Sarmoti
Active member
The Backstory:
Almost two years ago a filmmaker from Chile by the name of Daniel Henríquez-Ilic started posting images of 2K scans of Super8 negative. The first one I remember seeing is this one: http://www.filmshooting.com/scripts/gallery/album08/DHI_FLC_2K_PLT_FONDART
The frames came from a technical research short that he was producing at the time. It was funded with help from FONDART, a Chilean cultural fund that has a technical research grant. The purpose of the short, if I remember correctly, is to investigate the potential of a DI applied to Super8.
Time passed and a few weeks ago Daniel mentioned that the project was almost finished. Leave it to fate and destiny for me to have a trip scheduled to Chile (for unrelated business and personal reasons) as he finished his project. Daniel gracefully invited me to his first (or one of his first) private screenings.
The Screening:
This is all from memory; I’ll try to get the facts as straight as I can.
The screening was at Chilefilms, one of South America’s most prominent production/post-production houses. About seven of us entered the small screening room, filmmakers and executives whom I believe were from Chilefilms and/or Kodak.
From my technical side, I was eager to see how the DI treated the nuances of the imagery, how the scan reproduced every silver halide so I sat fairly close to the screen. After all, I was treating this as an experience to see film “up close and personal”. Daniel quickly asked me to please view this from an audience member’s perspective so I complied. I then took a seat that was close to the 30-degree field of view THX recommendation.
Before I comment on what I then saw, throw away all preconceived notions of Super8. The trombone zooms, bad camera work, plastic lenses, inexistent registration, fuzzy shots and horrible reversal stocks. The approach of this project was to treat S8 as a professional medium to see what it might offer to the cinematographer’s creative palette.
The footage was shot on split and repackaged film from Pro8mm in Burbank, CA (they repackage just about every current 35mm stock in to S8mm cartridges). I might be wrong or have missed something but stocks that I remember being used were 5201, 5212 and 5205.
The camera was a Classic Pro8 camera (an overhauled Beaulieu 4008 also sold by Pro8mm). Lenses used were Zeiss ultraprimes, photographic camera glass (Zeiss too?) and a couple shots with a Schneider 6-66 zoom lens meant for S8.
The negative was Scanned at 2K data resolution (DPX RGB 10 bits log files) with a Spirit Datacine at The Film Unit in New Zealand (Peter Jackson’s company). It was dust busted, stabilized when possible, color corrected, cropped to 1.85:1 and recorded to xx42 intermediate stock. I’m guessing that the print I saw was struck directly from that, sorry, don’t know what print stock, it looked like 2393 to me but it could have been 2383. The finished project is well edited and has a narration, soundtrack and is presented as a finished 9 minute short.
The first couple shots to establish the short and it’s purpose were 35mm originated, as soon as first S8 visual appeared, it was obviously not 35mm nor distressed 16mm. I was honestly expecting a mess of fuzziness and grain, especially with the 1.85:1 crop.
For the first time I was seeing this format treated the same way a major feature would treat their images. The imagery was not fuzzy; it was surprisingly sharp for the most part. The color and grayscale chart reproduction was impeccable and the footage was pretty stable and free of dust and scratches.
The grain was apparent even in the 5201 originated footage, but here is where my gut kicks in and I turn subjective. The balance of image and the grain forming it was beautiful in a very poetic way, a dance of the real and the ethereal, the look instantly felt surreal as if I was dreaming the images instead of watching a produced film. It is very hard for me to step away from the technical analysis of what I’m seeing but it happened, at least for a few seconds. It’s one of those moments where you are just drawn in. The look is so unique that I can’t compare it to a pushed larger format. In fact, one portion of the film compares it side by side to Super16, and while the obvious differences are grain and resolution, the S8 maintained a personality of it’s own. Where low resolution video’s electronic signature just looks ugly to me on the big screen, this “low resolution” film’s imagery just looked beautiful in a very organic way.
There is no story in the film, every scene has a purpose though. Scenes featured in the short were varied between location and studio shots, test charts, a documentary style scene with sync sound and even color difference (blue/green screen) composites which were remarkably clean given the format.
Conclusion:
I feel that every cinematographer should experience this film. Daniel did an exelent job and I hope that a print makes its way to a screening room near you (hello, Pro8mm, you want some business?). It’s really an eye opener, not only to S8 but to film in general; its organic nature really shines through. It’s aesthetic has it’s place in various niche areas of our industry. Music videos, commercials and special sequences in feature films could benefit artistically from its very unique look. If you can work out the logistics of scanning it (or telecine via Spirit/Shadow) it is a brush in our arsenal that is very worthy of consideration the next time you need “that look”.
Very fittingly the short is entitled, in Spanish “Halogenuros”… the English translation would be “Halides”.
Matthew Greene
Media Producer/ Technical Director
Siegfried and Roy present: