Super 8 film

Stevebol wrote on 2/12/2009, 12:08 PM

Hi,
I'm going to have film shot on a Super 8 camera telecined to the format of my choosing to edit in Vegas and AA. There are many options as to how I can have the footage telecined.I want the highest resolution possible without running into problems when I edit in Vegas. Should I go SD or HD? Uncompressed AVI files on a DVD? Having a frame by frame HD transfer is out of my price range so is there a medium between that and DV quality?

Comments

Christian de Godzinsky wrote on 2/12/2009, 12:17 PM

Are you in PAL or NTSC - land ;) ??

As a first suggestion, do not even consider any cam that has a rolling shutter, it will ruin your material. Be it SD or HD. This is due to the cadence (or frame rate difference between the projector and the cam) that will really run havok your pictures. Unless you are able to shoot exactly at the frame rate of the projector (rarely the case).

I have successfully transferred more than 50 hours of super 8 to PAL, using a good quality SD cam, and directly capturing to AVI. You get practically no flicker, if you can run your projector close to 16,6 frames/second ( that is - 1/3 of 50 f/s). Most projectors have such a speed control possibility. Results are excellent. There are a few other tricks to know, but the process is relatively painless, after you have the setup "tuned"...

Christian

Stevebol wrote on 2/12/2009, 12:43 PM

NTSC land here.
I will be shooting at 24/fps on the Nizo that should arrive in a day or two. I was going to go with Cinelabs to process and transfer the film. A Rank Cintel transfer looke really good except for a little blur. I have to decide on the telecine and storage format when I send the the film out. I have to make sure the lab doesn't do 18/fps since they are probably used to that.

Ther ia a LOT to consider here but I love the look of Super 8. If I'm not satisfied with what the lab does I'll probably go the DIY route.

farss wrote on 2/12/2009, 12:44 PM

Have them transfer it to uncompressed AVI.

Bob.

Stevebol wrote on 2/12/2009, 12:54 PM

Thanks,
That was my uneducated guess.
There's a lot of misleading info out there about telecine since so many people have been having old 8mm transfered in the last few years. I just have to decide between SD and HD for editing.

On a side note, It's interesting that a lot of people have their weddings filmed in Super 8 because they want the camera jitter in there. I was hoping I could get rid of that in After Effects.

farss wrote on 2/12/2009, 1:10 PM

You can run S8 at 30fps for less judder. Adds a bit to the cost of stock and processing. Also look at Pro8, gives you a big choice of emulsions. It is 35mm slit and punched.

Bob.

Stevebol wrote on 2/21/2009, 8:48 PM

Christian, could you tell me a little more about the setup you used?
I'm considering doing it myself. Did you do an aerial transfer? I would like to avoid a frame by frame setup.

JJKizak wrote on 2/22/2009, 6:22 AM

You can also try this: www.moviestuff.tv/wp_16.htm. They also have super 8mm. It is supposed to be as good as telcine. Although personally super 8 makes me gag a lot.
JJK