Need Advice on buying Super 8 for Vintage Wedding

[IamJama]

I am looking to buy an older camera for a friend who is having a "Vintage Wedding". I thought I would pick up and old super 8 on ebay, get some film, tape at the wedding and have it transfered to video for her with good tunes in the background. Any thought or recommendations greatly appreciated!

[AppleCore24]

Super8 records 3 min 10 sec maximum (that at 18fps). If you are doing a weding, you don't want just times of nothing - so buy three or four cameras, they can be pretty cheap, and have two people to help you, at least. Then load all four cameras with a cartridge, set them next to each other, and when one gets almost to the end start shooting with the other one. The first friend will replace the cartridge from the camera's when they are finished so that you can have a continuous cycle. The second friend will take sound, probably on minidisk (my personal prefrence, you'll probably get some other and better suggestions). Since it's their wedding, they will probably want to pay for a rank transfer. Yale does it for $250 (I think that's right... might be $275) for every hour it takes them. A basic formula is that it will take them three times longer to do the rank than the running time of the film. So if its a a really, really short wedding (say 20 minutes) then $250 (or @$275, if that's the case) will be the cost to transfer the film to video. If it's an hour ceremony, then its 3 times 250 (or 275) etc...

[tom hardwick]

Just a small correction. Super8 runs 3 mins 20 secs at 18fps. Other than that I'd say go for picking out the people present and don't try and make a "video" out of it. The charm will be the big, maybe silent, pictures of their many guests. Let the wedding videographer get the sounds and the actuality, go for closeup faces with Super8.

tom.

[Alex]

For your purposes, think of video as an audio acquisition format....

DEFINITELY also capture the event with a video camera, and mike it well.

-Alex

[ekoe]

is the wedding inside of doors?
if so, you'll have a tough time maintaining exposure.
if you watch old 8mm/super8mm amatuer wedding footage, you'll see that the shots are mostly exterior. churches will not usually allow lights. in fact, at times, it's tough to get reasonably close to the altar. i shot a childhood friend's wedding on super8mm. partly in emulation of the old 8mm weddings i was fortunate to observe, and partly out of necessity... i did not film the ceremony at all. instead, i waited until the bride and groom emerged from within the church after the ceremony. it's really a great moment, but it happens quick. you need to run around to get a variety of shots before they ride off in a pontiac judge (or similar preferred means of vintage transportation).
they don't throw rice anymore, y'know. someone said the birds eat it and it swells in their stomachs and kills them...
instead, they blow bubbles, we all know this right. anyway, i decided i'd film the couple slightly overcranked at 32 fps so the bubbles would seem to float more gracefully through the air. also, because of the brevity of the moment, i didn't have time for tripod set-ups. overcranking will reduce the apparent image shake when hand-holding, as well. and again, due to the brevity of the moment, overcranking will extend the period of time it takes for the couple to reach their getaway vehicle, resulting in a longer duration final product.
oh, and you wouldn't want to film the entire ceremony. how boring. just go for the key moments, y'know? film is not free.
i transferred the film i shot and placed a title slate at the head of the tape, just fancy white text on black background. i didn't edit the transfer at all, instead i faded in as the couple emerged from the church, then zoomed in and faded out as their trolley car (as was the preferred mode of transport in this case) pulled away.
i placed some romantic spanish classical guitar to it, and that's all. it was as close to perfect as it would get. as it was, and with not one edit.
-e.

[Hanthx]

Hi there!

Im assuming this might be your first time shooting with Super8mm, so here are some tips for you to make it easy and cost effective.
Call Kodak, and buy Kodachrome 40 film. It will cost you $10 bucks a roll unless...you have a student I.D. Do you have one hanging around somewhere? This will get you 20% of your price, $8 bucks a roll.
Then you can take it to WalMart, drop it off in theyre over night box, come back for the film in two weeks, and WHAMMO, you have processed film. It will cost you less 5 bucks a roll. Thats the absolutely the cheapest way to go.
You can find a relatively cheap camera on ebay, look for brand names like Canon, Elmo, Nizo, Minolta. Dont spend alot, but make sure it looks like it been taken care of.
If you don't want expensive transfer places, (via Rank Transfer, 275.00 an hour) there are plenty of places that will do it for about 25.00 and hour to any format.
Or...maybe you can send it to Konton, and he will do it for a nice price, since he needs the money.
Hope this helps.
Scott