I was having a political discussion with a friend about people and their tendency to create Cults of Personality and what this means to the greater Socio-Economic structure in the contemporary USA.
Then on my way home I thought about the Cult of Personality that surrounds Super8...
Just in case there are people that are unfamilar with the idiom this link will provide a brief overview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality
What do you think?? Do you think that Super8 has created a Cult of people that overly glorify it??
Good Luck
Super8 and its Cult of Personality
well... I'm afraid of being stomped on the head after exposing my view 
but here it goes..
well yes and no. Super8 does have the merit of being film, therefore it carries all the qualities associated with the medium. In general, most pros using super8 use it for it's aesthetic value.. they know how it looks and they know that's the look they need for their project. Students use super8 because in the end, they want to use film and super8 is the only thing closely affordable.. These are the no's.
Then yes.. I think some people do exaggerate on the passion for super8, like it has some value over the medium.. I'm sure these aren't the best words to express my thoughts, but bare with me, it's 1:11am on a very very long and painful day. Maybe if someone answers I'll be able to pick up their own words for my own text
take care,
but here it goes..well yes and no. Super8 does have the merit of being film, therefore it carries all the qualities associated with the medium. In general, most pros using super8 use it for it's aesthetic value.. they know how it looks and they know that's the look they need for their project. Students use super8 because in the end, they want to use film and super8 is the only thing closely affordable.. These are the no's.
Then yes.. I think some people do exaggerate on the passion for super8, like it has some value over the medium.. I'm sure these aren't the best words to express my thoughts, but bare with me, it's 1:11am on a very very long and painful day. Maybe if someone answers I'll be able to pick up their own words for my own text
take care,
Considering socio-economic implications of Super 8 seems a bit silly to me. I find that super 8 is a medium just like anything else. True, it is less expensive than its big brothers but it is quite different from DV. Just like in music there is analog and digital. For example: Acoustic instruments communicate on a level that electronic intruments could never reach for me. And so film posseses a quality that digital doesn't have. It is all subjective and personal but that's why I think many who use super 8 are drawn to it. Art is often personal; Not political, economical or practical.
Who mentioned Socio-Economic implications of Super8?? Not me...
What I said in the first post was that I was talking politics with a friend and we started to talk about cults of personality. Then ex post facto I began to think about Super8 and the Cult of Personality it seems to comand over some of the people that use it.
There was never anything about DV vs Super8 or which is more cost effective...
Read the first post again and then comment. I would like to read what you think.
Good Luck
What I said in the first post was that I was talking politics with a friend and we started to talk about cults of personality. Then ex post facto I began to think about Super8 and the Cult of Personality it seems to comand over some of the people that use it.
There was never anything about DV vs Super8 or which is more cost effective...
Read the first post again and then comment. I would like to read what you think.
Good Luck
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Guest
Yes, I agree with you. I first saw this when I was a kid. Back than the military was ditchiing the. 45acp for the 9mm. In the trade magazines the fur went flying.
Then I grew up and shot both and decided I didn't want to be on the recieving end of either one.
Film vs Video, Mac vs PC, Coke vs Pepsi, it seems that people just can't be "pro" something and not "anti" the other.
I suppose I'm just as bad as the next guy, but I try to catch myself. I feel the real danger isn't in pushing your beliefs on other (I've never really cared if other people disagreed with me.) but in becoming blind to the limitations of whatever it is you believe in.
Then I grew up and shot both and decided I didn't want to be on the recieving end of either one.
Film vs Video, Mac vs PC, Coke vs Pepsi, it seems that people just can't be "pro" something and not "anti" the other.
I suppose I'm just as bad as the next guy, but I try to catch myself. I feel the real danger isn't in pushing your beliefs on other (I've never really cared if other people disagreed with me.) but in becoming blind to the limitations of whatever it is you believe in.
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Joe Gioielli
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Re: Super8 and its Cult of Personality
Is there any cult of personality among users of super 8? It is even hard to understand what you are thinking about... Just remember: this phenomena is a political one: Stalin, Hitler, Kim Jong Il and others like these people who had military and political power millions of fanatic people, state propaganda etc.Nigel wrote:brief overview http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality
What do you think?? Do you think that Super8 has created a Cult of people that overly glorify it??
Good Luck
Is there any s8 filmmaker who has the same???
(( If the answer is yes, please tell him to force KODAK not stop k40
))-
S8 Booster
- Posts: 5857
- Joined: Mon May 06, 2002 11:49 pm
- Real name: Super Octa Booster
- Location: Yeah, it IS the real thing not the Fooleywood Crapitfied Wannabe Copy..
don´t really know - i am pretty satisfied i can shoot film and not dv in an relatively economic way. it is sort of an underdog situation - using 30-40 year old gear and basically match or surpass the latest technology of the gear that once "replaced" s8.
in between it creates an emotional constellation not unlike a cult. it is like owning an 2CV; even if rather unchanged since its creation almost 70 years ago it will do most of what modern cars do + actually quite a bit more. cult was its name half way through its life cycle. in 68 it was the revolutionary students imaginary social "tank".
for most of my non pro shoot i am very happy not to have to drag on a 16mm cam however small, also i apreciate the cart system over rolls for snappy holiday shoot.
on the other hand, you can do whatever professional shoot job with it if you like. guess you can do most of the sfuff that you do with your aaeton with your 4008 except for image area and image stability? apart from that you can go so professional you want want with the 4008? right?
cult? .. do not know... flexible all between cult n pro - yeas - i imagine so. pretty unique isn´t it? as long as it last - we´ll see.
t
in between it creates an emotional constellation not unlike a cult. it is like owning an 2CV; even if rather unchanged since its creation almost 70 years ago it will do most of what modern cars do + actually quite a bit more. cult was its name half way through its life cycle. in 68 it was the revolutionary students imaginary social "tank".
for most of my non pro shoot i am very happy not to have to drag on a 16mm cam however small, also i apreciate the cart system over rolls for snappy holiday shoot.
on the other hand, you can do whatever professional shoot job with it if you like. guess you can do most of the sfuff that you do with your aaeton with your 4008 except for image area and image stability? apart from that you can go so professional you want want with the 4008? right?
cult? .. do not know... flexible all between cult n pro - yeas - i imagine so. pretty unique isn´t it? as long as it last - we´ll see.
t
..tnx for reminding me Michael Lehnert.... or Santo or.... cinematography.com super8 - the forum of Rednex, Wannabees and Pretenders...
Nigel, yes I think I can understand now what you were thinking about this. On the other hand I have no personal experience what is a personal cult could be (in Hungary only in the fifties were a personal cult of a communist dictator called Rakosi - he was 150 cm tall, bold and fat: the Hungarian anti-communist revolution of 1956 sent him to emigration to the USSR).
Because of historical reasons I don't like to use the term personal cult but you can use cult or something like that. I'm ineterested in this issue: why people choose s8 techniques in the digital age, what is the reason?
What is the background of these people (as a sociologist I suppose a strong middleclass background). The pro users are not interesting - they use it because it is cheeper. But the others are more interesting...
Because of historical reasons I don't like to use the term personal cult but you can use cult or something like that. I'm ineterested in this issue: why people choose s8 techniques in the digital age, what is the reason?
What is the background of these people (as a sociologist I suppose a strong middleclass background). The pro users are not interesting - they use it because it is cheeper. But the others are more interesting...
good question. he answer is obviously yes, s8 has a cult that highly exaggerates it's importance. It's a medium to record moving images, that's all.
What bothers me is why people actually develop any cults at all around technical equipment? If I knew this, I'd be a rich and famous marketing guru, since all manufacturers of all kind of devices dream about creating a brand that has a cult following, and I'd be the one with the magic formula.
It seems that people often define themselves with the aid of a brand, sort of a psychological wheelchair. I'm a mac user, I'm a mercedes driver, I make a feature on super8 all seem to extend the presumably weak personality behind it.
Fact is - a lousy driver is a lousy driver whether he farts in the seats of a SLK or sweats in a trabbi, a crap movie is as bad in super8 as in miniDV and what most people praise their macs for can as well be done on a C64 (ok, I exaggerate - but you get the point, hopefully).
Niche products, or failed or discontinued products, seem to be very strong personality extenders, like Apple Newton, or like super8, creating a kind of "we're elite" mindset.
- Hey, I'm a super8 shooter, that's something very special, isn't it?
- No, dude, and your movie sucks, but at least is limited to some 3 min.
Even a filmstock can do this, just look over at the K40 threads. Then jump over to a leica forum, and see reasonable people like dentists and lawyers insult each other over the benefits of a lens from 1955, that probably few people outside those fora ever heard of.
I guess people's lives are so meaningless, that they desperately search something they can own, in order to get some value, emotion, fun, to upgrade it.
What bothers me is why people actually develop any cults at all around technical equipment? If I knew this, I'd be a rich and famous marketing guru, since all manufacturers of all kind of devices dream about creating a brand that has a cult following, and I'd be the one with the magic formula.
It seems that people often define themselves with the aid of a brand, sort of a psychological wheelchair. I'm a mac user, I'm a mercedes driver, I make a feature on super8 all seem to extend the presumably weak personality behind it.
Fact is - a lousy driver is a lousy driver whether he farts in the seats of a SLK or sweats in a trabbi, a crap movie is as bad in super8 as in miniDV and what most people praise their macs for can as well be done on a C64 (ok, I exaggerate - but you get the point, hopefully).
Niche products, or failed or discontinued products, seem to be very strong personality extenders, like Apple Newton, or like super8, creating a kind of "we're elite" mindset.
- Hey, I'm a super8 shooter, that's something very special, isn't it?
- No, dude, and your movie sucks, but at least is limited to some 3 min.
Even a filmstock can do this, just look over at the K40 threads. Then jump over to a leica forum, and see reasonable people like dentists and lawyers insult each other over the benefits of a lens from 1955, that probably few people outside those fora ever heard of.
I guess people's lives are so meaningless, that they desperately search something they can own, in order to get some value, emotion, fun, to upgrade it.
have fun!
Good to see someone else come over to the filmmaking forum. I agree about these petty tech-geek cults.jean wrote:good question. he answer is obviously yes, s8 has a cult that highly exaggerates it's importance. It's a medium to record moving images, that's all.
Over in the thread: fine art medium? I am trying to objectively discusses the merits (but we can also talk about disadvantages) of super-8. Please contribute something if you have had some experience.