Super8 look...

J

justingreiman

New member
Hi guys-
I'm working on a music video and i've shot a short sequence that I'm trying to make look like super8 footage. The girl will be watching this short film in the video... so only a portion of the footage will end up being used. I think it's pretty close, but I'd like to hear if any of you have any suggestions to improve it. I'm using Matt's D90 Rescaler, Matt's Flashframe, and CGM Aged Film LE in Final Cut Studio 1. Other than that, I'm just using the included effects... I don't have any other software or plugins.

Any ideas on ways to improve the look? I know the flashes aren't exactly film burns, but are they close enough, or would it be better without them?

Thanks for your input!

http://www.vimeo.com/7580605
 
Nice footage,
I am doing a family Christmas video that I want to look like super 8. A couple suggestions.

1. I would lose the flashes maybe one or two - it looks contrived.
2. Is it going to be playing on a movie screen or something? Try to reformat the clip in 4:3 - 16:9 looks like HD.
3. oversaturate the color or make it B&W so audience knows its different from present day.
5. Go to You tube and snag some "film leader" footage to superimpose with the "super 8 footage".

Good luck, hope this helps!
 
Way too many dip to blacks, sometimes a straight cut will do just fine.

Also, the closest thing I've seen for that fuzzy, smeared colors, and kinda soft focus 8mm look is a pinhole camera cap:
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Cap-Pinhole...iewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item2a028d6366

It wont do you a lot of good now, but in the future it might be worth a shot. Just remember to only use it outside in broad daylight or you'll have a tough time getting an image.
 
Try under-sampling the footage and Gaussian blurring it for a more convincing effect.
 
Thanks guys-- I appreciate all the suggestions.
I really like the look of a pinhole with the d90. Franck's video was awesome, but too abstract for my needs: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=189250

I'm going to mess around a bit more with the edit and colors based on the feedback from you all. I'm hoping to find some good film leader footage or burns I can add in, too.

Thanks again!
 
Yeah, I have shot a lot of Super 8 and I really think that you footage still looks way too much like video, sorry. I am not familiar with all the applications you are working with, but I would suggest that you steepen the gamma curve on the images, and then play with brightness and contrast. I would also suggest that you increase the saturation, you should be able to do this in FCS. In FCS you should also be able to modify the color balance and I would increase both the red and green levels a little. Remember that color reversal film, because it was designed for direct projection, has relatively high contrast built in.

Here are a couple examples of Super 8 I shot a long time ago and you can see how high the contrast is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKEHL5PEt_Q

This one is not for kid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcSw1SkgmYE

Both of those were shot on Ektachrome 160 color reversal. This one was shot on Kodachrome 40 color reversal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3I1_MV79RQ

Sorry, they are compressed for YouTube for sh*t.
 
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Here are a few tricks that I would suggest trying...

Super 8 is GRAINY - Take a Noise layer in FCP, You can find it under the tab on the viewer where you create a text layer. Pick NOISE and use a blend mode on top of the footage. You can scale it up to make the grain bigger and the adjust the opacity to suit the image.

Super 8 as we like to think of it was generally shot on reversal which equals contrasty and saturated. Crush the blacks and mid tones and boost the sat. Maybe add some yellow orange to add the vintage touch

SPEED up the footage - This is more for 8mm but some super 8mm cameras default frame rate is 18 frames per second. The footage comes out looking a bit choppier. Maybe try speeding it up a touch. Say 110 - 115. See what that does. Or at least vary some of the rates shot to shot.

Last but not least download the collection of film burn that Franck and I have collected from our shoots over the years....Use these instead of the FCP flash frames.
http://vimeo.com/5329915

I like the gate vignette and I don't think I would go to 4x3. Keep it 16x9. It just looks better.
I would avoid blurring the entire image as some have suggested. I would only do that to the edges...ie vignette the sides with blur to make it look like a crappy lens. Don't do it to the entire frame. That will look contrived.

Good luck! Can't wait to see the results.
 
why not shoot super 8? just don't telecine at a modern facility but one of those lame home video places and it will look the way you want. if you shoot modern super 8 stocks through decent glass and get a good telecine it looks better than 16mm did 20 years ago, which is cool but sort of defeats the purpose of using super 8 in the first place. ;-)

EDIT: oh, you've already shot it. well, reshoot? :-)
 
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Sorry boys but speeding up 24P video footage would make it look even more like video because you're introducing more frames in a smaller amount of time. The only way that would work is if the D90 could actually shoot at 9 or 18fps in the first place.
 
If you want to speed up the footage and make it look like psuedo S8mm try extracting frames. Export your shots into image sequences. Remove every three frames. Re-create the image sequence @ 24 or 30 and that will give you a closer representation of 18fps motion then just speeding it up. Plus it gives you some of that jitter which will add to the style.
 
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