Last week I had the opportunity to shoot a new short film using the new Kodak Super 8 camera. Below, I’ll share a behind-the-scenes look at this project and my experience with the camera.
Over the next few weeks I will be sharing more detailed reviews of new products Kodak Super 8 cameraas well as test footage and stills.
But now, here’s how the short film is made –
Challenge: Single roll 50D
Recently I set a goal to shoot a short film every month in 2024.
Just got back from my The fourth feature film While making it, I felt re-energized and ready to dive back into the world of short films.
My goal is to try a completely different approach with each monthly short. One may completely improvise. The other can be shot in one shot. Some will be shot with a movie camera, others with a mirrorless camera or iPhone.
Around the same time I had the idea of doing this, I came across Straight 8 Single cartridge competition. It’s been a while since I’ve entered a filmmaking contest, but the more I learn about Straight 8, the more interesting I think it will be to try.
Straight 8 challenges filmmakers to make an entire short film on a single roll of 8mm film. The films were edited in camera and the exposed footage was sent to Straight 8 for processing, scanning and review as part of the selection process.
The soundtrack is created (singlely) by you and uploaded directly to them. They combine your movie and soundtrack so you never actually see your movie until it premieres. The top 25 films were screened during the BFI and the top 10 films were screened during the Cannes Film Festival.
As part of this competition I have now made two short films, both with actors/filmmakers Josh Pavchak. The first one we shot last fall was shot partly underwater (8mm!).
Our most recent Straight 8 short film is called look. The film was shot on 50D single roll film in Malibu, California, and lasted about 4 hours.
Choose a concept
Josh and I explored a range of different ideas before settling on a concept. Some are traditional narrative content, while others are more experimental. But all are aimed at doing something unique with the 8mm format.
One of the ideas almost came to fruition, but after four drafts of the script, it just didn’t feel right. The story feels like it takes at least 5 – 7 minutes, and when shooting at 18fps (a competition requirement), you get a total runtime of about 3 minutes and 20 seconds.
I keep a list of movie ideas on my notes app. Some are filled with details and plot points. Others are just a character sketch or a theme to explore.
One of my notes is a purely visual concept that I once imagined. In my mind’s eye, I see a sunny day on a dramatic beach, contrasted with a vampire looking into the camera.
The dichotomy between the beautiful scenery and the eerie characters was interesting to me. But there is no story, just atmosphere.
As an exercise, I challenged myself to write a draft of my script in 10 minutes. It’s only 3 pages and I’ve been writing a lot lately. So I worked from intuition and subject matter and figured out the first step – try not to overthink or overwork.
After a few drafts with Josh, it settled and took shape. For an 8mm film of this nature, it feels about right.
It’s not just a visual experiment (as it has a narrative component), but it’s also not strictly scripted like most narrative projects.
Shoot and edit in camera
As I’ve written before, I like to impose strong limit About the creative process. This is one of the best ways to come up with new ideas and work intuitively.
In this project, the biggest positive limitation was having to edit the video in-camera. As a by-product, it opens up many creative opportunities.
There were times when we weren’t sure if a particular clip would work or if we would jump the queue. Since there was no benefit of playback (or a second take), we decided to throw in insert shots to reset the line. That photo ended up being one of my favorite photos of the day.
There’s also plenty of room to come up with new ideas in between key storylines.
We know roughly where the 25% mark, the midpoint, the 75% mark, and the end point are. That gives us some solid timing, but then we can make plays between the lines.
After a while we were close to the midpoint, but the rolling process was only 35% complete. This gave us some extra time to shoot important footage and capture more coverage.
My most practical advice for anyone trying to shoot a Straight 8 film in the future is:
Always call action forward Get out. At least when it comes to getting started.
The power of habit will make you want to start rolling first and call it later. Just like you would normally shoot and edit. But since you’re editing in camera, you have to be very careful to avoid timing out on these clips.
Remember, you should be in editor mode whenever possible Director/Director of Photography Always mode. A really fun creative challenge.
Using the new Kodak Super 8mm camera
I’ve been curious about the new Kodak Super 8mm film camera since it was first announced. And was lucky enough to borrow a camera from Kodak in Hollywood for a few days.
One thing I’ve always appreciated is how intuitive the camera is to use. Especially when you don’t have much time to familiarize yourself before the shoot.
After testing it for about an hour the night before the shoot, I knew everything was going to go smoothly. The menu system is clean and easy to navigate. And because it’s a movie, there’s only so much set-up required.
I shot the title card on my computer screen the night before main production. This gave me the opportunity to see how confidently the film came through the gate and how reliably the camera seemed to operate.
All of this made the shoot very smooth and easy that day. Not to mention, there’s LCD screen/video assist, which I never thought I’d see on a Super 8mm camera.
When shooting digitally, we take having a flip-up LCD monitor for granted. With most 8mm cameras, you can’t just grab them from the top handle and run and shoot at a low angle. At least if you want to see what you’re doing…
The camera’s ergonomic design, including the top handle with shutter button, allowed us to get some truly unique angles that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.
The battery life is also amazing. We shot for several hours (including an extra roll of test footage) and only lost one measure.
I’ll have more to share about the camera soon, so stay tuned for my full review.
Make a soundtrack
We made the film on a deadline for Straight 8 and had very little time to compose the score.
Thankfully, I’ve discovered some previously unused original music composed for the old feature. During a short editing session I was able to repurpose some of these cues and mix them with natural sounds/background textures to create a soundscape.
Without seeing the footage, my goal was to have the music sync with the main story beats. I know exactly where we’ll be at 30 seconds, 90 seconds, etc.
That being said, I still don’t see it. And not for a while – so let’s see how it times out in reality!
More coming soon
I’ll be sure to share it on the blog once the movie is released to the public so you can see how it turns out. I’ll also post my own thoughts on the results once I actually see them.
Overall, I highly recommend attending Straight 8. Even if you’ve never shot film, this is a fun and easy way to get started. The positive constraints it provides will do wonders for your creative process.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information on the Kodak Super 8 camera, other short film experiments, and more!
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