New to Super8

[Nigel]

I would say an Elmo projector I have an ST-800 that I love. Good Luck

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[Delta4]

Hi, I have been doing 35mm B&W for years and just decided to give Super8 filmaking a try. I bought a Nizo 2056 camera on Ebay (don't have it yet) and ordered 5 rolls of Tri-X and 5 rolls of Kodachrome with mailers. I found Pac-Lab, NYC to process the Tri-X.

I need a projector, any recommendations?

Any general advice for a newbie would also be welcome, such as mistakes to avoid, good places to get stuff/services, anything.

Thanks for your tolerance, I know this question might have been asked before

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Dan
Fort Worth
Nizo 2056

[crimsonson]

Ronson
which AVID?

I also use MC at work and XDV at home. Just wanted to ask some questions about FCP.



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[Delta4]

Thank you for your replies.

I am going to do a family movie with much of it shot indoors, that is why Tri-X. I plan to edit the film by cutting segments of film and reconnecting them. I found an Elmo editor on Ebay, and bought it. I'm not sure what it does, but it holds two reels of film and has a viewer window to show frames.

I have read that film can be spliced by taping peices together, or by gluing the edges. I think gluing edges may be better, but I'm not sure. I don't know if I need another device to spic with, maybe the Elmo gismo handles that?

I did also buy a projector, a Sears Tower. Yes, a Sears Tower. It is the Sears Best unit, and I think Sears Best was usually a pretty good product. Its a sound projector and handles both 8mm formats. I don't know about replacement bulbs, but this one comes with two working bulbs. Oh, and it was cheap.

I'll keep ya'll posted, thanks again.

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Dan
Fort Worth
Nizo 2056

[Ronson]

"Ronson which AVID?
I also use MC at work and XDV at home. Just wanted to ask some questions about FCP."

Hey Dom, what's shakin', brother?

I use MCXpress, Mac platform, at work.

At the house, I'm running FCP in a G4 Titanium laptop... 500 Mhz, 30 GB HD, 768 MB RAM.

I've been Avid editing for about 5 years, but only FCP editing for the last 6 months... that being said, what's the question? :-)


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[8th Man]

I also have an Elmo (st-600)and I really enjoy it. I don't have all that much to compare it to though since it's the only real projector I've ever owned.
Whatever one you get I'd recommend one that has the option of 24 fps. I've found a surprising amount only do 18 fps and It's nice to have the choice. Also since sound striping is still possible, I'd opt for one that does handle sound and recording onto the sound stripe with a microphone.
Does the Nizo 2056 use regular AA bateries or does it require 1.2 volt AA's?
I have a pair of Nizo 6080's and they are apparently supposed to use 1.2 volts but I must admit I've used them both with 1.5's.
I'm a big fan of B/W S8 and I think tri-X has a nice bite to its texture when projected, however I don't think it tends to transfer as well to video. This may not bug you since it sounds like you'll be projecting your material anyway.
Best of luck to you.

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PRM

[Ronson]

How are you planning on doing your editing? Cut and splice, I'm assuming, since you're interested in projecting.

I wish I had more experience in that area, but if you decide to transfer to video for non-linear editing, let me know... I work on an Avid and in Final Cut Pro.

Plus, I'm another local boy (Dallas) and I'm partial to other Texans. :-)

Ronson

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[#Pedro]

Hi Delta4,

Yeah, the only way to enjoy the full beauty of S8, esp. the contrasty b/w, is to project it. Any electronic transfer reduces resolution and contrast to the half of the original, not to talk about the phantastic athmosphere of a projection.
And for projection, you must edit your original film manually, cutting and splicing. But this is really FUN!

The Elmo editor just is a good start, only look that all elements that touch the film keep always clean for not causing scratches. The editor only SHOWS you the film, it performes no cutting and splicing. It?s like a monitor.

For your firts trys you can splice with a tape splicer (ciro, w?rker, fuji), or even first hang your scenes together with common adhesive tape, to look how it looks.

When finished the correct order and cutted the szenes to the desired length (cut always at the top of the actors? movements), go into splicing them correctly together, put leader, title and lead-out.

Projecting the film, you soon will recognize, that the image will become out of focus for a short time with every splice. That?s becaus the tape makes the film thicker and lifts the pressure plate of projector a little bit off.

To avoid this, you may wish to replace the splices with cement spices.
O.k., this is more work, but really worth to afford it - and cheaper than tapes.
Get Kodak prof. cement and a Bolex cement splicer, the only one that I really can recommed. The high precision Bolex splicer grinds away the edges of the film ends, then you pass a brush to clean the dust, apply cement to one of the ends and close the press or 1 minute. The edges recombine exactly to the original film thickness. The result is a splice, not thicker than the original film, running unvisible and totally silent thru the projector.

After every splice you must clean the dust with an antistatic cloth. Only run a clean film thru the projector.

Enjoy it!

Pedro

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