straight 8: we've started, have you?

Today we started production on our straight 8 entry for 2009, we're full of enthusiasm, creativity and we've got that 8mm rush again - yay!

You too can still enter straight 8 , the granddaddy of all single cartridge festivals and there's an even wider choice of stock this year with negative in the mix for the first time.

Over 100,000 people watched straight 8 films on the YouTube takeover last Friday all seeing the splendor of some great 3 minute 8mm films.

Click here for a map of entries thus far and scoot on over to straight 8 to enter - there's a little under a month left!

A musical on Super 8!

It's not every day we get to say this - we're off to see the cast and crew screening today of a brand new Super 8 musical. Yes, you read right - a musical shot entirely on Super 8mm film!

It's Nick's Birthday (UK, 2009, 35 minutes) is a true story based on the fictitious life of Nicholas D. Hill, aeroplane enthusiast, misfit and some-time L'Institute Zoom bit-part player.

Shot in Manchester during the early months of 2007, the film has been allowed the sort of gestation period usually reserved for elephants (indeed, several crew members have somewhat sarcastically conceived and given birth to actual human babies in the interim). A crew of dedicated craftspeople gathered to idly construct the piece around the hypnotic figure of Doris, the Canon 814 Super-8 camera previously used to shoot the award-winning Grandma & The Monster, and whose precious temperament created plenty of opportunities for the long, long breaks required to sate the crew's need for freshly brewed Keemun tea.

After a delirious week and a half of rehearsal and production, the team emerged from the studio caked in paint, mud and minims, well in need of the two-year rest they would enjoy before the chemicals in the film had ripened for viewing.

We'll tell you more after the screening (and pizza after-show), but in the meantime some stills... if you get a minute, watch the trailer at www.zoomcitta.co.uk/inb.htm

Super 8 super depth of field!

At first we thought why? Then we thought wow!

Short preliminary test of a notch-hacked Ektachrome 64T Super 8mm cartridge with a Twoneil DOF 35mm adapter. Cartridge was hacked to resemble a 40 ASA cartridge.

Adapter details at www.twoneil.com
x05e's YouTube channel here
Higher quality Vimeo version here

Dagie does DVD!

We love Dagie Brundert's Super 8mm films, they're always engaging, always different and up until now - always hard to see (besides on the interweb).

Dagie's just released all of her 58 films on a €20, select-a-film DVD collection. You pick your favourite 10 films and Dagie sends them back to you on DVD with a bespoke cover.

Spanning the 20 years from 1988, the film collection illustrates just how prolific she's been and the wide diversity of her work - now we can all have our favourites to watch over and over!

More at the Dagie Brundert site.

Cambridge Warm Up

Taking time out from their preparations for this year's Cambridge Super 8 Film Festival (29th April to 2nd May) the guys are staging a special preview evening on Friday 6th March at the Portland Arms, Chesterton Road, Cambridge. Films start at 8pm and it's just £4/£3 to get in.

More at www.cambridge-super8.org

Ian Helliwell: Super 8 on DVD

Renowned experimental Super 8 filmmaker and analogue music maestro has released a DVD of his work...

Ian Helliwell: Hellifilms Vol. 1

This first volume of films from Ian Helliwell`s substantial body of over 50 shorts, features 4 works made in 2007, which incorporate abstraction, animation, found footage and experimental music soundtracks.

Buy it from createspace ($15)
More on Ian at www.ianhelliwell.co.uk

Super 8 takes over YouTube!

Get it while you can (for 24 hours only)....

At 8am (GMT) on Friday 20th February (or midnight Thursday night Pacific Standard Time) the guys from straight 8 (with us holding firmly onto their coat-tails) take over the front page of YouTube to spread the Super 8 and straight 8 story to every corner of our fair planet.

With some classic Super 8mm films highlighted, as well as some you might not be so familiar with, small film finally gets centre-stage worldwide.

Go to www.youtube.com and click on your own country and then select "worldwide"

...happy days!

Tonight: Deadlock live!

The official website for the Finnish no-budget action short Deadlock, awarded best action film at the Croatian Trash Film Festival 2008, launches on February 20th on www.deadlockfilm.com

In 1998, teenage filmmakers John Ahman and Elias Lehtinen started an 8mm film project which was to last 10 years. The result, a 40-minute non-stop chase film taking its cue from classic 80's and 90's action films, was shot on location in the freezing conditions of the Finnish winter.

Shot on 8mm film with a young amateur cast over three winters, the filmmakers traded budget and manpower for time and resilience. Deadlock spent 8 years in the making, the two-man crew working on the project in their spare time, while working on other projects and taking odd jobs.

The 3rd Trash Film Festival held in the autumn of 2008 in Varadin, Croatia, gave Deadlock a Golden Chainsaw for Best Action.

The site www.deadlockfilm.com will go live on February 20th, hosting the entire film in both streaming and downloadable form. Deadlock is freely shareable due to it's Creative Commons licence. At present (8pm GMT), the Deadlock trailer can be viewed on the site.

The two-man Deadlock team is currently hard at work with their next project, a horror film due to be released with similar principles as Deadlock in Autumn 2010.

This weekend: USA Super 8mm and DV Fest.

View the 21 premiere films and videos of the 2009 U.S. Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival, selected by a jury of students, film/videomakers and media professionals. The festival--now in its 21st year—will feature finalist works by independent film/videomakers from the United States and around the world. A different program of films and videos will be offered each night of the festival. Prize winners will be announced on the last night of the festival when the film/video makers will be competing for $4000 in cash and prizes, along with the Audience Favorite Prize.

All screenings will take place on February 20 and 21, 2009 beginning at 7PM, in Scott Hall #123 (43 College Avenue - near the Corner of Hamilton Street and College Avenue) on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Admission per evening: $10 General; $9 Students/Seniors; $8 Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC Friends

Friday, February 20, 2009

Joey and Jerome's Artistic Meaningful Independent Film (Josh Bass: Houston, Texas, 2007; 23 min.) Joey and Jerome have been watching Diehard and Transformers their whole lives. When Jerome's sister lends them a few independent films, they are blown away. They decide then and there to make their own independent film, despite having no money, a mere VHS camcorder, and no filmmaking experience to speak of. And we get to watch the result.

Herb Garden (Noah Stout, Princeton, New Jersey, 2008; 5 min.)
A portrait of my late grandparents shot in super 8 film and digital video. The discontinued Kodachrome film inter-cut with digital video represents a collision between textures of a dying generation and a young modern one. As I lose my grandparents and they lose each other, I use cinema to unite their bodies, to give movement to the lifeless and to freeze what seems to move too quickly.

T-shirt of Me (Matt Meindl, Gahanna, Ohio; 2008, 5 min.)
The perils of wearing one's own image are explored in this super 8 comedy about friends and bad clothes.

Out of the Blue (Alexandra Roxo, Brooklyn, New York, 2009, 7 min.)
A woman’s journey from the land of the dead into greener pastures.

Cochran (James P. Gannon, Brooklyn, New York, 2008, 8 min.)
A story about the inability to escape the past, what happens when the present intervenes, and ultimately, about acceptance.

Die Schneider Krankheit (Javier Chillon, Madrid, Spain, 2008, 10 min.)
Spring of 1958. A Soviet space capsule crewed by an ape crashes in West Germany. Diplomatic tensions between Germany and the USSR arise. The ape is the carrier of a strange new virus that spreads over the country. Investigations fail to shed20any light on the cure...

MJ12 (Rob Malone and Zach Strauss, Yardley, Pennsylvania, 2008, 21 min.)
An extraterrestrial comes to Earth dressed in silver-spandex and determined to uncover the truth behind the JFK assassination and the value of human existence. Our star-born traveler manages to hitchhike his way across the Eastern United States. Will he be able to find what he set out to discover?

Trapped (Chota Takamine, Okinawa, Japan, 2008, 10 min.)
A man rises up to battle a desensitized consumer society.

The Night Janitor (Adam Harvanek, Brooklyn, New York, 2008, 10 min.)
A lonely janitor is spending another evening mopping a New York City skyscraper when he encounters a beautiful, young secretary who has been tossed aside by her boyfriend. Will he seize the opportunity to escape his nightly isolation or will he escape instead into the seclusion of his dreams?

Show Me (Jessica Vogt, Hillside, New Jersey; 2008, 13 min.)
Every family must deal with change.

Immokalee U.S.A. (Georg Koszulinski and Dan Gloeckner, New York, New York, 2008, 77 min.)
A powerful, haunting film and intimately observed documentary that focuses on today’s migrant farm workers, a misunderstood, maligned, and exploited, necessary yet frequently forgotten group living in the shadows of America’s massive food production machinery.


Saturday, February 21, 2009

Syntagma (Christina loakeimidi, Athens, Greece, 2008, 8 min.)
Fotini receives an unexpected phone-call from Eric. They arrange to meet in Syntagma, the main square in Athens. The film follows her journey to the meeting point.

October’s End (Patrick Boyton, Frederick, Maryland, 2009, 7 min.)
Some call the night before Halloween, Mischief Night. Others call it Devil's Night. But on this October 30, two boys are about to learn that some jokes have deadly consequences.

More Control (Steve Daniels, Columbia, South Carolina, 2008, 6 min.)
An indie band -- The Heist And The Accomplice enter an abandoned movie theater to shoot their first music video, only to be attacked by the film itself as it unspools from the camera and tries to kill them.

The Night Gardener (Jennifer Hardacker, Portland, Oregon, 2008, 9 min.)
In The Night Gardener disparate images that capture an idea about the humanity of the world play on floral screens. This film explores the idea of the collective unconscious, which is here symbolically represented via old educational films projected onto garden plants and then re-photographed.

Fossil Light (Tony Gault, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, 2009, 17 min.)
An "eco-tourist" holiday – to photograph polar bears – becomes a meditation on the glaring results of climate change. And so we’re left with memories, in pictorial form.

Gertel’s galore ..lore .. ore (Stephanie Gray, Flushing, NY, 2007, 7 min.)
One of the last real Jewish bakeries on the Lower East Side succumbs to the unfriendly real estate market in New York City.

The Yellow Forest (Phillip Docken, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2009; 10 min.)
An experimental film montage.

The Heart is What Remains (Alexandra Roxo, Brooklyn, New York, 2009, 13 min.)
An interpretation of the phases of love through symbols, sounds, and the re-contextualization of elements of a common fable.

Eve’s Apples (Mary Borrello, Astoria, New York, 2008, 5 min.)
A woman finds out that she has an unusual disease.

The Art of Comedy (Jenniffer Dominguez, Bronx, New York, 2008, 5 min.)
Things that make people laugh.

Haunted Hayride (Warren F. Disbrow, Neptune, New Jersey, 2008, 94 min.)
For a night of fun, four teenagers decide to attend the final It’s the midnight Haunted Hayride of the year. Four teenagers go looking for a truly frightful joyride. A masked serial killer is stalking the Halloween Farm...


General Information

Time: 7:00 PM! Films are screened in the order listed.
Locations: Scott Hall #123 = Scott Hall #123 (Near the corner of College Avenue and Hamilton Street), 43 College Ave/College Avenue Campus, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Admission:$10=General; $9=Students+Seniors; $8=Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC Friends.

All films are subject to change. Call the information number 732-932-8482 the day of show to confirm titles.

Tickets: Tickets are available on a first-come-first-served basis only and can be purchased at the door beginning a half-hour before the start time.

Directions: Scott Hall #123=Take the NJ Turnpike to Exit 9 and then take Route 18N (New Brunswick direction) and go for 2 1/2 miles to the Rutgers University/George Street exit (immediately after the Route 27S exit) and make a left at the light at the end of the exit ramp onto George Street, then go to the next light and make a right onto Hamilton Street, then go to the next light and make a right onto College Avenue. Almost immediately on your right hand side there is an University Parking Lot (#9) which is made available for our patrons to park in. Scott Hall is adjacent to the parking lot on the right. Patrons can also park in Rutgers Lots #1 (next to Kirkpatrick Chapel) and #16 (next to Murray and Milledoler Hall).

Information:

New Jersey Film Festival
Rutgers Film Co-Op/New Jersey Media Arts Center
Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies
72 Lipman Drive (#018 Loree Hall - Douglass Campus)
New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901-8525 U.S.A. (732) 932-8482 phone; (732) 932-1935 fax; NJMAC@aol.com e-mail; Web Site: www.njfilmfest.com

Squeaky Wheel Super 8 Workshop

Buffalo's Media and Arts Centre, the Squeaky Wheel is staging a Super 8mm afternoon workshop on Saturday and Sunday 25th and 26th of April.

This workshop will focus on the fundamentals of Super 8 filmmaking with topics including lighting, film stocks, camera know how, exposure, animation, projection, image composition, in-camera editing and transfer to video.

Workshoppers will also make a short film demonstrating their newly developed or refined skills. All participants receive one 50 foot roll of black & white reversal film stock, Squeaky Wheel members receive one day of equipment rental and one additional roll of film. Film developing and/or lab services is not included in the cost of the workshop.

$95 non-members, $80 for members. More at Squeaky Wheel

$100 Film festival in Calgary

$100 Film Festival, March 5th to 7th, 2009, 7pm start each night - A three day celebration of film on film; independent shorts on Super 8 and 16mm film.

Featuring independent short films from local, nationals and international filmmakers the $100 Film Festival includes a special retrospective screening of Solomon Nagler: Prairie Mysticism on Thursday March 5 at 9pm after the first screening as well as the 6th Annual Film Music Explosion before each nights event.

For more information go to www.csif.org/festival or call (403) 205 4747

Japanese Resource

One of the bookmarks, Takahiro Nakano's extensive site including a Super 8 and Single 8 section packed with camera photos, hits and tips, plus a repair and modification section covering the Canon 814E, Canon 814-XL and Elmo S8-800.

Go to Takahiro Nakano Web or robot translation here.

'New' Ektachrome 100D from Pro8mm

News from Pro8mm about 'new' supply of Kodak's Ektachrome 100D 5285 in Super 8mm format...

We now have an excellent supply of the extremely popular Super8 85 - ASA 100 Daylight Reversal film stock. Clients love this stock and many say it is the best replacement film for discontinued Kodachrome 40.

Super 8-85 is now being made from double Super 8-85, supplied by Kodak, slit and loaded at Pro8mm. It has 3 stops of latitude and very fine grain. This is a traditional reversal film stock, suitable for projection, or it can be cross-processed as a negative.

...more at pro8mm.com

Podcast: The Scrum Tilly Lush (trailer)

(Click image to watch the trailer)

On the podcast this week a trailer for Philip Evan's latest international skate fest, The Scrum Tilly Lush.

Shot in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Bristol, Dublin, Helsinki, London, Malmo, Paris and Stockholm, The Scrum Tilly Lush takes its cue from classic skate films, but has its roots somewhere very different. Phil explains;

My motivation was to once more make a skate film that was very different from the usual generic videos in that it should show how locals skate and live in their cites in a much more realistic fashion than generally presented in major skate productions.

I consciously didn't want to test the viewer's patience, so I tried to keep the whole thing flowing visually and thematically, but it's up to the audience to tell if I pulled this off or not! (Ed: we think he did)

In terms of how I shot it I tried to reserve certain types of shots and film stock for specific places so each city would have its own special atmosphere instead of seeing a guy skate a ledge that could be anywhere and filmed in the same reliable well trodden way.

Shot using a Canon 310xl, Canon 1014 and Braun Nizo S48, the film mixes Kodak stocks to great effect with Ektachrome, Tri-x and Vision 2 200t all featuring. We did ask Phil about his shooting ratio, but he couldn't remember anything further than them using a "trolley load" of cartridges! He did however enlighten us on just how the film was made;

The biggest challenge was the cost of the project, as at the beginning I had no financial support and was working a full time 9 to 5 office job. Many sick days were phoned in from Dublin airport and sacrifices made to keep the whole thing running. Eventually Nike sb and WeSC stepped in as sponsors and helped me realise the completion of the whole project.

Filming began in June '08 in London and finished early December in Belfast after going right round Europe. I don't want to even think about how much it cost, but that's irrelevant when you get to complete a project at this level and not compromise a single thing creatively!

Getting to shoot and live with some of the world's current most talented, original and stylish skaters really was a real privilege. Couch surfing gives a far more raw and tangible experience than any hotel room ever could.

Ahhh, good times!!

Whilst Super 8mm skate films are are a sub-genre in themselves, small gauge film really works with this sport and Phil and others shooting their art on Super 8mm continues a long and laudable tradition.

We've seen the full version of The Scrum Tilly Lush - it's part skate, part travelogue and a beautifully honest and hugely engaging piece. Sure, if you're a technical purist it's raw in places, but the eclectic mix of music, shooting styles, skate imagery and importantly contextual illustration works perfectly and this film surpasses much of what we've seen on Super 8 in recent years. We love it!

For more information on this great project or to get your own copy of the DVD and go to thescrumtillylush.blogspot.com. The film is available for €11 including postage and packing with online payment via PayPal.


Click to watch the trailer in either Flash or higher quality Quicktime versions. Alternatively, follow the link below to download the original H264 file (Quicktime 7 required);

• The Scrum Tilly Lush (trailer) (.m4V file, 26.1MB)

Remember, you can also;

• Subscribe to the Super 8 podcast via iTunes here
• See our Blip.tv channel for non iTunes solutions
• For more on the onsuper8.org podcast click here including how to get email updates

Cannes for a 7th time!

Fresh from the straight 8 shed...

we've just had our cannes film festival event confirmed for 2009. our 7th consecutive year. it's at this fantastic screening that we unveil the best of the best of the year to a packed audience of feature film movers and groovers. and no-one - not even the filmmakers - will have seen their film beforehand. thanks to kodak uk for their ongoing support and love of straight 8

Entries still open at straight8.net - we're planning our shoot, are you?

Processing in the UK: Super 8 good news!

Hot off the press - some great news for those of us shooting Super 8mm negative in the UK - direct from London's Soho Film Lab...

As you may know, Todd-AO closed it’s doors in August of last year and merged with Soho Images, to create Soho Film Lab. Now that we have settled in and refurbished various areas of the facility, we plan to start processing s8mm colour negative again shortly.

As before, we hope to hold stocks of Kodak VISION2 / VISION3 200T & 500T colour negative stocks & to provide a process &/or telecine transfer package. Transfers of all types of 8mm stocks (incl std 8mm) are made on broadcast quality URSA Diamond machines by experienced colourists.

This is a welcome bit of good news and a real boon for UK based pros and amateurs alike - we wish Soho Film Lab every success with their 'new' Super 8 offer!

More at Soho Film lab

One Take Showcase: Winnipeg

No Cuts: No Splices: The One Take Super 8 Showcase
Curated and Introduced by Alex Rogalski

Friday 13th February: 7pm: Winnipeg Cinematheque, Canada

The One Take Super 8 Event is an annual prairie tradition which began in Regina in 2000, and has since traveled across North America including three annual events at Winnipeg's WNDX festival.

The One Take Super 8 Event has spread across Canada and the US, screening hundreds of films to thousands over the past eight years, with films from these events going on to screen at international festivals. Since its inception, over 400 unique films have been created through this program.

The No Cuts, No Splices: The One Take Super 8 Showcase is a curated showcase of films made for past events in Winnipeg, Regina, and Montreal, reflecting the variety, diversity and creativity of independent filmmakers.

More at Winnipeg Cinematheque
More at One Take Super 8

One Take in Syracuse

Another event in the "One Take" single cartridge festival family has popped up in Syracuse, New York.

Registration ($40 including film and processing) must be made by this Wednesday 4th February, and the usual single cartridge rules apply. Screenings of finished films will be held at Funk-n-Waffles on Saturday 4th April.

Click here for more details on their new blog.

3D for 8mm?

A great article from Mechanix Illustrated (August 1953)... click here