Earlier this year I had the opportunity to shoot Super 8mm film on a great video project at Banana Republic as part of an event directed/shot by the talented Carter Smith.
Even though I love shooting Super 8mmI rarely do this in commercial projects, so this is definitely a highlight worth sharing on the blog.
I also don’t often specialize in DP projects, so this also became a unique experience worth documenting.
Below, I’ll break down the entire process—why we shoot film, how it mixes with digital, our workflow on and off set, and more. Hope this helps someone working with similar materials.
Before we begin, here are the final edits –
Why Super 8mm?
From the beginning, the idea was to shoot a mix of film and film for this project.
The concept is based on a road trip storyline, so everything should feel run and gun, loose and somewhat cobbled together from various sources/characters sprinkled throughout. Mixing digital with film (in addition to other stylistic choices) is a great way to capture the emotional tone you want.
I think we discussed the possibility of filming from the beginning 16mm (because I own both a 16mm and an 8mm camera), but in the end the 8mm seemed to be the right choice for a number of reasons.
For one, 8mm looks more different with digital footage than 16mm. Today, 16mm looks so good that you could almost mistake it for 35mm – especially if scanned with a high-resolution data scanner (frame-by-frame scanning, not telecine).
The difference between 16mm film and digital will certainly still be noticeable, but it won’t be as dramatic. Especially when viewed on mobile, this hides much of the grain and grain that 16mm has to offer.
By shooting 8mm and cross-editing it with digital footage, there will be two separate looks, creating a more diverse visual palette.
Perhaps more importantly, Super 8mm is just the right format for the subject. It’s used as a POV camera and is shot in a way that looks amateurish, as if the characters themselves are operating it. We also avoided using tripods or placing anything too carefully to ensure it was authentically homemade.
The Super 8mm camera we used (my Panlong 4008 ZM II) are occasionally used as props for photography and digital lenses. This connects the POV footage captured on film with the more objective digital footage.
Shooting red Gemini
For all digital shots, we chose to shoot on a RED Gemini, which is what a more traditional setup would require. Unlike Super 8mm footage that looks like it was shot by the characters themselves, digital footage has to look more polished.
My project AC (Andy Chinn) also took my photos first feature filmsub-rented his RED Gemini to capture all digital footage, which was perfect for Super 8mm.
If we were renting a separate camera bag for this part, my first choice would probably be the Alexa Mini. After shooting Alex There comes a time when you might fall in love with color science and want to use it to photograph everything…
But the RED Gemini is also an incredible camera that we could use right out of the box and it was absolutely technically capable of capturing what we needed.
In retrospect, I actually think shooting RED helped create maximum contrast with the Super 8mm cine lens.
Alexa has a film/analogue quality to it, and in terms of overall aesthetic it may feel closer to a film scan. The RED Gemini is sharper, cleaner, and more digital, which provides a nice contrast to the Super 8mm.
But at the same time, we still have to find some synchronicity between film and digital, and that’s where vintage lenses come into play.
We shot the vast majority of our digital footage using Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses (16mm – 40mm and 30mm – 80mm), which happened to be the lenses I used in the feature film Psychological synthesis.
We also have a pair of Sigma zoom lenses (18mm – 35mm and 50mm – 100mm) for those few shots where a faster aperture is required. As much as possible we tried to shoot with sigma wide open so that they were a little softer as well.
Whether you’re shooting on film or digital, a zoom lens will complement your work well. Not just aesthetically, but practically – they allow us to be more improvisational and less precise, which is the whole point.
Choosing the right Super 8mm film
We had to decide early on what stock of film we were going to shoot and the total amount we would need for the shoot.
My favorite Super 8mm film is 50D because the ASA is so low and when exposed/scanned correctly it looks almost as good as 16mm.
Of course, my first instinct would be to use the 50D for most of my footage, with the exception of low-light shots where higher ISO might be required. But after further discussions with Carter and adding some visual direction, we opted to shoot a wider variety of film to create a more vibrant color palette. This is definitely the better choice.
Again, the goal was to make the Super 8mm footage look homemade, so it was beneficial to create some randomness in the quality and style of the footage.
In the end, about half of the film we purchased was 50D, and the other half was a mix of 500T and 200 black and white.
Between these different stocks we can capture a wider range of color palettes and textures.
The 50D will be used for critical shots that require the most technical precision. The 200 B & W is great for more experimental shots that can benefit from a higher contrast look. The 500T is great for the low light shots we shoot at the end of the day, as well as some slow motion/overshoot shots that require more light.
In terms of quantity, we went back and forth on deciding how much film to purchase.
Initially, the shoot looks to be mostly digital, with some film thrown in here and there. But the more the creative developed, the more the Super 8mm lens came into focus, which meant we needed quite a lot of raw material.
In the end, we bought 30 rolls to cover two days of shooting. This seems to be enough, since Super 8 gives you about 2 1/2 minutes per roll (24 fps). Therefore, we need a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes of raw material to process.
On-site workflow
During the filming process, we mostly know which types of shots will be shot digitally and which types of shots will be shot on film.
That said, the larger purpose of the production was the stills Carter shot, so our workflow on set was set up around pre-existing stills.
Due to time constraints, we chose to shoot both moving and still images as much as possible. This means that while shooting stills, one (or two) action cameras will also be rolling.
When we were using two cameras at the same time, I would be operating the Super 8mm camera and Andy would be operating the RED Gemini. Sometimes Super 8mm isn’t needed, so I’ll take over the Gemini and Andy will pull the focus.
Some dynamic shots were also shot after the stills were completed. For example, when shooting stills without seeing the crew or gear, it’s impossible to capture wider shots/angles on film/film.
In this case, we would run over after the stills were completed and recreate the moment in a quick shot using Super 8mm or RED.
For the most part, this was the workflow we followed throughout the shoot.
But by the second day, we started to deviate a little bit from that plan because some of the material really just needed to be captured on stills and vice versa.
In this case, we would split up to shoot film or video of a prop truck rolling down a desert road (or wherever) while Carter and his camera team captured stills at the main location.
We also did some fun POV shots where the model held the camera and took some shots of herself. Or we’ll set something up that looks like that and then I’ll do it. In both cases it creates some variation that feels slightly different than the other shots.
During production we mixed different frame rates, especially on the Super 8mm camera. Most were shot at 24 fps, but we did take advantage of the Beaulieu 4008 ZM II’s ability to shoot at up to 70 fps. Whenever a shot makes sense in slow motion, or if we just want to try something different, it’s fun to overdrive and see what we can get out of it.
I also did some in-camera zooms, quick pans, aperture rolls, and other movements to add little embellishments to the original footage to make it feel authentic.
In the end, we shot most of the film, but not all – about 23/30 reels – and a lot of digital footage. Carter and his team are able to produce excellent edits that maximize the best of each format.
Process/Scan
As usual, I used a Super 8mm lens and took the exposed film to Professional 8mm Processed and scanned in Burbank, CA.
I highly recommend them if you are located in Los Angeles. They sell packages that bundle film, processing, and scanning together, and make some of the best 8mm scans anywhere.
They were able to scan 8mm at up to 6.5K resolution, but that was a bit overkill for the needs of this project. Finally, we scanned to HD/2K, which was still adequate.
When scanning film, you can choose to scan to show the edges of the frame and sprocket holes. I like to do this to build options in editing.
Sometimes you may want to retain an overscanned image for a stylistic effect. Other times, you might just keep the edges of the frame, or just use the extra height to re-establish the frame a bit when editing.
In the final cut, the Super 8mm lens was pushed in to fill the entire frame, but still held up very well –
Scan raw film into logarithmic color space (as opposed to Rec 709). This of course retains the greatest amount of color information and offers the greatest possibilities for color grading.
Before sending the film scans for editing, I put them into DaVinci Resolve and did a global quick single light pass on all the footage. Then I created a lookup table Import footage into Rec 709 and share it for offline editing.
This LUT works with most footage, but not all.
The tungsten footage (200T) was not shot using the 85 filter, which makes the color temperature of the original scan very cold. This can be manually adjusted/corrected in post to fix the white balance.
All in all, the film footage doesn’t seem to require extensive color grading, as the lab’s natural colors are represented very well.
final product
In the end, I love how everything turned out, thanks to the work of everyone else on set and in post.
There was so much material to process and it could be edited a thousand different ways. But the final version strikes the right balance between film and digital, color and black and white, normal speed and slow motion. There are also some great extra touches, like a double exposure effect that was done entirely in post-production.
Chris Bell’s (Grizzly) music and the use of layered voiceovers (also recorded on set with models/actors) create a stunning soundscape that really elevates the visuals.
These types of Super 8mm projects don’t come around very often, but they’re always fun when they do. I’m working on a couple of Super 8mm films of my own, so I’ll be sure to report back on those soon.
Have you ever used an 8mm lens in any of your projects? Please leave a comment below.
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