Cheap video assist

Here's a great picture of a Beaulieu 4008 with a simple (and quite elegant) video assist solution using a small PAL micro camera. Click here for the page at Super 8 Bauer Nizo in French or here for a very clumsy bot translation.


This got us to thinking how we could do similar. Maplins, the high street electronics supplier here in the UK, do a similar micro-camera (click here - B&W CMOS for just £24.99) which with a bit of ingenuity might lend itself to a similar set up...

Somers Town

We just re-watched Shame meadows fantastic Somers Town (released last year), but this time on Blu-ray.

As everyone knows this is a truly excellent film, with naturalistic performances and a witty and thoroughly engaging script - without a doubt, one of Meadow's best. But it's the last two minutes of the film, all shot on Super 8mm, which absolutely come alive on the Blu-ray copy.

The above still (grabbed from the trailer) doesn't do the segment any justice, which has beautifully saturated colours and some elegant hand-held camera work - we think it's one of the best Super 8 pieces we've seen for ages.

We're big fans of Shane Meadows' work and know that he's a regular Super 8 shooter - it would be cool to see one of his future (and very prolific) shorts on 8mm!

Official Site here
Shane Meadows IMDB here

Super 8 Hotel Screening

April 8th 2009 - Super 8 Films at 8pm on the 8th
8 at 8 on 8 - Struts Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada

Artists took a super 8 filmmaking workshop 2 weeks ago,then each had 3 days to shoot a 1-roll film, edited-in-camera, which were then shipped to Toronto for processing (Exclusive), or hand-processed by the artist in a workshop on March 31 all just in time for their first screening tonight!

More here [via Super 8 Porter]

Formula 1 in 8mm

Just in time for the new season...



Canon Autozoom 518, Kodak Vision 200T, telecine at Uppsala Bidteknik

[Via Cin'y|com] + Alonso blog here

Coffee and Tri-X?

There's some great home brew chemistry doing the rounds at the moment - Vitamin C and Coffee being used to develop all kinds of film. We'd love to see the results of some Tri-X and a tank for Super 8 - any takers?

More at Photojojo

Cambridge programme announced

The utterly brilliant third incarnation of the Cambridge Super 8 Film Festival has been announced with a jam packed programme of screenings, events and workshops.

Full details can be downloaded from the festival website now, but to whet your appetite here's a flavour of what's on from Wednesday 29th April to Saturday 2nd May;

• A very special Magic Lantern opening show
  
• Super 8 Workshop with Dagie Brundert
• 4 competition screenings
• 2 panorama screenings including the premiere of David Teague's feature 'Love Suicides'
• Roll your own home movies from Cambridge
• A Dagie Brundert retrospective
• A Super 8 industry panel
• Performance from the Szeged Super 8 Acrobat Group

We want to be the first to wish the Cambridge Super 8 Group every success with this year's festival and we recognise the huge personal efforts each and every one of them has gone to in making this happen.

Check out the website for more details on the programme, information of how to get there and where to stay.

Hopefully we'll see you there!

Bookmark: 8 Super 8 websites

If you bookmark nothing else this year, check these, 8 of the most essential Super 8 related websites around (apart from onsuper8.org of course);

Kodak - Whilst Kodak's Super 8 pages aren't updated as often as we'd like, they are still essential reading.
Super 8 Porter - John Porter's listings are as equally important as his prolific film output.
Filmshooting | com - the most active of the Super 8 filmmakers online forums.
Super 8 Wiki - masses of background, particularly useful when buying equipment.
Super8.no - a comprehensive list of those hard to find camera manuals.
An itch to scratch - fancy processing your own film?
You Tube - the latest films tagged with 'Super 8'.
Dagies Blog - news and views from Berlin's bestest Super 8er.

Indie Grits promo - Taxi Driver Super 8 homage

Here's a great (and damn funny) promo for the forthcoming Indie Grits Film Festival in Columbia, SC.

It's a Super 8 related homage to the famous Taxi Driver gun buying scene - for the original click here



Daily Motion: Super Super 8

Below is the Daily Motion video wall from the group "Super Super 8" which comprises an astonishing 500+ super 8 and 16mm films!

Wittners slitters arrive!

As we've reported before German small film purveyors of everything Wittner Cinetec are investing in their own film slitting machine so that they can cut any film stock down to to 8mm. Their website is now reporting that the machines have now arrived....

...more here in German, or click here for a clumsy bot translation

And we're back...

Apologies for the few days silence, we had to lock ourselves away for the preparation and execution of our 2009 straight 8 shoot (above). Now the terror, tears and tantrums are over we're back to bring you more on all things Super 8!

[Thanks to Michelle at i4visuals for the fab photo]

Love Suicides premieres at Cambridge

David Teague's Super 8 feature film, "Love Suicides", a musical melodrama in the silent film style - based on a classic Japanese bunraku puppet play, will have its world premiere at the Cambridge Super 8 Film Festival on Thursday 30th April.

In the meantime here's the trailer (or find out more at www.brooklynvitagraph.com;

Edgar Wright: Forced Hilarity

Back up on YouTube officially, Edgar Wright's (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) straight 8 entry from 2001... enjoy!

straight 8: Final Call

Latest important communiqué from the straight 8 guys...

hi film lovers

straight 8 09's in full swing. we've just extended the deadline to march 30th. but you need to get your film sent to you ASAP if you want to take part this year

(otherwise it'll be 2010)

it's great: you're entering from all over the place again

enter today and see your name in lights tomorrow. on our world entry map

More at straight 8.net including entry details and uber-cool dvd's from previous years.

Free Porter roll your own and screening

We love John Porter's work and if we had a plane ticket to Toronto lying around we'd be at The Hart House Chapel, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto at 8pm on Saturday 21st March for a free Super 8 screening as part of the University's 2009 celebration of the arts.

John is inviting all-comers to bring their own Super 8 films to screen as well as showing a number of his own. If you've not seen any of John's films you should really do so, their some of the most engaging and inventive around!

Toronto: this Wednesday night

The 8th University of Toronto Film & Video Festival (March 9 - 14) presents an International Super 8 Program;

Super 8 Cities - 9 cities in 7 countries filmed by Freddy Alloiote, Ben Ewart-Dean, Pele Koornstra, Nathan P. Coombs, Mei Ling Sun & Co., Kiko Andraka, Giles Perkins, Gavin Lim, Claire Griffiths & Jorge Mena.

Pulse of Life - a global time-lapse short film shot by 29 artists and produced by Filmshooting.com.

Westsider by Charles Doran.

All three titles were shot on super 8 and screening on video. Wednesday, March 11, 7pm, $8/5 (unclassified). Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave., University of Toronto

[Via Super 8 Porter]

386 Super 8 films and not out!

This week we got a great email from Stefan Möckel from Hesse, Germany telling us about his passion for Super 8 filmmaking.

Stefan, a maths, art and music teacher by day, is a prolific Super 8 filmmaker having made an astonishing 386 films (and counting) since 1982!

With a screening history equally as impressive as his output, Stefan's has his own website which links to a number of online versions of his films which include experimental and lumière films as well micro-documentaries.

Go and visit Stefan's site here and then come and join us in feeling thoroughly lazy!

[Thanks Stefan!]

Flicker Spokane: call for entries

Not only have they got a brand new website, but the guys over at Flicker Spokane have announced their call for entries for their 7th Flicker event.

There's no entry fee and the only stipulation is that shorts must be under 15 minutes and have originated on film.

More at www.flickerspokane.com

5th Super 8 Day call: New South Wales

Deadline: Friday 21st August 2009
Call for Entries to the 5th Super 8 Day Film festival

VHS and DVD versions of films can be sent in NTSC or PAL formats, but must have originated from Super 8mm, any original Super 8 or Single 8 Films must be sent by Registered Post, to avoid being lost and all original films selected will also receive a DVD transfer.

There is no entry charge, but if you want your video's or films returned then you must send stamps or International Postal Coupons for Return Postage, entries not returned will be put into the AWMIC Archives. Awards will be given to all films selected in screening.

Send entries to: AWMIC c/o P.O Box 1231, Albury, New South Wales 2640, Australia. For more details call 043 888 7521 or email: awmic@hotmail.com

Entries into "Super 8 Day", also allows all filmmakers/family, cast and crew, no charge entry, into Chilternwood Studios on Sunday 30th August 2009, thus becoming Special Guests of "Super 8 Day" - also same weekend as the Chiltern Antique Fair, and Chiltern's 150th Anniversary of Gold Discovery.

Podcast: A Lucky Walk

(Click to watch the film)

This week on the podcast, Albert Vandel's sweetly brilliant "silent movie" short (just over 1 minute long) exploring unexpected love.

Shot at 12 frames per second on Kodak Tri-X film with a Sankyo Super 8mm camera this is everything so many short films aren't - engaging, brief, considered and well executed. It's also the first Super 8mm film we've received from Turkey!

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);

• A Lucky Walk (.m4V file, 12.1MB)

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

We Twitter

Don't forget, we Twitter - jump here.

If you haven't a clue what we're on about - click and learn here!

USA Super 8 Film fest. - Results

The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center and the Rutgers University Program In Cinema Studies present the 21st Annual 2009 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival Award Winners

Grand Prize Winners

Best Documentary - $400 of Film Processing Services from and sponsored by PAC Lab

Immokalee U.S.A. (Georg Koszulinski and Dan Gloeckner, New York, New York, 2008, 77 min.)

Best Experimental - Tie - $250 of film from and sponsored by Eastman Kodak

Die Schneider Krankheit (Javier Chillon, Madrid, Spain, 2008, 10 min.)
Out of the Blue (Alexandra Roxo, Brooklyn, New York, 2009, 7 min.)
The Night Gardener (Jennifer Hardacker, Portland, Oregon, 2008, 9 min.)

Best Short - Tie - $400 Gorilla Software from and sponsored by Jungle Software

Cochran (James P. Gannon, Brooklyn, New York, 2008, 8 min.)
October’s End (Patrick Boyton, Frederick, Maryland, 2009, 7 min.)
Fossil Light (Tony Gault, Glenwood Springs, Colorado, 2009, 17 min.)

Best Animation - $400 Gorilla Software from and sponsored by Jungle Software

Trapped (Chota Takamine, Okinawa, Japan, 2008, 10 min.)

Best Jersey Film - $400 Gorilla Software from and sponsored by Jungle Software

Haunted Hayride (Warren F. Disbrow, Neptune, New Jersey, 2008, 94 min.)

Audience Choice Prize - $100 of film from and sponsored by Eastman Kodak

Cochran (James P. Gannon, Brooklyn, New York, 2008, 8 min.)

Honorable Mention Winners

Herb Garden (Noah Stout, Princeton, New Jersey, 2008; 5 min.)
T-shirt of Me (Matt Meindl, Gahanna, Ohio; 2008, 5 min.)
MJ12 (Rob Malone and Zach Strauss, Yardley, Pennsylvania, 2008, 21 min.)
The Night Janitor (Adam Harvanek, Brooklyn, New York, 2008, 1020min.)
Syntagma (Christina loakeimidi, Athens, Greece, 2008, 8 min.)
More Control (Steve Daniels, Columbia, South Carolina, 2008, 6 min.)
The Yellow Forest (Phillip Docken, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2009; 10 min.)
The Heart is What Remains (Alexandra Roxo, Brooklyn, New York, 2009, 13 min.)

Finalists

Joey and Jerome's Artistic Meaningful Independent Film (Josh Bass: Houston, Texas, 2007; 23 min.)
Show Me (Jessica Vogt, Hillside, New Jersey; 2008, 13 min.)
Gertel’s galore ..lore .. ore (Stephanie Gray, Flushing, NY, 2007, 7 min.)
Eve’s Apples (Mary Borrello, Astoria, New York, 2008, 5 min.)
The Art of Comedy (Jenniffer Dominguez, Bronx, New York, 2008, 5 min.)

More details at www.njfilmfest.com/super8.html

Squeaky Wheel: Global call

Buffalo's Squeaky Wheel is seeking Super 8 films for it's annual Global Super 8 Day screening and films can be in any genre and should be no longer than 10 minutes. They accept submissions in film, DVD, mini-DVD and VHS form and submissions should include a brief description of the work, short biography, and screening history.

Films must be submitted by Friday May 1st to:

Squeaky Wheel, 712 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14202 (Attn: Global Super 8 Day)

Don't have a Super 8 film to submit? They're having a Super 8 filmmaking workshop starting Saturday April 25th!

More at Squeaky Wheel or jump here

Must Read After My Death

Filmmaker Morgan Dews was very close to his grandmother Allis, but it wasn’t until after her death in 2001 that he became aware of an astounding archive she’d amassed throughout the 1960s. Filled with startlingly intimate and candid audio recordings detailing her family’s increasingly turbulent lives, the collection also contained hundreds of silent home movies, photographs and written journals. Using only these found materials, Dews has fashioned a searing family portrait that affords fly-on-the-wall access to one family’s struggles amid an America on the verge of dramatic transformation...

Trailer, jam packed with 8mm footage, in stunning HD (and SD) at Apple.com - click here

Schmalfilm 1/2009

If you're still yearning for a regular print fix of small film news and views after the sad demise of smallformat (and provided your German is up to scratch) you could always subscribe to Schmalfilm.

The latest issue is out now featuring an interview with the Lichtenstein designer of the Carena Standard 8 camera, details of how to rebuild a Pentaflex 16 for Super 16 plus an article about the US filmmakers Sherry Millner and Ernest Larsen who work with dual projectors.

Subscriptions cost €73.20 for 6 issues per year, more details at www.schmalfilm.de