Developed - A Super-8mm Film Production

[The Student]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3136/3038867018_d19c0840d9_o.jpg
Developed


Background

While this thread may be a little late in the making, my production partner and I have been hard at work behind the scenes to make sure this production is getting off the ground. This mainly has to do to the fact that we are going to be shooting this whole production on Super-8mm! Our script is finished, locations are set, and we are aiming to film in a few weeks.


Logline

When two strangers meet at different places at the same time, time, and time again. Is it coincidence or is it fate?


Crew

Producer / Director / Writer - Alicia Rocha
Producer / Cinematographer / Editor - Justin Aguirre
Composer - Herman Witkam
Grip - Jimmy To
Still Photographer - Melissa Pardue


Talent


Brittani Thorpe

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc182/Leashkiesh0o/brittaniheadshot.jpg


Evan Lovette
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc182/Leashkiesh0o/evan.jpg



Camera

Canon 1014XLS


Film

6 Rolls of Kodak Tri-X

Production Log
02-07-09: I am proud to announce that Herman Witkam has been added to our team as our composer! :)
02-06-09: We have our shooting schedule down for this Thursday and next Saturday. All the actors have the script and we are finalizing the order of the days to make sure everything runs smooth as possible.
01-05-09: Did the first round of location scouting in Downtown LA and Pasadena. Chosen a section of the Red and Gold lines for shooting two scenes.
01-13-09: Did more location scouting in Newport Beach around the Balboa Pier and Balboa Island area. Also, locked the locations down with the script.
01-18-09: Looks like we found a composer for our film. Will let you know the name when everything gets worked out.
01-20-09: Heading to Burbank to place the order for the film though Spectra Film and Video.

[The Student]

Locations

Here are some of the locations we are going to be shooting in. I took these on Tri-X to get an idea of how the film will come out once it's all done.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3487/3237310809_8c8f75c6cc.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3502/3237312375_8ed51e270d.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3431/3237311623_c3f01e736a.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/3237311385_551b125262.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3451/3238152348_20ae4dd57e.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/3237311845_67fd5bf146.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3301/3238151138_1719786465.jpg

[The Student]

Behind the Scenes

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3291579314_36172b43d0_o.jpg
This one is from us shooting the opening title in my living room. We choose to shoot the title out of foam core on a black background instead of doing it in FCP because this way we get all the characteristics of the Super-8 applied for the title.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/3290762715_20eb535d08_o.jpg
The opening breakfast scene. I used a 650 in the corner to the right as my only light source besides the open blinds behind our talent.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/3291579524_684e1ec141_o.jpg
In this scene our talent is making bacon on the stove. I pointed the 650 to the wall and bounced it back onto the frying pan.

[The Student]

Film Grabs


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3148/3038870214_036dd843b0_o.jpg
Coming Soon

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Super 8! Very cool. Welcome to the fray.

MAH

[sean90291]

Very much looking forward to how this turns out!

[kyrre]

Awesome! Can't wait!

:beer:

[stinkpot]

Welcome. Can't wait to check it out.

:beer:

[The Student]

Thanks guys for the welcome. I knew Super-8 would spark some interest. I also added a production log to the top.

[Robbie Comeau]

Dude, can't wait.

Where've you been? Been signing in on iChat every so often to check if you're online to as some questions about Newport :)

Robbie

[The Student]

Hey Robbie,

Sorry man been busy working on my transfers to the universities and such. But I'm online now if you are.

[The Student]

UPDATE

A few things to let you all know about. A composer has been found for the film and will be announced in the next few days. Also some sad news. Our male lead bailed out and we are looking to film this weekend so we can work with our actress. So if you know of a tall actor (age 20-25).. hipster type PM me. It's a silent part so no words.

I put all this on the Production Log on the first page.

[Lawsuit_Boy]

I'm definitely looking forward to this production. Welcome and best of luck! :)

[The Student]

Locations

Here are some of the locations we are going to be shooting in. I took these on Tri-X to get an idea of how the film will come out once it's all done.


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3487/3237310809_8c8f75c6cc.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3502/3237312375_8ed51e270d.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3431/3237311623_c3f01e736a.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/3237311385_551b125262.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3451/3238152348_20ae4dd57e.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/3237311845_67fd5bf146.jpg


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3301/3238151138_1719786465.jpg

[The Student]

UPDATE

Things are all set to begin filming this Thursday with everyone very eager to get started. I got back a roll of Vision2 50D we shot as a test (both for this and another production) and will post the footage soon. I also updated the front page with our new actors names and updated the production log. It's going to be close to the deadline for this fest but I believe we are going to make it.

[Mark Harris]

Looking forward to it, esp on film!!!

[The Student]

Some update

I just got back a test roll of Kodak Vision2 50D that I shot with the writer/director down in Newport Beach. I choose the Vision2 instead of the Tri-X cause we just needed to get a feel of the limitations of the zoom on the camera and for doing some of the handheld shots. Also, I have two upcoming productions one music video and one short film to be shot down there so I wanted to see how well the 50D looks in the Super-8 format. Let me know what you think it was the first time for me using negative stocks.

http://vimeo.com/3123305

Enjoy!

[The Student]

I uploaded photos of both our lead characters to the front page. Enjoy!

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc182/Leashkiesh0o/brittaniheadshot.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc182/Leashkiesh0o/evan.jpg

[Sprocketboy]

Welcome to the fest! I'm dying to know how you are transferring the Super-8 footage to video. Are you doing with equipment you own or at the same place you are having your film developed? It looks quite beautiful.

[The Student]

Thanks Sprocketboy,

I have all my footage telecined at Spectra film and Video in Burbank, CA. They do a great job on the transfers and offer good deals on film packages that include; film, process, and telecine.

[Sprocketboy]

Its good to know there is another place besides Pro8mm in Burbank. Are you transferring your film to HD or SD resolution?

[The Student]

Haha yeah, I heard to many horror stories from them.

I'm getting the footage transfered to SD because I don't have a way to get HD footage into my computer and I don't want to pay for the harddrive option.

What is really cool about Spectra is that when you buy stock from Pro8mm, Spectra will process it for free when you get a transfer from them.

[Kyle Stebbins]

makin some good progress.

just took some photos. i will share them soon.

--

also, check your pms.

[Kyle Stebbins]

Well guys, I haven't heard from you in a few days and other work is starting to pile up. I will send you the pictures I took and let you go from there... ya dig? Gotts to run.

kyle

[The Student]

Hey Kyle,

I sent you a reply a few days ago, sorry I've been out of touch recently.

------

Small Update:

Some production stills from our "slow" progress.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/3291579314_36172b43d0_o.jpg
This one is from us shooting the opening title in my living room. We choose to shoot the title out of foam core on a black background instead of doing it in FCP because this way we get all the characteristics of the Super-8 applied for the title.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/3290762715_20eb535d08_o.jpg
The opening breakfast scene. I used a 650 in the corner to the right as my only light source besides the open blinds behind our talent.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/3291579524_684e1ec141_o.jpg
In this scene our talent is making bacon on the stove. I pointed the 650 to the wall and bounced it back onto the frying pan.

More to come soon... I hope haha. :)

[mattspat]

hey man...looks really cool. are you shooting on Canon 1014xls? and is that a film camera?

[The Student]

Hey mattspat,

Yes sir, it's a Canon 1014xls, a super-8mm film camera. Produced 1978-1983 and still running strong. It will probally out live my DVX100b. Haha.

[cinealma]

Just saw this thread. Awesome, man. Are you going to be converting to B/W in post? I'll have to check your vimeo footage.

Good luck on the project. Very cool move doing the titles "live" as they say. I did the same thing for a short I did for the "Attack of the 50 Foot Reels" festival last November and it definitely makes a difference between tacking on computer generated titles.

Cheers!

[The Student]

cinealma; I'm very jealous of you for entering the Attack of the 60 Foot Reels. I really want to enter it next time it comes around. We are shooting TriX so no converting to black and white in post. Do you have your 50 foot film somewhere online? I really want to check out a fellow super-8 filmmakers work.

[cinealma]

cinealma; I'm very jealous of you for entering the Attack of the 60 Foot Reels. I really want to enter it next time it comes around. We are shooting TriX so no converting to black and white in post. Do you have your 50 foot film somewhere online? I really want to check out a fellow super-8 filmmakers work.

The contrast of the Tri-X will look nice with the Canon lens. Very cool.

Hey, I'll shoot you a PM about the Super-8 stuff so I don't hijack your LossFest thread here.


Cheers!

[Kyle Stebbins]

hey guys! i, too, have been out of touch for a little while.

i shot some photos for your poster, but just last night i actually took one that i think might do this piece a bit more justice.

i'll try and mock up a couple different ones over the weekend. word?

[The Student]

Hey Kyle. That sounds great! I can't wait to see them!

[warau]

I liked a lot of your framing for shots. Interesting story.

[rcolazo89]

The Student, you never PMd me back :(
you responded to my post about an OC crew a while back ago but i was without a computer for a month so it took me a while to respond. anyways came out good, wish I could have helped out.

[cinealma]

This film had a nice flow and feeling to it. Herman's music really helped it move along. I like this film a lot, but I might be biased towards the B/W Super 8. =)

A couple of technical things:

I see you did the telecine at Spectra. Was it just a simple film chain type of transfer or did you do a frame-by-frame scan? The reason I ask is that I see a lot of "flickering" in the image.

There was a bit of jitter here and there. Wondering if that was because you were on the long end while hand-holding the camera, or registration problems, or ???

A little underexposed on the faces here and there. One thing I found helps me TREMENDOUSLY with Super-8 camera is the use of a gray card. You'll nail the exposure just about every time. (Now, focus is another thing! :))

Anyway, great job. I really like your work.


Cheers! :beer:

[Marlon Ladd]

I'm not sure if I understood the ending. I liked the story and the concept however, but it looks like you had a bad compression though. The actors did a fine job, except for the girl's moment of surprise when looking at the pictures. Other than that, nice work.

[Alex Jeffery]

Because you were shooting Super-8 with no sound, the visual storytelling was crucial, and I think you did a fabulous job with it. The soundtrack really reinforced the story, and I thought the shots were well composed. Some of my favorite shots/ lighting occured on the train platform, as the darker locations provided a bit of flickering. Overall, this film kept me hooked til the end even if the pacing was a little slow at times. Nice job!

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

Thanks for entering this! It's enjoyable to see some 8mm.

That said, I would have liked seeing it in color. Isn't 8mm color cheap enough? The flicker was pretty distracting, and I've seen 8mm without the flicker...

The plot was a bit slow, and the final jump to them holding hands on the beach seemed cliche and way too rushed (would have been funny if it was only in his artistic idealistic head and not real life).

But good building narrative, even if it was slow. And your lead actress is pretty hot, so that's easily worth an extra star from me :-)

[Sprocketboy]

I got a kick out of someone shooting Super-8 for this festival. I've shot tons of Super-8 in the past and I'm in the process of transferring it to digital and saving it onto a hard drive. Whoever did the transfer should give you a refund, or whoever gave you the poorly manufactured stock should give you a refund, or whoever gave you the poorly registered Super-8 camera should be reported to the BBB. That flickering is annoying. If you want it done right go here (http://www.moviestuff.tv/index.html), or buy one of their projectors and do it yourself. You'll save a ton of money. These things transfer better than a rank cintel.

You definitely had a vision, but I don't think it came to full fruition in this film. Please, don't let this turn you off. Keep at it.

[lordambrai]

Why do I feel like one of the few that thought the flicker, and the grain was all intentional. It felt like an early Daron Aaronofsky film cept without sound. If that's how you intended it well I dug it. If that isn't how you intended it... well I still liked it.

[jasonthewho]

Really liked the shot on the beach where their legs are being enveloped in light. Also really liked the shot with the train passing in front of the camera, finally revealing her.

Were the flash frames intentional? If so, I'm guessing they represent the pictures he's taking of her? Not sure that that idea works completely.

It always impresses me to see a film shot on actual film. To see one in a DVXuser fest is particularly impressive. Congrats!

[Lawsuit_Boy]

I think the intentions of this film were most certainly admirable and I want to believe that A) the man was standing behind her and the ending makes little sense, or B) she had a platonic fling with a stranger who took great photos of her and then disappeared into the night after leaving the stuff with her.

This is where my problems arise with this film. I felt that neither character was developed at all, and I felt that their connection was nothing other than vague curiosity. I like that aspect for sure, but in a way, it detracted from the breadth of the whole piece.

Also, and I'm sure this is just a compression issue (the file size was tiny), but it was very difficult making out details in darker shots. I like that in a few shots it made him a little mysterious though.

I also wonder about the single frame cuts. Were these suppose to be like little hints of the man following her and snapping a few photos? If so, then the film has a big stalker vibe running through it.

I'm just really trying to pry at this one to open up some constructive criticism. It really wasn't a bad viewing experience. I enjoyed watching it. I just think that structurally, it has a lot to work on.

Great effort though, especially for shooting on super 8mm! Kudos there. :thumbsup:

[Chris Messineo]

I miss shooting on 8mm. :)

I loved the look of this. Not just that it was 8mm or black and white (although both of those are cool), but the almost dream-like quality of it all.

I'm not 100% sure what happened and yet I still found myself enjoying the journey.

Lastly, Herman's score was lovely.

[Geoff_R]

This was a cool film, love how the music just carries it along (nice work Herman). It's always a pleasure to see a purely visual story and the 8mm turned out nice. Love how even the credits have this 'shot' look to them :)

Storywise.. I think I could have done without the creepy ending bit.. I don't think the story needs the twist and it took me by surprise because I felt like I was seeing something good develop between these two people... at the same time, I see now by how you mean 'developed'... with finality because at the end, you see the full picture, full story, etc. and it's not what you expected. And yet again, she doesn't run or anything, she just turns to him with photos in hand.. so maybe they'll work it out... ambiguity works :)

Thanks for sharing!

[Tim Joy]

Love the look of film. Really liked the music. I liked the journey and how it was put together. It was a nice distant character piece where we felt as though viewing their situation from afar. The ending fell off a bit for me.
There were a lot of compression artifacts that hurt the look, and I think you could've done better there, but overall an enjoyable sweet film. An Actual FILM. Congrats!

[SMarston]

Black and White made this film!

[Will Clegg]

I want to watch this one a couple more times - it is so interesting to watch. This might be my favorite look of any film in the fest.

That said, I didn't find myself caring much about either of the characters, and therefore the story didn't really have an impact on me. That was a bit frustrating because of the beauty of the images. It's tough with a silent film - you made some bold choices, and while not all of them worked, I think this was a very solid and memorable film.

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Very interesting visuals. Really loved the music as well.
Not sure about the story though, especially the ending. Some bad compression artifacts as well, might not be your fault.

It did hold my interest the entire time.

MAH

[Spear670]

Film definitely looked great, I miss my experiences with real film and I think this has motivated me to get back into the real stuff.

I see a lot of people are getting thrown off by your story, but I thought it was a simple case of boy meets girl, boy and girl hit it off, boy photographs girl, boy becomes obsessive, boy hides in closet and creeps out behind girl.

Forgive the comparison, this is not an insult, but this reminded me of the trailers for that movie "Red Eye" Just because you had us all believing this was a nice romance film and then right at the end threw us a curve ball and went dark with it.

I love it in theory, but I think a little more at the end would have fixed all the confusion.

Still a beautiful film overall.

[MrKilloran]

Film, real actual developed film. A round of applause to you guys. Beautiful visuals but little characterization that kind of hurt the emotional impact. The flickering does become a bit of a distraction. Well done.

[Brian Parker]

Man...8mm. Kudos for shotting with that. The end result was nice. I do feel that the opening sequence could be trimmed a little to allof for some more characterization...a building of who she is. It seemed to be a little romanitc piece about opportunities but then I think it turned into a stalker film. There were a couple of shots on the train where I struggled to read their faces but then the grainy flickering worked for a lot of the other shots in this film, many which I liked. Thanks for doing something different!

[John LaBonney]

Ah yes, B&W film, you gotta love that. The flicker didn't bother me, well, perhaps in some shots like the sunset and a few others, but I just loved seeing real grain. Nice soundtrack and sound effects, it's a nice little work of art altogether.

[Norm Sanders]

It's LATE, but I made a commitment to watch, rate, and comment on all the films before nights end. At this point, I've only got time to watch & rate, so I'm simply letting you know I've done so for yours.

If you'd like a specific review of your film, please just PM me to catch my attention, and I'd be glad to come back here & post a review. :)