I’ve often considered shooting feature films in Super 8mm and have broken down its costs below.
Shooting movies in Super 8mm sounds crazy in this day and age, but the format is very much alive and well.
Super 8mm It’s being used more than ever (even in small doses) in big TV and film projects, and nearly every prestigious film festival has recently screened films shot with it.
The resurgence of Super 8mm can be partly attributed to our collective nostalgia for the analog look. But this is also largely down to significant advances in scanning technology and low-grain film stock in recent years.
Today, Super 8mm film shot on 50D film and scanned to 4K+ looks better than 16mm film from the analog era. For the same reason, newly shot/processed/scanned 16mm film looks a lot like old 35mm film. Today, you can extract more from every frame than ever before.
However, there are of course many challenges and drawbacks to shooting feature films in Super 8mm. Case in point: Each reel has a running time of two and a half minutes, which means you can say goodbye to long takes.
Despite the obvious benefits, to ensure you shoot feature films on Super 8mm, you have to do some pretty experimental things. But if you’re like me and can’t help but wonder how much it will cost to go this route, read on.
Below is a complete breakdown of all costs associated with shooting, processing and scanning Super 8mm film.
Buy Super 8mm film
When purchasing Super 8mm film, you have three options:
- Buy from Kodak
- Buy from eBay
- Buy from the lab
I don’t recommend buying movies from eBay, at least not in the quantity you need for the movie. You might find a few rolls here and there, but it’s unlikely you’ll find the rolls you need for a full-length movie.
So you either buy it directly from Kodak or you buy it from a lab.
The going price for Super 8 mm color film is about $30 per 50 roll roll. This applies no matter where you buy the stock.
That said, some labs (such as Pro8mm in Burbank) will sell you the film, develop and scan in a package.
So instead of paying $30 for a roll of film, you’re paying $58 to $258 per roll (depending on the resolution you scan to), but that includes everything. Not just the film, but all the digital processing and scanning.
Below I’ll break down the cost of each option further and we’ll see which one is more cost-effective.
Feature film shooting ratio
You must first determine the proportions of your film so you know how much material you will need.
Today, most filmmakers are used to shooting digitally at extremely high ratios. 20:1 or even 100:1 is not uncommon. This means that for every minute of operation, the amount of raw footage captured on set increases by 20x to 100x.
When shooting on real film, you definitely don’t have that luxury. Even on Super 8mm.
Depending on the style of your film and the coverage you want to shoot, the absolute minimum ratio you’ll need is about 3:1 or 4:1. This will allow a maximum of 1 – 2 shots per shot with minimal coverage.
However, in this example, we use a 5:1 shooting ratio. That’s enough to get your movie into the can while still keeping costs down.
Let’s also assume that our feature script is 90 pages and has an estimated final running time of 90 minutes.
Each roll of Super 8mm film is 50 feet long and provides approximately 2.5 minutes of footage when shot at 24 fps.
At a 5:1 ratio, this means we need 180 rolls of Super 8mm:
(90 minutes running time / 2.5 minutes rolling x 5 = 180)
Multiply that by the price of $30 per roll and we get $5400 Applies to original film only.
Processing and scanning Super 8mm
Besides purchasing the film, the only additional mandatory costs are developing and scanning. These services are usually performed together in the same laboratory, but can also be performed separately.
The lowest processing cost I’ve found is about $24/roll. This affects preparation, cleaning of films, and laboratory time.
Once the film is developed, it is scanned at an hourly rate. Typically $400 – $450/hour, so in this example we will use $425/hour.
But remember, these scanners don’t work instantly. One hour of scan time does not mean one hour of footage. Roughly speaking, you can scan 10 rolls of Super 8mm film in one hour (equivalent to 25 minutes).
So, to determine the independent cost of processing and scanning, we will consider –
Processing fee: $24 x 180 = $4320
Scan: $425 x 18 = $7650
The laboratory also offers additional services for film processing, such as sliding and color correction. However, I will omit these services from this segment, as I usually do color grading I work by myself.
total cost
Now let’s calculate the total single point cost of shooting a 90 minute movie in Super 8mm:
Original film stock: $5400
Processing: $4320
scanning: $7650
All: $17,370
I mentioned before that you can also buy film, develop and scan in a Pro 8mm package. If we had gone this route and selected their 2K “Production Scan” option, we would have paid the full cost of $98/reel.
This gives us the total $17,640 for end-to-end packages. Almost the same price as domestic A la carte film inventory, development and scanning.
Regardless – it’s a big change, especially if you’re an independent production company looking to do it on a budget.
This number can be lowered slightly by reducing the shooting ratio further, or removing some pages from the script. But even if you start taking shortcuts, you’ll pay at least $12,000 to $13,000.
Unless we see these prices come down in the future, I suspect we’ll see a lot of use of Super 8mm as a functional format, even on an experimental basis. But that’s a shame, because the technology is there and the imagery is there.
Super 8mm vs. digital
There are many ways you can spend $17,640 on movies.
you can Buy a used Arri Alexa, Shoot a movie with it and then resell it for almost what you paid.
You can shoot an entire movie on one machine iPhoneand spend the $17,000 on a better location.
You can use existing cameras and allocate those funds to marketing.
Most of these options will be more attractive to the vast majority of filmmakers than spending all their money on what was once amateur film stock. For those willing to spend that much money on a movie, why not jump to Over 16mm? The cost won’t be much more.
I hope new home processing/scanning options will appear in time to make Super 8mm more affordable.
But for now, it’s still an interesting idea to think about. Although low-budget productions can take a huge financial toll, some still think it’s worth it.
Super 8mm has a distinct look, and it’s great The fun of shooting. It creates a completely different process on set and can inspire all kinds of creativity.
If you’ve never shot Super 8mm, I recommend giving it a try. Even if it’s just one roll.
Check out what you think and leave a comment below!
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