Super-8 Stories

Kodachrome 40 was a Super-8 Favorite for 40 years! Adventures in Super-8 Filmmaking You may be surprised to discover that Super film is still available. What may surprise you even more is that there are MORE super-8 film stocks available NOW than were available 10 years ago! Super-8 Film Stocks are evolving so quickly that a film stock that I used when making the "The Alphabet Song" in 2003, Ektachrome 125, was replaced by Ektachrome 64T! You can choose from a full complement of Super-8 film stocks currently available from The Kodak Super-8 Film Stock Website & 800 Toll Free Phone Number. You can also check out Kodak's Super-8 Main Page. The four in one images up above are all super-8 film frames from four award winning short films that I made. The Sunset Image was taken from my first film effort back in college. I edited the images to a song by "A Flock of Seagulls" called "I Ran So Far Away". I ended up enlarging the Super-8 film master to a 16mm negative and I even won some awards for this film. The crazy swirl of lights was for another student project called KTLA Promo in which I edited time-lapse and time-exposure images to the KTLA news music theme. KTLA Promo received several awards as well. The 60 second KTLA promo was actually disqualified from one festival because it was mistakenly thought I had used computer generated images in it. Another contest "thought it was too good to have been done by students only", this was back in the mid 80's. It's kind of sad that a student filmmaker's success can actually be limited by other people's pre conceived beliefs. The Santa Claus image is from the "Season's Greetings" generic commerical spots that I was able to sell to a few cable television stations. These two Holiday Season spots both received awards from the Houston International Film Festival. The color streetscape is of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills during the Holiday Season and was also part of my Season's Greetings generic commercial spots. Louis Febre provided the soundtrack for the first one, and Barend Ross provided the soundtrack for the second one.

More Super-8 Kodachrome 40 Super-8 Film Stocks Abound! To the right, The 16 story Taft Rooftop in Downtown Hollywood was a super-8 shoot I will never forget. I managed to get over my fear of heights while filming the largest American Flag in existence as it was marshaled down Hollywood boulevard during the Hollywood Desert Storm Parade. The portability of the Super-8 Format allowed me to aim my Super-8 camera, (a Canon 1014-XLS) at the American Flag as approximately 200 military personnel held the flag above the ground as they marched down Hollywood Blvd. I don't recommend anyone out there ever try what I did when I leaned over the roof of the Taft Building to get this once in a lifetime shot. Kodak Tri-X and Plus X are two Black and White Super-8 filmstocks that have a look that many find one of a kind. These two Black and White Reversal Super-8 Film stocks are regularly used in music videos and for a film noir look. The newest addition to the Super-8 family of Film Stocks are Super-8 Negative Film Stocks that are the SAME Negative Film Stocks used in 35mm Motion Picture Films. Super-8 Negative Film Stocks offer an incredible learning curve for those who one day would like to shoot in 16mm or 35mm. Presently, 500T and 200T Kodak Negative Super-8 film stocks allow the super-8 filmmaker to shoot either during the day or at night, many times when available light is the only accessible light source. The new and improved Vision Stocks from Kodak deliver a tighter grain that creates a look previously not seen in any other film or video format. More sophisticated transfer technologies and film quality improvements have made this the golden age for Super-8. Even Fuji has entered the playing field by offering Velvia 50D, a tremendous low ASA film stock that has made the loss of Kodachrome 40 basically a moot point. Spectra Film and Video loads their own Velvia 50 AND Kodak Ektachrome 100D as well!

Super-8 is 45 years young. Hostboard Super-8 Forum. Here is a link to the Super-8 Filmmaking in the Digital Age Forum. The forum is designed to help you learn about Super-8 filmmaking by either searching our Super-8 forum archives for topics of interest, or by registering (it's free) and asking your specific Super-8 Questions. This Super-8 Forum also welcomes both digital, analog, and computer video editing questions. We welcome these types of questions because most Super 8mm film is eventually transfered to video. The transfered Super-8 Film to video is then edited on either videotape editing systems (known as linear editing) or computer editing systems (known as non-linear editing) such as Final Cut Pro 4. Questions about Super-8 Cameras, Super-8 film stocks, Film to Video Transfer Services, Lighting Strategies, Computer, Video and Film Editing are just some of the topics that are covered on the Super-8 forum. If you want to know more about a specific Super-8 camera, you will want to search our forum archives. If you don't find any information there about your camera, just compose your own topic question and ask the forum members! Your Super-8 question may be answered by someone halfway around the world, or someone in your own town! Historical information about anything to do with the world of Super-8 filmmaking are also welcomed. Many of the most knowledgeable Super-8 Historians may not even frequent the internet. If you think you know somebody who is knowledgeable about Super-8, ask them if they are, and perhaps you can steer them to our forum. If you would rather go to one of the busiest Super-8 forums on the web, and in the process hurt my feelings by bypassing my forum entirely, (as if I would know) you can go directly to Cinematography.com Super-8 Forum. Super-8mm.net - The Many Advantages of Super-8mm Filmmaking are Revealed. Page-1 Super-8mm Overview. Page-2 Super-8mm Film Advantages Explored Page-3 Super-8mm Film Production News Page-4 Music Video Techniques. Page-5 Labs & Transfers. Page-6 8mm Film Subscription Magazines. Page-7 Flicker Super-8 Shooting Strategies Page-8 Using Polaroids. Page-9 Super-8 Cameras. Page-10 Super-8 Forums. Super-8mm.com - Super-8mm Low Budget Feature Filmmaking Techniques. Page-1 Super-8 Links, Overview & Methods. Page-2 Super-8 Guerilla Filmmaking. Page-3 Indoor & Outdoor Locations. Page-4 Super-8mm Film Stock Strategies. Page-5 Super-8 Production News & Notes. Page-6 A Good SoundTrack Can Make Your Film. Page-7 Using Quiet Super-8 Cameras. Page-8 Best Script Concepts for Super-8mm. Page-9 Acquiring Same Model Super-8 Cameras. Page-10 One Stop Super-8 Film Labs.