The Simplest Way to Shoot Super-8...

**Alex** · June 24th, 2002, 04:07 AM

is to have a pre-built soundtrack. It's perhaps the most efficient and creative way to shoot Super-8.

If you have a pre-made soundtrack. Shooting a commercial, a music video, even a travelmentary becomes a simple and focused task.

**Alex** · June 26th, 2002, 05:07 AM

Has anyone had both types of super-8 filming experiences, shooting Super-8 while recording live sound and shooting Super-8 with a pre-built soundtrack?

**Scott Spears** · June 26th, 2002, 02:31 PM

I've shot with live sound using a DV camcorder as a sound recorder. It worked fine. The only drawback was having throw a sound blanket over me and the camera to muffle the camera noise.

Scott

**Shortend** · June 27th, 2002, 05:02 AM

I recently completed a cross country, pro8mm (320T), chase film without any guide sound. No synch sound period, but as many as 8 tracks in places. We captured location sound on my Betacam, needed to cover the montouge sequeces in each city. Everything was blocked so flexibly while still maintaining a 3:1 shooting ratio that we could edit each scene minus audio, arrange cities in sequence and connected with transitions. We then laid down the sound we had, and I then build a foley stage capturing footsteps, jet noises, elevators, dial tones, lamp shades, phones hanging up, camera's clicking, fingers on lampshade, blenders, sirens, dogs, seagulls, traffic, voice overs, you name it. We embellished the edited footage with sound and only made minor changes to the video edit.

Super 8 is a great way to learn filmaking inexpensively, especially with the availability of pro stocks. I really want to do more work un S16 and 35, but a cinematographer who shoots a s8 short will learn more about filmaking than someone who make a DV feature.

Super 8 has an asthetic charm that video does not have. DV and SP certainly are finer grain, but they completly lack the depth, the contrast, and the color saturation of even a consumer film gauge. And with the advent of pro 8mm allowing low budget filmakers to use pro stocks providing valuable knowledge of pro stock when budget allows S16 and 35.

**Alex** · June 28th, 2002, 08:46 PM

I'm curious why you chose BetaCam SP for Sound Acquistion instead of Mini-DV.

**Shortend** · June 29th, 2002, 05:29 AM

I shoot Beta SP for the "American Review Series", hosted by Morley Safer. They sent me and my friend/producer around the country to shoot these news magazine segments, called interstitials. They air nationaly on any local public tv station which chooses to schedule this free programing. Hence we had access to free Betacam, also tape, light kit, tripod, airfare, hotels, car rentals, food, booze. We shot the film on our free time in cities all over America while on company budget. Our ten city cross country 11 1/2 minute super 8 home movie only cost $800. We only paid for a $64 Bell & Howell 1238 camera from ebay, film, processing, Beta SP transfer, and a hard drive as payment for edit time.

And as I have 24/7 access to a Beta SP package i used the camera for sound aquisition. On location, the foley stage and to record the music. Besides, for audio aquisition Beta SP can rival a dat machine, which I don't have regular access to.

Rich.

**HenrySuper8** · June 29th, 2002, 01:15 PM

I've done similar things with DV, but i find it too hard to add the soundtrackt to the film with super8 [img]frown.gif[/img]

**Alex** · June 30th, 2002, 04:25 PM

<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 Shortend:
Besides, for audio aquisition Beta SP can rival a dat machine, which I don't have regular access to.

Rich.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree, BetaCam SP audio with Dolby encoding is very good. HI-FI VHS is also really good.

**Alex** · June 30th, 2002, 04:30 PM

<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 HenrySuper8:
I've done similar things with DV, but i find it too hard to add the soundtrackt to the film with super8 [img]frown.gif[/img] </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes and No. If you can get a magnetic stripe put on your film after it is edited, you can put sound on your film easily.

Some projectors come with "sync pulses" that will "lock" a cassette player to it, one pulse at a time. That way you can synchronize the projector to the soundtrack.