Cost of super 8 project?

mehnkle

mehnkle

Well-known member
We and my friends are putting together a movie with a DVX. We want to incorporate some footage from a super 8 camera (about 10 minutes in length.) How much would it cost for some film, developing, and teleclining? Also, does anyone have any good super 8 camera recommendations? Nothing special...somewhere in the $200 prce range. Thanks a lot!
 
If you really want to out do yourself.. shoot SuperDuper8mm..
Good luck finding a camera or film chain without making one, though.
 
better site: http://filmshooting.com/scripts/forum/viewforum.php?f=1&sid=bc16a5be95b5cea1e2f0491cf6c3f57a

depends. do you want tri-x , black and white? or tried and true daylight k40?

if you get, say k40, kodak sells it for about 13 bux or so.. i forget as i buy my film in batches and therefore get a discount... kodak offers k40 at a discount with 5 or more so you can get 5 rolls of k40 for about 45 bux (student discount) including shipping and tax if any.. OR you could drive up to one of their offices if they have a office in your area.

gretting a good super 8 camera for 200bux is pushing it... super 8 cameras are mainly mechanical, with rubber and gears that can go bad over the years.. especialy if left on a shelf in warm climate for 20 years,...

but, canons, nizo, bauer... all good cameras....

as for telecine, you can DIY telecine to minidv off a white card or projection sceen in your home (thats what i do). dwaynes in kansas does great processing of s8 in the states. typically 9 bux per roll and 5 or so bux for shipping.. you can tack on a few dollars for more than one roll being developed and a dollar or two for each additional roll shipped. dwaynes cranks film out daily, so if they get your film on monday, they ship it out on tuesday. wally world also develops s8.. they just send it to dwaynes also but they are cheaper overall but take a few days longer to get back.
 
you can get a camera and variable frame rate projector on ebay for a couple hundred . I got a sankyo variable rate projector for just under 100 and a cam for 50 ...you can spend heaps on a nizo camera...but i dont think its required to get nice super 8 shots...its the dirtiest format out there, its gonna look raw and rough no matter what cam you shoot on

film is about $12 -15 a roll from kodak

processing is probably about 15-20 per roll

each roll is 3 min

project your super 8 reels onto a white wall adjust the projectors frame rate to remove flickerwhen viewing through the dvx EVF...slap the dvx on record and you have telecined footage

pretty cheap id say...and your footage will be very "film like" :grin:
 
For your budget, I'd probably recommend the Elmo 1012XL-S -- probably the best camera in the under-$200 price range (ebay, of course). Other top models would include the Canon 814XL-s or 1014XL-s, but those'll probably cost more than $200 (at least, last time I looked at Super8 gear!)

For film, it depends on what you want it to look like. If you want it to look like Super8 (meaning, that classic look), then there's no question: get KodaChrome 40, and get it direct from Kodak. If you're a student you can get the film and processing for about $11/roll. For non-students it's more like $13/roll.

Each roll lasts 3:20 if shooting at 18fps, or 2:30 if shooting at 24fps. Presuming you want 24fps, you'll need four rolls to get 10 minutes. So $50 should get you all the stock & processing you need.

For transfer -- there are many ways to go, some better quality than others obviously. The question is -- how good do you want it to look? Ironically, most people don't want it to look THAT good, because if it looks too much like 16mm, then it won't look like Super8 -- so why shoot Super 8?

For mediocre transfers, get a projector ($20 off ebay) and just videotape straight off the wall (use a sheet of high-brightness inkjet paper as a projection screen). For really awful transfers, get one of those transfer boxes like Ambico, that you point the projector in one side and the camera in the other.

For a great quality transfer that's affordable, have your film transferred by http://www.moviestuff.tv. They charge a flat rate of $20 per roll, so $80 for transfers.

For the best quality transfer, go to http://www.yalefilmandvideo.com and have Greg Bajakian do the transfer. There may be other places that do a good job too, but I've always been very pleased with Yale's work. They charge $275/hr; you should be able to get four rolls done in one hour.
 
the actual shoting time depends on what frame speed.. you get 50 feet per kart so you can shoot 18, 24, 12.. whatever you want to get the look you need.. depends on camera of course...
 
Thanks for all the info guys, especially you Barry. Ill check out some of those cameras you mentioned.
 
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