8mm Forum: Super 8 vs DVD

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Topic: Super 8 vs DVD

John Armer
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 139
From: Lancaster, UK
Registered: Jan 2015

posted December 19, 2017 05:06 PM

OK, I know this has been argued to death, but I want to make an observation... I'm involved with a little film club in my town where we watch mostly silent movies on the third Tuesday of every month. We usually watch a feature, sometimes with a short in front if the film's less than an hour and a half long. This month we had a change though - we watched 6 short comedy films over the course of the evening. And for the first time, two of them were on Super-8 and not DVD or Blu-ray as we usually watch.

The first one was a Mack Sennett film - THE BOWLING MATCH, followed by Al St John's THE IRON MULE, Max Davidson in PASS THE GRAVY, Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd in ON THE LOOSE, Arbuckle and Keaton in THE GARAGE, finishing with Harry Langdon in ALL NIGHT LONG. The first and last films were projected on Super 8; the middle four were projected on DVD.

I usually project Super-8 films in my living room but these were shown in a little cinema. I was surprised just how good the Super 8 films looked, they went down really well (the Langdon was the most popular and I really wasn't sure how well he would be received). The DVDs looked digital - sharper but less analogue and the Super 8 looked more, well, film-like. People commented on it too, and one person preferred the image quality of the Langdon we watched over the DVDs.

By the way, any idea who released ALL NIGHT LONG? it's a nice print but in a generic box. I've a feeling it may be a Blackhawk.

I have a feeling there will be more films projected there in the future!

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Joseph Randall
Master Film Handler

Posts: 437
From: Wyckoff, NJ, USA
Registered: Jun 2015

posted December 19, 2017 06:26 PM

I believe Blackhawk released ALL NIGHT LONG, but if yours is from them it would be clearly marked with Blackhawk titles at the beginning.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 19, 2017 09:51 PM

I did a show about two weeks ago where I ran a 600 footer and followed with projected DVD. The image quality was good in both cases. Where I have to be careful is image brightness. I've gone from one to the other as if I was just changing reels and it makes Super-8 look kind of dim. The video projector is bright enough it looks good even when it's daylight outside.

What I do about it now is stick an intermission in between. It makes the difference much less obvious. I'm sure a Xenon machine would do a lot of good too.

-actually the biggest problem we had was until about a day before we were expecting about 6 people and at the last moment it roughly doubled. (So much for "RSVP"...). We got very creative rearranging the furniture and it worked out OK.

(If I took the dining room table down I could do about six more!)

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted December 19, 2017 11:56 PM

Steve

All about converting your garage to small movie palace? [Wink]

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 20, 2017 08:43 AM

More like a movie phone booth! (Single car garage!)

I've made a couple of goofs in my life, and one of them has to be buying a house without a full basement!

What was fun the night we had that show is a friend who had never been before was utterly shocked that I was showing real film. Her husband got it right away though. (His hobby is fixing up old motorcycles...)

One of the advantages of also showing projected video is it answered "Why don't you use video" even before it was asked!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 20, 2017 09:51 AM

ALL NIGHT LONG was a Blackhawk - Steve, I'm sure taking down the dining room table would go over wonderfully [Smile]

Bazinga - Shorty

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