Super 8 Film Festival - Milan

Here's another dedicated Super 8 call for entry!

This time it's Italy that have stepped up to the small film plate with the Super 8 Film Festival Milan taking place on 24th and 25th October 2009.

Films under 15 minutes, originated on Super 8 are invited for the competition (entry due by 15th October - free) which offers a prize of 40 cartridges of Kodak film.

Details and entry forms (in Italian and English) at www.super8festival.it

[Via Super 8 Spain]

Rock ‘n’ roll filmmaking with straight 8

All quiet at the Curzon Mayfair, London

Imagine the scene… you’re in a darkened room with two hundred others, your heart is pounding, your palms are sweaty, the atmosphere is absolutely intense. You wait, and wait, and wait some more. As you sit, you’re getting increasingly nervous, your mind is racing – what will it look like, what will people think, is good, is it rubbish, is it black? Then, after having waited for what seems an eternity, your time has come. With your emotions at fever pitch the titles roll… welcome to straight 8!

The process of making films is laborious and can at times be thankless. You spend an age planning your shoot, a few days executing it, then weeks or even months editing your masterpiece to within an inch of it’s life – only to see it screened at a few festivals (if you’re lucky) and perhaps on the internet. You’ve agonised over every shot and every cut and you know your film better than you know your own family – after all, you spent more time with it than them!

Sometimes and sadly, all spontaneity and positive emotion have long since been lost along the way.

We love straight 8 for the exactly the opposite reasons. It’s intense filmmaking at it’s very best, it’s quick and accessible, it’s a shared emotion, it’s wildly exciting, it’s hugely challenging and you get to see your film on some of the best cinema screens around.

Jam packed, just before the screening

We entered straight 8 again this year and had a great night last Monday at the beautiful Curzon Mayfair in London watching our entry along with 19 other films plus the lucky 8 selections for Cannes 2009. With a packed house and an enthusiastic audience of filmmakers, cast, crew, friends and families, every film was well and truly appreciated. Clever cuts and tricky effects were met with whoops and cheers and each short got a huge round of applause – it was electric.

Having shot our film back in March, the wait until the end of July has been a long one. But just like previous years, it’s that waiting that makes the experience all the more enjoyable. Minor mistakes had become massive in our minds, the concept that seemed so brilliant months ago, now felt less so. To make matters worse, we were slated next to last, twenty-five Super 8mm single cartridge masterpieces on before us!

A still from our straight 8 '09 film - 'Wees Shews are These Shews?'

Our time finally came and fear soon gave way the thrill of finally seeing our film with a roomful of others – an unbelievable experience. It’s weird to get feedback as you’re watching for the first time, and in real time. The odd chuckle in the auditorium or all out laughs are precious, the applause and cheer at the end are absolutely addictive.

This is straight 8, this is rock ‘n’ roll filmmaking!

The concept of shooting a film on a single cartridge of Super 8mm, with no-edits is hugely liberating. Story and craft are paramount. The three minutes plus in a Super 8 cartridge isn’t that long – but long enough to spin a great yarn. With the edit undertaken on the hoof, there are no fixes in post – any mistakes stand, you have to live with it, adapt as you go.

With negative film stocks now on the straight 8 roster some of this year’s results are truly astounding, helped in part by high-end telecine and the beautiful projection set-up at the Curzon. When watching this batch of 25 or so Super 8mm shorts back to back it was easy to forget that these were all made using the challenging straight 8 dogma – proof positive that ideas will out and that gadgetry and gizmos aren’t always the best.

straight 8 is one of the must-do events for any filmmaker irrespective of location, expertise or format persuasion and, with the possibility of a Cannes or London screening for the best films, it’s a hugely important competition.

We’ll be signing up again for 2010, will you?


For more on straight8 visit www.straight8.net where you can sign up to their mailing list, watch previous films or just revel in the madness of it all!

8 Fest - call for entries

Toronto's 8 Fest is a unique festival that presents all forms of small-gauge film: 8mm, Super 8 and 9.5mm, as well as works in installation, loops, and 'proto-cinema devices' like zoetropes. It's a festival for anyone using small-gauge to create rough little gems on film – personal, handmade, experimental, animations, diaries, essays, collage, cut-ups, performance/film, music/film.

They've just announced their annual call for entries and are seeking 8mm, Super 8, 9.5mm or other small gauge film projects (such as loops and installations) for their January 2010 installment.

Films can be experimental, animated, personal and/or handmade; diary & essay films; documentaries; live performance; or historical footage and home movies.

Entry is free and submissions must be made by September 30th.

For more details visit www.the8fest.com

Porcello TV - on the podcast

(Click to watch the film)

With swine flu everywhere in the news we thought we'd jump on the bandwagon with some porcine related surrealism. In Riccardo Simoncini's Super 8mm short, Porcello TV, an unlikely discovery leads to heartbreak.

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

• Porcello TV (.mov file, 95MB)

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

My Chemical Romance

When Super 8 film burst onto the moviemaking scene in 1965, it was a breath of fresh air. The format was designed to be as simple as possible - pop a cartridge into the camera, point and shoot. The world had never seen anything like it, and the resulting Super 8 revolution heavily influenced several generations of filmmakers and amateur movie buffs.

The simplicity of the technology helped to assure its long-term success, and the affordability of the format encouraged millions of eager filmmakers to experiment. Some even said it was magical. And - twenty five years after the "end" of Super 8 - this enchanted format continues to cast a powerful spell.

The Super 8 industry collapsed almost overnight in the early 1980s. I was a young and impressionable teenager when the army of sleek VCRs and camcorders rudely elbowed their way into homes around the world. Super 8 instantly became quaint and old-fashioned. Video, on the other hand, offered instant gratification and predictable results - just like a trip to McDonald's for a quick bite to eat.

Manufacturers shifted their focus to the new electronic technology immediately. Those that couldn't - Bell & Howell, Eumig, Elmo, Chinon and dozens of others - vanished. The film era had come to a sudden and premature end. Worse still, we had unwittingly stumbled into a technological dark age.


One doesn't expect quality alongside instant gratification, and - true to form - early camcorders were awful. They captured smeary, strangely tinted images. Editing those crude electronic images was a black art; it took a stack of expensive boxes to awkwardly chop hours of video into a few somewhat-bearable minutes. But - since I'd never held a real Super 8 camera - this facsimile of film making was the "real thing" to me.

I tried my hardest to master the art of video with my school's rudimentary VHS equipment. Sadly - no matter how hard I tried - the results were always a bitter disappointment. The videos I produced looked like they'd been shot on department store security cameras - dull, fuzzy and devoid of life. There was no magic. In a matter of months, I drifted away from my new-found hobby.

Millions of others dabbled in the dark arts, and video technology gradually improved. However, you will be hard-pressed to find surviving examples of that early work nowadays. The tapes holding countless childhood Christmas concerts, holiday memories and once-in-a-lifetime events have turned to dust. The ferrous-oxide compounds that once held these precious memories are prone to fatal disintegration after only a decade or so, and stand as a testament to the dangers of instant gratification. Unfortunately, short-lived analog video formats have simply been replaced by increasingly arcane digital variants - the dark age continues.


I didn't return to movie making for a decade or so after my disastrous video experiments. Somehow, I stumbled across an unwanted Eumig Super 8 camera. My previous videomaking experience still stung, and it was with great trepidation that I laid out my hard-earned money for a couple of cartridges of Kodachrome 40. My first film didn't have much of a plot, but I had accidentally discovered that the neighborhood girls were more than willing to linger self-consciously in front of my camera. I shot my masterpiece and sent it off for processing. And then I waited. There was definitely no instant gratification to be had when shooting real film.

My summer love affair with film blossomed into a lifelong obsession. Even now, some fifteen years later, nothing can compare to the magic my first film It still offers wider tonal range than even the most expensive camcorders, and almost every cine camera is more responsive than a fiddly touchscreen-equipped camcorder.

A new generation of vidiots fervently argues that it's possible to imitate the look of film digitally, but simulated film grain and color pale in comparison to the real thing. The simple truth is that electronic algorithms will never surpass the chemical romance of film, and Super 8 film making will live on for years to come.

by James Grahame

[Reposted with kind permission from the brilliant RetroThing, abridged from a longer article in the last issue of SmallFormat]

Flicker Attack LA is back!

The 9th Annual Attack of the 50 Foot Reels will be held on October 22nd, 2009 at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles.

Just 20 filmmakers will be chosen for this year's competition selected on the basis of their entry form pitch. Open until 22nd August entries cost $30 giving choice of Kodak film stocks in colour, black & white, reversal and negative flavours.

More details at Flicker LA.

Super 8 Workshop Edinburgh

Scotland's Centre for Photograpy Stills located on Cockburn Street in Edinburgh, Scotland provides some north of the border Super 8 love with a weekend workshop on the 5th and 6th September...

Make your own Super 8 film in this unique hands-on weekend workshop!

You will story board your ideas, work as a director and crew member, shoot a film on super 8 and hand process the stock right in Stills darkrooms. From concept to finished product, this workshop aims to teach the technical aspects as well as the very unique qualities of super8 film. A special screening of the films will be shown on a super 8 projector at Stills on the final day where you get to learn about and experience the full telecine process and take away a digital copy, as well as your actual super 8 footage!

All materials are included. The workshop is crafted in a way that the general public can engage and learn the principles of film through the medium of super8 without preventing a more advanced audience getting involved in the creative experience.

More details at Stills

Kodak: Film. No Compromise

It's nice to get a morning email from Kodak reminding us as to why film is so cool...

Nothing stands up to the power of film.

The fact is, with budgets and timelines growing tighter every day, shooting on film is more essential than ever. From the reliable workflow, to its efficiency on set and in post, to the unmatched latitude, color reproduction and emotional impact of the finished spot, there's still no comparison to the beauty, versatility and affordability of film.

Hear from agencies and production companies who refuse to compromise their work to any other format.

Don't compromise your image. Shoot film.

22nd USA Super 8 Film Fest call

They're coming thick and fast at the moment - and here's the granddaddy of them all, the call for entries for the 22nd Annual United States Super 8mm Film + Digital Video Festival.

The festival, which will be held at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey from the 19th to 21st February 2010 encourages any genre (animation, documentary, experimental, fiction, personal, etc.), but submissions must have predominantly originated on Super 8mm/8mm film or digital video or 8mm video formats. All works will be screened by a panel of judges who will award over $4000 in prizes.

Last year's festival audiences viewed 22 finalist works out of 160 entries from
throughout the world over three evenings and the festival takes as its mandate the spreading of the 8mm and digital word.

Entry fees are $45 for works under 50 minutes and $75 for those over and entries are open until January 15th 2010. For more information go to www.njfilmfest.com or call them directly on 732-932-8482 (USA).

MacArthur's interiors: You Tube on Sunday

It's easy to got obsessed with the whys and wherefores of Super 8 forgetting that even this tiny little format can do some great things.

Stuart Pitkin's short advertisement for Alex MacArthur's antiques and interior design shop in Brighton, UK is a case in point. It's part advert, part short and part art piece, combining observational cinematography on Ektachrome and Tri-X with some stock Nizo 801 tricks. In all a fine example of how Super 8, in the right hands, can produce amazing results.

On his website Pitkin says "The film uses a combination of super 8 colour and black & white film with added music and sound effects to create a magical mysterious atmosphere."

For more on Stuarts photography and film work visit his website and click here to visit MacArthurs in Kemptown, Brighton.

[Via Filmshooting | com]

11th dresdner schmalfilmtage - call for entries

Summer must be over as the Dresdner Schmalfilmtage has announced its annual call for entries!

Now in it's 11th year the Dresden based small film festival will take place at the Motorenhalle from 21st to 23rd January 2010 and organisers invite 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm films of all genres - just as long as they're less than 8 minutes in duration.

Entry is free and screening copies on DVD must be submitted by 5th December 2009 - for more details visit www.schmalfilmtage.de (in English, German and French).

film & festivals magazine

film & festivals is a carbon neutral, online only publication focusing (unsurprisingly) on films and festivals. With a slick layout, well written articles and a whole host of festival information and submission deadlines, for any serious filmmaker - this is definitely one to bookmark.

More at Film & Festivals where the website also has masses of further information including a blog, funding calls and work opportunities.

Flicker Chapel Hill - Attack! call for entries

Flicker Chapel Hill are inviting entries for their annual 'Attack of the 50" Reels'. If you're not familiar with this fantastic summer, one-day, single cartridge event, here's how it goes down...

Everyone meets at the Flicker HQ located at 1912 Haverford St., Durham, North Carolina 27705 at 11am on Saturday 26th September for coffee and to receive their roll of Super 8 film. Each group pays $25, which goes towards film, processing, and the evening cookout (yum). If you don't have your own camera, you can team up with another crew, and / or borrow one of theirs (the limited spare cameras will be given out on a first come first served basis.) Then, everyone heads out to make their film, and meets back at the HQ at 7pm to enjoy a cookout and compare notes on the day.

This year's film theme is excess - the Chapel Hill guys figuring that, "... since we're all tired of the recession, let's celebrate 'too much' for a change!"

Processed films will be screened in November, details to be announced. For more information visit Flicker Chapel Hill - which should be updated shortly, or contact them via the site.

New high speed Fuji stock from Pro8mm

Fuji's new Eterna Vivid 500 tungsten negative film is coming soon to Super 8 via LA based Pro8mm.

Described by Fuji as "producing sharp, color-intensive images under various challenging shooting conditions, including night scenes" 500T is another tool in the high speed armoury for the Super 8 shooter providing an alternative look and feel to Kodal Vision stocks.

The new Eterna Vivid 500 inherits its highly saturated color, high contrast and superior sharpness from the acclaimed Eterna Vivid 160, a stock we've used and absolutely love!

The film will be available from Pro8mm from August 1st at $30 including processing, more at Pro8mm.com and Fuji.

Star Wars - sort of on Super 8!

David Berry shot some historic Super 8 footage while working on Star Wars at Industrial Light and Magic. The film offers a casual glimpse into the hands-on world of the cinematographers, model makers and artists who brought Star Wars to life in a Van Nuys industrial park during the late 1970s.

From Retro Thing via OhGizmo! - click to watch on Vimeo here

Call for Toma Única

Toma Única, the Spanish single cartridge Super 8mm film festival based in Madrid, has announced its annual call for entries.

With a choice of Ektachrome or Tri-X films, entrants have to pay their processing costs upfront, sending their exposed cartridges to Madrid by 1st October 2009 - with the screening will take place later in the year.

With super cheap entry fees of €11 for Ektachrome processing and €13 for Plus-X or Tri-X films, this is an ideal single cartridge festival to enter if you've got a great idea and film in the fridge.

More details at www.tomaunica.com where there are English language details under "Participa!!".

One Take Super 8 - call for entry

WNDX has just announced its call for submissions for their 4th Annual One Take Super 8 Event to be held on Sunday October 11th, 2009 in glorious Winnipeg. Entry is $35 including film, use of a camera for one day and processing - or for $20, provide your own film!

This event gives you Canadians a great opportunity to shoot a single cartridge film over the summer, and see it premiered at this fantastic festival. Past films have screened across North America and internationally, and have included films from highly acclaimed award winning Winnipeg filmmakers.

Entry is limited to the first 25 respondents and registration must be made by Friday 21st August, 2009.

More at One Take Super 8...

Wittner: new funky spools

We really like these new funky film spools and boxes from Wittner Cinetec, they're cheap too at just €3.90 - peanuts for keeping your films safe!

More here...

Home Developed Film group on Vimeo

There's a new group on the popular Vimeo online video service featuring just home developed 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm films. With a variety of shorts across all genres, the page is an inspiration for those wanting to get busy with their chemistry.

Home Developed Film at Vimeo.

Podcast: I'm Just Popping Over to the Shop

(Click to watch the film)

The podcast is back!

Based on a series of true stories, Charlie Blackfield's 'I'm Just Popping Over to the Shop' is a thoughtful and quirky tale of mundanity featuring original music by Charlie and Paddy Uglow.

Shot using Kodak Ektachrome, the film builds on Charlie's previous animations and experimental pieces - all of which can be seen at www.charlieblackfield.com

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

• I'm Just Popping Over to the Shop (.mov file, 18MB)

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

Mono No Aware - call for entries

The Mono No Aware film event, now in its third year, has announced its annual call for entries.

Described as being "...not a film festival for film-makers, so much as it is an film event for everyone...", this unique gathering invites film only submissions shot on Super 8mm and 16mm - positively encouraging the blending of film with live music, dance, poetry and other artistic endeavors to add to the drama and occasion.

Entries, which are free, are due by November 9th 2009 for the screening / performance at the Mono No Aware festival which will take place in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday 29th November, 2009.

For inspirtaion, more details on past events and submission details visit Mono No Aware.

straight 8 '09 - London Screenings

The ever industrious straight 8 boys have announced 3 nights of screenings at this year's Rushes Soho Shorts film festival in London - the full list of runners and riders is here and watch a 1/2 second teaser of each below. More information and how to get tickets direct from straight 8 here.

Monday 27th July, 9.15pm - Curzon Mayfair, London

a very nice place - julia jason and rebecca lloyd-evans
choke - bill rodgers
down under - edwin thomas & john kelly
everyday heoes - fiona brownlie
footsie - chris denton, lindsay de sausmarez & lou fletcher
howards best/worst/worst day ever - vickie ager
mi buenos aires - santiago burin des roziers
out of sync - andrew bradley
queen of hearts - michael tropper & stephan breier & karen rosenkranz
she's a human canonball - tomas leach
sound lab - jo wallace
spare a hand? - lucas m. gordon
the egg - malcolm finlay & charles downman
the fools pray - john michell & faye
the truth about conveniences - mark burton & sam dowling
time out - dominic wade
treasure - gavin boyter
wees shews are these shews? - giles perkins
you've got to hear this one - vera anne van de sandt & sander de vries

Tuesday 28th July, 91.15pm - London Renoir

anatomy - raw angles & shok-1
baba yaga - peter bunzl
clare's greenhouse (documentary) - sasha andrews
fancy free - leanne flinn
goodnight grampy, goodnight grandma - samuel clements
je mange je pense - mark downes
just another prick - michelle fraser
monster - matthew keen
one last dance - marta besevic and natalie macarthur
pebbledash - peter mallet
running girl - richard pengelley
salidas de hoy - daniel henríquez ilic
serendipity - suellen coles
the birthday cat - freya elliott
the daemon lover - luca gennari
the decline - chris kaliszewski
the last polaroid - towa noel shimizu
urban moves - luke mccarthy

Wednesday 29th July - Curzon Mayfair, London

2009: an ape odyssey - kevin dolan & nick dosseter
alfred and audrey - louise green
casting - luke tredget and finn smith
f+ - carla mackinnon
gnome is where the heart is - sarah thom
kajplats 26 - henrik sundgren
moon eggs - tom woodward
spring forward fall back - gerry hay
super ordinary - rory&ben
taste like chicken - david padadac
tears of a ghost swimmer, the tale of tim the swim - magnus wibe, gregory michael & douglas ayres
the banker & the carpenter's tale - mike day
the calm before - george ferguson, eduarda lima, siobhan mcelhinney
the dream maker - steven mcinerney
the fish - serena armitage & laura kaye
the last man - dan smith
the orb - nick lumb
the way the apple falls - happypigs + kojarden

Détours starts tonite

Just a quickie - the 3 day Détours Santorini Super 8 Film Festival starts tonight in the beautiful town of Oia.

For the full programme of really great 8mm films click here!

We really do wish we were there...

Canon 1014 XL-S dissection

This has gotta hurt....

...that does not work switching speed. In 9fps the dial is like 24fps around. 18fps, 24fps is switched. Canon is a bad place late in the illness of a dial, 1014XL-S is very little case.

...from Nakanocam, clumsy bot translation here.

[Thanks Richard]

Join Cambridge for a quid!

You too can be part of the Cambridge Super 8 Group, for just one pound!

Their Annual General Meeting is being held at the University Social Club bar (on Mill lane, Cambridge) next Monday the 13th of July at 6:30pm.

Go along, join and vote for the committee members...