Static shot

[karl hungus]

Ok, I know I posted right before this. I would like to have the viewer see the action onscreen then freeze one of the frames. Is this possible in Super 8? I can't figure out how to do it w/o an optical printer. Any suggestions?

Cheers, Karl

[tfunch24]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Is this possible in Super 8?</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you're projecting the final product, I don't think so unless you use an optical printer, which you pointed out. If you're telecining to PC and finishing on a video NLE program, it is possible. Just extract the frame that needs to be "frozen' as a jpg and insert that on the timeline. Most, if not all, of the more popular video NLE programs allow you to do this.

How to build a optical printer:

http://www.super8mm.org/pdf/v8n2.pdf

An alternative to the optical printer:

http://www.moviestuff.tv/8mm_telecine.html

Check out any of the "WorkPrinter" models. They can be used for both video telecine and S8 optical printing. Roger Evans, the inventor of the WorkPrinter, posts here under the name "Moviestuff" and will answer any questions you may have.

Tom

[MovieStuff]

You could use the same trick they used in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the end freeze frame. They needed to freeze the action and then do a really huge pullback so they put an 8x10 view camera next to the 35mm movie camera and clicked off a still at the appropriate time. This was printed onto a large print with color correction and finishing to match the original 35mm image. They shot the print and did the pullback and cut that into the original neg at the appropriate frame.

You could do something similar with a 35mm still camera mounted next to the super 8 camera. You'd have to do some tests to match perspectives based on different focal lengths but I think it would work if the action wasn't too close to the camera. For better alignment, I'd consider mounting a piece of glass at a 45 degree angle and shoot the reflection of the action with the still camera. That would allow the 35mm still camera and the super 8 camera to be on the same axis for perfectly matching perspectives and no paralax shift. You'd probably want to do several takes and search through the super 8 frames until you found the match you were looking for.

Or, you could do it "Police Squad" style and just have every one freeze their movements and hold still. Actually, the "Police Squad" folks got pretty good at this illusion. Fooled me the first time I saw it but, then again, I'm fairly simple minded.

Roger