First Big Film Project

[mattse2003]

hello all,
I am pretty new to super8 filmmaking but I will soon be taking on a pretty big project...My friend pitched me the idea of writing a 15-30minute short he said he is willing to help write a script so that all looks good, I am gonna use Tri-X and Plus-X for the film stocks. I have read good devices for sound are sony minidisc could someone reccommend a specific model? I just want one that can record audio and be sent to a computer to be synced up after production..oh and where can I send B&W film to be processed? Thanks for any help I get!
Matt

[Mike Buckles]

Welcome, Matt, and good luck with your interesting project! About the processing, according to the super 8 metadirectory, two sources of B/W super 8 processing are: Cinelab (www.cinelab.com), and Filmcraft (www.gracewild.com/filmcraft/). Not sure if they process both types of B/W, but there's a starting point! Mike

[Alex]

Yale Film (or is it Yale Labs?) in North Hollywood California is an excellent choice. However, I believe Yale has a "morals clause", so if your footage is either bloody or shows lots of skin, they may warn you or ask you not to come back.

However, I don't know how much this is urban legend and how much of this is reality.

I think Pro-8mm does BW also, they are located in Burbank, CA.

Some places offer "combo" pricing, meaning they have an overall price for BOTH film purchase and film developing.

So be specific as to if you plan on just wanting developing only, or if you want to know what the total price is for film stock and developing per cartridge.

Yale labs will prep you films for transfer to Rank Cintel at a very reasonable price, I think Pro-8mm is more expensive.

Prep for transfer to video means they splice all of your films that you brought into together onto one larger film reel and add the proper amount of "white leader" to the front and back of the movie reel.


I have a project deadline today, I'll research this more tomorrow to come up with a couple more leads.

[mattse2003]

I am looking at Pro-8mm now......$25 for film and processing on Tri-X and Plus-X.....that is probably the route I will go the plan is to do maybe a horror short film so if the whole Yale Labs thing is true I should probably stay away from there. One more question if you run at 24fps what would be the running time with a 50ft cartridge? Thanks for all of the info its greatly appreciated.
Matt

[Alex]

You get 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

Here are some beginning and end of each cartridge strategies to consider. Run about two to three feet of film at the beginning of each cartridge of something that is not important to you, since most dirt, dust, and scratches will be found at the front of each cartridge of developed film . Perhaps a clearly defined slate with your name and phone number at the very beginning of each film cartridge is the best approach.

When you get near the end of the cartridge, (past the 45-47 foot mark). Shoot close-ups and inserts to finish the cartridge off. Usually you will also get a little bit of dust and dirt on the tail end of a developed cartridge of film.

Some type of shots hide dust and dirt. The shots that are the least forgiving are backlight shots, such as a bright sky, they will show off any dust, dirt or scratches that are on the film.

The idea of shooting the insert shots at the end of each cartridge serve two purposes. Usually the spontaneously shot insert shot is an extra shot that perhaps might not have normally gotten shot until the actors takes are all done, and sometimes productions run out of time and never get the insert shots, so by grabbing them at the end of every cartridge, you ensure that you are getting enough insert shots. However, if you have to move the camera and refocus the shot to get your insert, you could possibly make a mistake when you go back to your other framed shot after you have finished that cartridge of film on the close-up.

The second reason to shoot inserts at the end of each cartridge is if the shots don't come out because of lab issues and end of film issues such as dirt, dust, scratches, these shots can be recreated without calling the actors back for a reshoot.

If you don't want to bother with changing the camera angle to get some insert shots, then just remember that whenever you finish a cartridge of film in the middle of a scene to subtract 5-10 seconds film time at the end of each cartridge when you log how much of a take is good for picture.

The worst that will happen is you will have extra usuable footage if your estimate is slightly conservative.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ July 14, 2002 04:03 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>