Super 8 Scope

[Martin Davey]

The only accurate representation of scope on S8 is via cinevision. The usual 'scope' format on both S8 and 16mm is a compromise to fill the frame at the expense of picture information on the top and bottom of the frame, resulting in people being 'scalped'! An adjustable aperture would make no difference as the info its not on the film in the first place.

[Graham Ritchie]

Rob I agree it might not be the same as 35mm but a lot of image is hidden by the aperture plate itself, going by my measurements of the image itself. If you compare the image of the Super 8 Scope Pod race frame width wise. The image is exactly the same as the 35mm screen shot below. With the top and bottom, the Super 8 Scope has lost a bit at the top, but bottom wise its exactly the same as the 35mm screen shot. If you have a image height of 4.52mm as with The NeverEnding Story and the aperture plate top to bottom of 3.82 as with the Elmo if you could open that aperture plate up height wise then you will see more on the screen, the image is there.

Rob regarding Romancing The Stone did you try turning the projector inching Knob up on those subtitles into the next frame just to check. The reason I mention this, is as I have the Battle Of Britain Scope trailer, now if I want to read what is at the top I have to wind it down, likewise what is written on the bottom I have to wind the inching knob up, its a real pain. I know its on the film as I have seen it but cant get it all of it onto the screen. The aperture plate is the main problem, the aperture height wise is to small.

[Rob Young]

It’s a long while since I had Romancing, but I recall the subtitles were definitely cropped even if you racked up to the frame line.

One advantage of super 8 scope is the impressive nature of the width. When I was a student many moons ago and ran Star Wars, a mate just kept saying, “I can’t believe how wide it is…”

The Beaulieu gate shows more picture area than my Elmo ST1200, and usually the slightly cropped top and bottom isn’t and issue…there’s a scene that pops to mind in Raise the Titanic with a group on a yacht and tops of heads are missing!

I always found it quite amazing just how much cineavision cropped off each side to get a 35mm scope frame match.

Graham, imagine a variable gate so we could adjust height to max, or crop down to 16:9 (I know Beaulieu did make a swop over 16:9 fixed gate) for trailers and open gate features. Or narrow it for the odd print with side issues, like the many off centre prints Derann did around 2004, with a white line down one edge…

It would be the stuff of dreams…one of those, “If only super 8 had kept going 20 more” years kinda projector improvements!

[Paul Adsett]

I believe that the aperture plate on the original Mark 1 Elmo GS1200 is larger than later versions of this projector. I have a Mark 1 and a Mark 2 machine and the screened image area is slightly but noticeably larger on my Mark 1. Not sure why Elmo made that change. Many years ago Leon told me that he had filed out the gate size on one of his machine's but I don't think I want to try that!

[Osi Osgood]

I noticed the most grievous errors on super 8 scope, was the Tom and Jerry scope shorts, as a lot of the intro MGM studio logo was cut off and even looking at the frames with the naked eye, non projected, the wording at the bottom was cut in half in the printing process. They came away in on the image. I have both the Derann STAR WARS ( first day opening, no less!), and a cineavision scope copy as well, and though the Derann has gorgeous color, the Cineavision, also LPP, has a good deal more info to the image.

[Brian Fretwell]

Super 8 'scope is almost as wide as Ultra Panavision, 2.66:1 verses 2.70:1.

[Graham Ritchie]

Came across this on Vimeo today, its very interesting.