the next page, the article states..."No matter how a film is captured, edited and finished, the starting point is the negative".

Film Origination, Digital Destination.