A Super 8 Home Movie With A Case of The Jitters

[Rob Young]

I thought Ed was looking at the frames from Kim’s scan?

could be wrong!

Ed?

[Ed Gordon]

I thought Ed was looking at the frames from Kim’s scan?

could be wrong!

Ed?

Yes Rob, you are correct. I downloaded the scanned film from Youtube. The initial frames I posted came from a screen grab from a video editor than allowed me to view the film frame by frame. The collection of jpegs of each frame was created by online software that converts movies to jpeg stills.

[Stan Jelavic]

I think we should get some additional input from Kim. Things like:
- Most of the reels are ok except this one? Any more bad ones.
- What is different about the bad reel? S8/R8? Film manufacturer and age if known.
- Examine the film by looking through the lens. Is there jitter and smudging?
- Is the shutter wheel in? Looks like it is because there is a periodic darkening of slip as you run it with the bad frames removed:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ovb...ew?usp=sharing
- Any changes in the setup between the good and bad run?

I have a few more questions but will leave them for the next time.

[Kim Trampus]

I looked at the video. The frame rate is 24FPS. So not sure if that was the original camera settings or was changed during video upload? I assume that you removed the shutter wheel Kim since the smudges occur during film travel. You can try removing the gate mask by removing a few holding screws. That would expose the perforation holes to the camera. It would tell us if the holes are jittering which would indicate transport issues. Additionally with the holes visible you can run the stabilization filter.

I'm hesitant to remove gate mask. I would not want to risk screwing up my good Sankyo 1000 Telecine modified projector.
Perhaps if you walk me though exactly which screws that you mean?

[Stan Jelavic]

Ok maybe leave that for some other time. I did not write the procedure down when I modified mine so do not want to do any guessing here.
In the meantime can you provide answer to my questions above when you get a chance.

[Kim Trampus]

I think we should get some additional input from Kim. Things like:
- Most of the reels are ok except this one? Any more bad ones.
- What is different about the bad reel? S8/R8? Film manufacturer and age if known.
- Examine the film by looking through the lens. Is there jitter and smudging?
- Is the shutter wheel in? Looks like it is because there is a periodic darkening of slip as you run it with the bad frames removed:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ovb...ew?usp=sharing
- Any changes in the setup between the good and bad run?

I have a few more questions but will leave them for the next time.

I did some examination of the film in question and here is what I found out so far.

When I captured the movies I did a batch of 20 or 25 - 50 foot reels of super and regular 8mm. This is the only one that had the jitter problem.
This one is a 50' Super 8 Silent film. Its on a red reel with no markings other than the lab number 14890. I can't tell if its Ektachrome or Kodachrome.
The colors are faded so I'm guessing that It's Ektachrome. I shot this film in 1975 when I was 14 years old. I've only bought and used Kodak Film.
The Shutter Wheel is in the projector. I have not tried looking through the lens yet. I captured some stills from my Kodak Film scanner. The sprocket holes look fine.

[Stan Jelavic]

Hi Kim,
The only explanation that I can come up with is to do with the projector speed. The particular reel may be too tight or the film friction of the film in question is higher so that the projector is not fast enough to match the camera FPS. Try going down in speed to hit a synch.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Does this particular reel any "noisier" when running compared to other reels?

Regarding the film gate - the entire assembly is held to the main casting by just 2 screws. So it's possible to take it out from the projector and do the work on the desk, not right on the projector.

Still a fiddly & time consuming task however. So be prepared to have it done on weekend for example.

[Kim Trampus]

After much thought and examination of the film in question I found that the jitter was caused by the film stuttering while being played back. I removed the cover over the rubber drive roller on the Sankyo and cleaned it with some 90% isopropyl alcohol on qtip swabs. It gave the roller wheel more grip and I re-captured the super 8 film with my LED modified Sankyo and Mouser 50mm lens to a Panasonic HDC-SD9 camcorder.
I then did some cropping and color correction in Final Cut Pro.

Here is the final render:

https://youtu.be/rtUZDAlIj84

[Stan Jelavic]

Great job Kim.