Super 8 stories...

[chas_ucla]

Maybe we should put up an "ebay film equipment horror story" list or something like that.
What got me with the Canon 514 XLS was that the guy selling it was ADAMENT that the camera was in perfect condition when he sent it. He told me to send it back which I did, then he RE-LISTED the damn thing on e-bay without telling me he was going to send me a refund check. When I e-mailed him to inquire what was up he said that he had to "contact e-bay about their policies" because the camera came back to him "worse than when he had sent it." In other words, he thought I messed up the camera and was trying to rip HIM off! Jesus, I was pissed! Finally he sent me the check and, out of the goodness of his heart, added $5.00 more than what I paid. Not bad considering I forked over about $40.00 in postage altogether. Bless his heart.

[eddie]

Without doubt the best thing that happened to me was the first time I ever shot anything.

We were filming a fight scene between several vampires and a vampire hunter, in somebodys cellar, complete with polystyrene coffin, dry ice, costumes, old Black and white film, stage lights.

It took us from 8pm until 4am in the morning to finish all the shooting, we were all knackered, tired, drunk and very happy, we probably only shot about 3 cartridges in all that time, and what we got is about 4 minutes in the final film.

It was brilliant. I was so stressed for the next 2 weeks waiting to see if it came out, (it did.) and no other filming experience has come close to that night.

[Alex]

One of the more interesting shoots I got to do involved assisting for a Director of Video Photography who had just bought the Beaulieu 7008 from Super-8 Sound...the first time he shot with it without any assistance...nothing came out...

The DP was quite pissed off and wanted to return the camera to Super-8 Sound.

Phil from Super-8 Sound asked if I might go on the next shoot with this disgurntled user of Super-8 and "suggest" what would work and what would not for their next shoot.

(Once again, Super-8 Sound was looked at as the bad guy by this DP who thought he knew it all)

Well, I ended up working two days on an Oprah Winfrey prime time special with this video camera guy and his entourage.

The Oprah special would air on ABC during Sweeps month in prime-time, and if it went over big, they would do these every prime time...(or something like that)

Oprah would be interviewing Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis, who were all working on a Movie called "Death Becomes Her".

We followed Oprah around one of the Movie lots where "Death Becomes Her" was being filmed...which in and of itself is like no experience imaginable....

I had recently discovered the Joys of BW polaroid film...so when I told the DP he could shoot some Super-8 and he didn't believe me.......I snapped a BW polaroid that I had calibrated to match the ASA film speed of the Super-8 camera......

And Voila....the polaroid came out fine...the DP looked over the polaroid and kind of grunted...and he started to shoot some second camera Super-8 alongside his Video footage.

By the second day, two realities emerged.
One, I had "bonded" with this group, and looked forward to possibly working with them whenever they were in LA...

and Two.....I was a reminder to the DP of how "inexperienced" he had been when it came to shooting film/super 8mm and my being there was sort of a blow to his image and ego...the sooner I was gone, the better.

Having taken a dozen or two polaroids, the DP felt comfortable shooting the super-8, and those two days were the last I ever heard of him or his troupe.

Bittersweet, such is the taste of Super-8.

And yes, a few shots of Super-8 made it into the special.

Alex


[This message has been edited by Alex (edited January 05, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Alex (edited January 05, 2001).]

[LRS]

I was filming some frantic,frenzied last minute christmas shoppers downtown San Fransisco(finishing a documentery all done on super8 )and a high school girl comes up to me and asks:is that an old fashioned video camera?"

[Hanthx]

That is absolutely hilarious! I shot two rolls over Christmas, and I have to say, children are by far the best to work with! I had so much fun shooting my neice and nephew on Christmas Day, they were willing actors without attitude ")
SWS

[Alex]

I love filming Christmas lights during the Holidays...I'll do various time-lapse techniques....

One night, almost 20 years ago (I was just a pup, I swear) I was filming on Sunset Blvd on a median strip near the famous Tower Records building just West of Hollywood.

It was 12:00 midnight. (I can do time-exposure, so the night time is the right time)

It was kind of chilly and I had a puffy green down-filled jacket on as I wondered why I was out filming for no project in particular at midnight.

A police officer pulled up alongside me in the median strip and asked me what I was doing (My camera was set-up on the tripod).

I then proceeded to do the stupidest thing imaginable...and I did it quite by accident..

As I leaned forward to answer the police officer's question of "What are you doing"...I inadvertently put both of my hands in my green down jacket pockets to keep them warm.

I started to explain what I was doing when I saw the officer's eyes dart and GLARE at my disappearing hand trick...and before I had uttered the end of my first sentence...

He Angrily said "Take your hands out of your pockets!!!!!!!!!!"

I took my hands out...and only then realized I had put the officers and myself in danger by concealing my hands.

Yikes! I don't remember much after that, he seemed to stay genuinely pissed for the rest of our very short conversation, and he drove off.

I learned an important lesson that day...if you're ever appoached by an officer, ALWAYS keep your hands and wrists in full view...AT ALL TIMES.

I was able to practice my new found knowledge...an hour later! When I was pulled over after exiting the freeway. No harm, no foul, and I kept my hands on the steering wheel at all times......

except when I had to show the officer my drivers license which was in my wallet.....

....You never want to keep your wallet in a hard to reach place....but that's a story for another day.

Alex

[Hanthx]

Alex

I shot some footage a few days after Christmas. There was one house in a shanty part of town that was decorated head to toe. You could see it a few miles, the surrounding neighborhood was too poor to waste their money on lights but this particular house (family) didn't seem to have that problem. I hope it turns out.

As far as the cop situation...I completely understand.
My first car was a 79 Ranchero, I spent all the money I had on a 16 year old beast. I had no idea what type of attention it would attract from the police. I simply bought an old car in order to go to school, but they didn't think so.
One night after bowling with a couple of my good friends, we stopped by a taco shop and had a midnight dinner (1:30am). I was 18 at the time. After we left the shop, it wasn't more than half a mile up the street I was pulled over by a cop. "Again" I thought to myself, its a common thing in this car. I had already been pulled over a few months before while traveling home on a empty freeway after taking my bud to see the re-release of STAR WARS. The cop gave me a sobriety test for being tired, and then followed me 20 miles home, with his lights turned off. We went to the midnight showing...anyways... Back to the original story...I pulled over into an old parking lot and then began to pull my wallet out of my pocket when...the cop put a gun to my head and told me and my harmless pals to put our hands on the dash. Hell we were just bowling! We lived in a small town, with small town mentality, so this is what you get, Im glad I left. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw 4 more officers and two more police cars behind us, all with thier guns pointed at the back of our heads. We had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. What had happened was this...while we were at the taco shop, 3 suspicious white caucasins decided to hold up the 7 - eleven next to it, and we left at the perfect time. Eventually they let us go, but not without eating our left-over mexican food and my friend Royal's Dr. Pepper. What a night! What does this have to do with super8 you ask? Im going to use it for my next school project. Titles anyone?
SWS

[Nigel]

I can't stand cops!!! WHat does that have to do with Super8--Nothing that I can think of. I have a bunch of Super8 footage of guns shooting in extreme slowmotion, and slowmotion crossed processed. I don't know if I will ever use it but hell I have it.

[stanley k]

Well, because of Super 8, I have had the cops called on me twice. I was shooting a scene that involved a fight and I was filming in my apartment. We rehearsed several times, and each time it would end in a struggle and someone dropping to the floor. The whole time we're rehearsing I have these bright-ass lights on and I did not notice that the two cop cars had their lights turned on into our apartment. Well, next thing you know they're knocking on the door and yelling to open the door. What followed was a rather terse discussion on permits and consideration of others. Those cops were smart, though, not once did they set foot in my apartment, even when I purposely walked away from the door.
Then, this weekend, I was shooting a friend of mine train some bird dogs of his. So, as far as I know you stay behind the gunners as they will only shoot towards the front. Well, the dog finds the bird, and I have a perfect shot of the bird,the dog, the rustling of the grass cover and I can barely see the gunner, and I think,wow, I got the whole action going on right in the shot. I follow the bird and next thing you know its coming right at me, and I see through the lens that a shotgun barrel is pointed right at me. "Somebody tell that #$$%$^#!!" to get out of there, he yells. "I almost blew his head off!" And it is true, had he shot I would've lost my head. The guy never admitted he was wrong by shooting towards the back, though.

[Alex]

When you say "if the gunner had shot I would have lost my head" are you implying that if he had shot, you would be still hanging around with your buddies afterwards, just without a head.

Might make a funny movie...the guy has to tap out his messages, or try to write on paper...He can still hear and move, he just has no head.

Or maybe you're one of the surivivors of Invasion of the body snatchers....and what's a head or two among snatchers......hmmmmm.

[This message has been edited by Alex (edited January 08, 2001).]