8mm Forum: Home Movies better on Film

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Posted by Thomas Dafnides (Member # 1851) on December 06, 2009, 10:49 PM:

Any thoughts why it is more fun to watch home movies on standard 8mm silent film than those shot on digital video screened on a large flat panel TV?

Posted by Jose Artiles (Member # 471) on December 07, 2009, 04:03 AM:

Its easy to know,the answer is...THE MAGIG the film has as a live stuff that video will never match,THE ILUSSION to see the film the way were intended on a white big big screen,THE LOVELY way the machine make the noise while the film is projected remembering to all of us that good all days when all the family was reunited around a projector to see the last holidays on a big screen or some birthday parties were we all as a child enjoy films of tom& jerry...MAGIC my friend...just pure magic

Jose

Posted by Gian Luca Mario Loncrini (Member # 1417) on December 07, 2009, 04:33 AM:

I think all members could have a lot of detailed reasons to answer you interesting question, Thomas.
I would probably need 4/5 pages to tell you about me.

I can say it's a kind of love I've been living since I was a little kid and the magic Jose is referring to in his post was - thinking about my childhood - the possibility to listen to that sleepy projector noise while a colored ray created fantastic images on the wall cannot be substituted by a video tape and, even worse, a perforated disc.

It's simply my opinion, of course.
No better definition, color or digital sound are implied, here.
I'm simply stating that Jose's post is not so different if compared to my point of view.

Magic. Pure magic.
All collectors (I'm not simply referring to super 8 or 16mm, now, but talking in general) have something in common: we all are fetishists (not in a negative way, of course!) and all love to be in a position to TOUCH our collectibles: our movies, the stock itself, the single frames watchable one by one through the window light, in our case. [Big Grin]

I'm now 38 years old. That magic I'm trying to express here in my post is still (and always) the same, even after so longtime. And every time a screen one of my super 8 movie. It makes no difference if it's an old or new one (bad or excellent condition).
The result, that pure magic, is always the same.
All the best.

[ December 07, 2009, 05:57 AM: Message edited by: Gian Luca Mario Loncrini ]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on December 07, 2009, 07:07 AM:

I could not say it any better than Jose and Gian. I have endless hours of home movies on video, and we never seem to watch them. But bring out the little Bolex 18-5 and those reels of standard 8 Kodachrome and everybody has a big smile on their faces watching those pristine silent images (which look so incredibly beautiful in comparison with video) as the little machine purrs hapily away and the reels rotate.
Yes magic is definately the key word here. And no video equipment will ever be able to capture it in the same way.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on December 07, 2009, 10:06 AM:

Nice Bolex Paul, it is so Retro item!

Yes, I would like also to add some comment that the reason I still stick to Ektachrome super 8mm it is about "the repeatable show", although it is expensive for me to pay $ $41 for 3 minutes action!( the cost comes from 17/cart + $12/lab process + $12/shipping). But usually with that 3 minutes will cover everything which is quite repeatable all the time.

I value this 3 minutes very much more than hour of hours of video.

Of course I can do that too with video (i.e to limit the shoot into 3 minutes) but I always failed to discipline my self and let my fingers pushing the button. Eventually I ended up with hours video which I never looked back again.

(ps: I don't want to talk about the resolution because if we are taking our 8mm with non-professional gears, it would be seen inferior compared with today's HD video)

cheers,

winbert

Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on December 09, 2009, 09:28 PM:

The nicest gift I ever gave to myself was to shot all my home movies of my two sons growing up on film instead of video. I would ask for film stock as birthday/Christmas presents. Sure was a lot more expensive than video tape, but now those films are priceless.
Each year my family wants to see them projected on a big screen over the holidays. Once in awhile I bring out the 16mm film I shot. Kodachrome and Plus-X B+W Reversal 16mm blows you away...

Posted by Antonis Galanakis (Member # 1455) on December 10, 2009, 01:43 AM:

Two days ago I received with mail from UK the two processed films (ektachrome 64) I had sent. It was the shooting of my kids summer party at our country house. Great happiness!!!
Yesterday I did the editing. I added start and ending titles (that I made by shooting my kids drawings) and a Derann “Thank you for not talking” in the begging (just for fun).
I couldn’t wait, so I projected the film with my small projector on my kitchen’s wall. YES IT WAS GREAT!!! It was a typical amateur family kids party film, with color and no sound at 18 fps. Everybody was smiling and waving at the camera. There were a few bad and out of focus scenes (two or three at the most), but I did not edit them, I loved them. YES it is a film and filming works this way!
The camera was a Canon 814 auto zoom. The colors were GREAT and the lighting was very good. It seems that the vintage camera 1000 Watt lamp did a very good job, inside and outside the house.
Maybe for a lot of you shooting a small film is not big deal, but for me who started this great hobby of super 8mm in 2008 and bought and shoot his first film in 2009 IT IS A BIG-HUGE DEAL!!!

Always a happy member of this forum
Antonis

P.S. Thoma, sosta ipes “Home movies are better on film”

Posted by Bill Phelps (Member # 1431) on December 10, 2009, 04:48 PM:

I have shot tons of rolls of super 8 and every roll is fun. I'm always giddy waiting for it to come back from the lab...I always spool out a few feet just in my hands to see if there's good exposure...

I have also shot hours of video....one thing about shooting film it causes you to think about your shots and try to capture the "event" the best way possible and usually leads to a repeatable film...not true with hours of video, you really have to edit thru it. And I don't always get to that!

Film is $$$ but it is really worth it in the long run. It's awesome!

Bill

Posted by Daniel Beijar (Member # 1577) on December 11, 2009, 09:26 AM:

I think it is mainly in the way one presents the films. When the film is being play it requires that the room is dark, so there is noting else to concentrate on than the film itself. The viewers have to sit down during the screening and pay attention to it. I feel that when someone is showing home videos on a TV, people tends to loose interest pretty soon and gos on to do something else. Or if as nowadays on a computer screen one simply looks at it and don’t remember it afterwards because it wasn’t anything special about it, just viewing a computer screen. It is the magic of showing on a big screen that makes it special. Of course, video projectors do exist but they are not the same thing, they are just as boring as watching a big TV screen.

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