Questions about adding sound.

[GregoryApe]

Is it still possible to add sound to Super 8 film itself? According to Mike Brantley's site, a magnetic stripe can be added to a finished film and have sound recorded onto the film through a projector with a recorder. How do you add a magnetic stripe to a film? Is this needed, or could I use the balance stripe to record my sound?

[BolexPlusx]

How it works is once you have the film completely edited, a stripe (or two) of magnetic material is layed down on the film. Some people do it themselves, others (myself included) go to a commercial striping service. I know of at least 4 available world wide.

Here's a site with a lot of details:

http://www.super8mm.org/services/sound_striping.html

Now the film as sold by Kodak doesn't have either the main or balance stripe, and the stripers add both, or in many cases they will lay down just the main stripe for a little less money.

An important consideration is how your splices are made. If you use tape splices, it is preferable that the tape not cover the area where the stripe goes. In terms of cement splicing, the regular overlap splice has the disadvantage of having a step one film thickness high that the stripe has to climb at every splice. This can lead to dropouts in the sound and problems with the splice peeling off due to the gap. The preferred method is a beveled splice, because the film is ground down at the joint and the splice is much flatter.