Using something other than digital

[phreejimmy]

Hey,

I have been using my Sony MiniDV for a while now, and the quality is fine, but I kind of want to get some of the footage of my movies looking a little different than usual. So I have been looking into shooting on actual film, but I haven't really come to any conclusions yet.

And I dont want to heat about how I can go into Premiere and blah blah blah, ive read that all before. I just want another camera, really of any quality. But i dont REALLY want the home movie look in my movie, something more artsy. Money may also be an issue. Im not going to spend 1000s of dollars for secondary camera.

Thanks for your help!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 27, 2003 05:56 PM: Message edited by: phreejimmy ]</font>

[GREATwarEAGLE]

Super 8 film can give great results. And more often than not, that home movie look is due to harsh, frontal, flat lighting and lack of a telephoto lens. The average family, in the 60's and 70's, when shooting those home movies you wish to avoid, were shooting with no-frills cameras, exclusively with wide angle lenses. They're the equivalent, in still photography, to the point and shoot disposable cameras sold in drug stores.

Super 8 can also be surprisingly inexpensive. I'd give this more thought if I were you.

[phreejimmy]

Alright, so where do I get a Super 8 camera?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 27, 2003 07:46 PM: Message edited by: phreejimmy ]</font>

[Yammeryammeryammer]

Ya. Super8 if you want a different look. You can find Super8 cameras at many second hand camera stores. Fine format to shoot on if you are dedicated. Both Sam Raimi and Peter Jacksons had extensive numbers of Super 8 movies. They stopped making the cams in the early 80s if I remember correctly, but you can still buy film from Kodak and get it processed etc. Depending on where you live the labs will be of varying accessability. Anyway, found a nice starter Super 8 Elmo camera a few months ago, and got it and a lens set for $25 Canadian. Most of these places you can heckle. At any rate, just bare in mind it is a silent format so you will have to record sound wild, or do without. Plus ask if the camera is crystal sync or not, and ask what frame rates it records at. 180 seconds for 18 fps, so if you use 24 fps you get less running time but better quality per reel. Anyway, ask about single framing if you are doing any animation. Also if you want some sort of example, there are a few clips of some Super 8 movies on the 'Bad Taste' DVD in the featurette 'Good taste made bad taste'. Quality stuff. There is also a Super 8 hostboard...

http://www.hostboard.com/cgi-bin/ult...bb=forum&f=409

and here is a site about some of the different cameras...

http://www.kolumbus.fi/puistot/

[GREATwarEAGLE]

ebay. Two next questions are what camera features do you need and what kind of budget are you dealing with?

There's also the discipline adjustment. Shooting film requires more patience and more precise calculations than shooting video. But it's not rocket science. We're talking High School stuff. And it's worth the extra effort. Most things are.

A good starter book on Super 8 filmmaking is

SHOT BY SHOT
A Practical Guide to filmmaking
by John Cantine, Susan Howard & Brady Lewis

This is not to be confused with another filmmaking book of a similar title, Film Directing SHOT BY SHOT - by Steven D. Katz. That's an entirely different book on basic conventional directing techniques.

[GREATwarEAGLE]

While I was writing my previous post, Yammeryammeryammer had replied, so some of what I wrote may be redundant.