K-40 ON THE BIG SCREEN

[Guest]

I know Natural born Killers and some other films used extachrome but what does Kodachrome look like blown up to 35mm, My friend told me Oliver Stone didnt use kodachrome 40 because it looked to good for Super 8 ,has anyone seen k-40 blown up to 35mm and how did it look? Better than 28 days video film?

[matt5791]

has anyone seen k-40 blown up to 35mm and how did it look? Better than 28 days video film?

I don't think it is correct to say "better" because that is subjective and it depends on the subject. I personally thought that 'the look' of 28days did not look entirely out of place for the type of film - although I think it would have looked 1000 times better on Std.16mm or S16 - the extra grain coupled with the huge latitude of modern negative film would have suited the movie, and it would have probably been a lot cheaper because, I believe, they spent many many thousands 'improving' the look in post.

Super8 looks superb when shot well, but this "look" is entirely different and unique. I haven't ever seen K40 blown up, but one would assume it would be less grainy than 7240. However Oliver Stone may have chosen 7240 because of the local lab facilities.

Matt

[mattias]

i believe tarnation has quite some k40 in it. it was hard to tell, but there were definately at least two different super 8 stocks used. of course this was transferred to dv and then blown up from that, but you can still compare it to the dv and vhs (!) footage that's also in there. it's a really powerful film that you should all go and see btw. i got the chance to spend some time with the director at the stockholm film festival recently, but we mostly talked about new york vs stockholm issues. ;-)

/matt

[scottbobo2]

They are showing it on the big screen here in New York, I am going to see it today. Tarnation is suppose to have a lot of Super 8 old flashbacks and new footage. Also I dont think Oliver Stone would shoot extachrome because of the lab location. As a matter of fact there was a cable documentary on some music videos last weekend and they said unless Super 8 is degraded it looks too similar to 16mm and (heard it with my own ears) 35mm! to use as is. The director said video is easier and the D.P's(cameramen) dont want to touch super 8 because its to hard to guarantee the producers a good image. Bottom line they trust video more
but when Super 8 is good it is too good .SEEMS LIKE SUPER 8 IS IN A CATCH 22 SITUATION.DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DONT

[timdrage]

Interesting...

I saw a documentary yesterday about the Weather Underground, lots of great 60s + 70s 8mm (+ 16mm) footage in there... some of it looking really nice. Documentaries of the future looking back at the 80s/90s are going to be severely lacking in good footage... just lots of wobbly degraded old VHS etc!

[scottbobo2]

I saw the film Tarnation yesterday,It was shot mainly with minidv but used alot of super 8 film that was shot in the 70's .The super 8 looks really,really good projected in 35mm .The surprising thing is the director projected the super 8 on a wall then videotaped with a sony handcam .It was then transfered to 35mm from the sonycam for the big screen. There was zero grain and the image was very sharp.Also,the film has a scene where they show a clip from a super 8 film that the director did in high school,again the footage was excellent in 35mm and this is an off the wall transfer.
Maybe someone here can answer this qustion "Why wasnt the super 8 grainy when projected in 35mm ? In fact the minidv looked pretty good too but it looked like a news story,the super 8 looked like a movie.

[woods01]

Well there are sound reasons not to trust S8 if you are making a financed
film. The pressure is enormous on the DP and video you can at least see
what you get, if the DP lacks experience or confidence I can see why they
would want to shoot video. I would also say that the use of Ekta in Stone's
films would probably have been decided since the lab facilities are
pretty much non-existant for Kodachrome. The DP trusts his lab and
wants dailes and a full assortment of push/pull processing and colour
timing available for a million dollar movie. You don't really get that
same sence of confidence using K40 mailers

But if you want to see K40 on the big screen try to track down last
years excellent documentary "Capturing the Friedmans". Its about the
consequences of child abuse charges to a family and makes extensive
use of the family's Super 8 Sound and Hi 8 video archives in the film.

Also Neil Young's "Greendale" uses pretty much all of the Pro8mm
stocks and can give you and idea of the grain to expect with the vision
stocks. But if you aren't a fan of Young's music it might bore ya.

[mattias]

The surprising thing is the director projected the super 8 on a wall then videotaped with a sony handcam

i don't know... what does the "super 8 film transfer services" end credit mean then?

/matt

[unxetas]

probably just the name of the guy who either:

a) built and painter the wall on which the footage was projected;
b) mounted the sony handycam on a tripod and adjusted focus and exposure;
c) setup the projector;
d) all of the above.