Good Film for Experimentation

[DharmaBum]

Hey-

I'm a newbie to this - my sister just purchased a Yashica super8 camera for me at a garage sale and I want to start fooling around with it.
I've put together a short script that I want to shoot, mostly in daylight and at an office that's heavy on the fluorescents. I'd like to shoot in natural/available lighting but really just have no idea where to begin as far as films. I've read many reviews of both Kodak and Pro8 stocks - right now I'm leaning toward Pro8 because their price includes the processing. Can anyone recommend either of these brands and a good film, or good speed of film, to use?

Another quick question - this camera is LOUD. Down the road, if I want to do some sound too, anyone know of any barneys or blimps for Super8 cameras? Or just any noise dampening methods? Any advice appreciated.

[Alex]

Congrats on the gift!

Think of the Yashica as a "starter" camera and if you are happy with the results you'll probably benefit more by finding an additional camera down the road for more ambitious projects.

Pro-8 is a good choice if you want to simplify the procedure the first time around.

However, it's just as easy to buy the film from Kodak, either the ASA 200 negative or the ASA 500 negative, then have either Yale Labs or Spectra Film and Video both process it and transfer it to video for you.

Those two negative stocks will simplify your lighting requirements. I can't guarantee that your Yashica will read these film stocks properly if you choose to film in the automatic exposure mode and some Yashica's do not have manual exposure overide.

If you are shooting indoors it may not matter because most of your shots will probably be wide open anyways. If you are shooting outdoors, the negative does have a bit of latitude so even if overexposed it may still come out.

I'd recommend looking into buying a second camera, then doing a film test of the same subject with both cameras to see which one handles the negative stock better.

If you do purchase a second camera, make sure it has manual exposure override. Camera loudness is an issue. One technique is to have the actors do an additional take without the camera running but do record the audio and then use that audio in edit.

[Alex]

Have you filmed yet?