Healing Through Home Movies

I have often told my clients over the years that one of the most often overlooked, but important reasons that you want to move your home movie archive onto a hard drive, sooner rather than later is to “BE READY”.

While we often associate Being Ready with a planned event such as that 50^th anniversary party or retirement dinner happening sometime in the future, there are other times in life that you find you will want to be ready for something unexpected.

Our family recently had the tragic experience of loosing a family member quite suddenly.  In the shock and sadness of this also came the realization that we, as the keepers of the family archive would have only a few days to edit together a beautiful memorial piece that would be shown at the Wake. Instead of being a daunting task trying to collect material from various people and sources and rushing to get them hastily digitized, because we were ready, the experience was in an unexpected way part of our healing.  Because we were ready, we found that the process  of putting together this tribute piece offered us a feeling of comfort, and was a vital part of our mourning and grieving. As we scrolled through her life on film from baby, to child, to teen, to bride, to mother, and so much more, we laughed, we cried, and most of all we were grateful that we would be able to bring others comfort in their sadness with an amazing story of wonderful memories of our loved ones life, which we set beautifully to music.

More importantly, we could do the editing ourselves, without the assistance of strangers or a company recommended by the funeral home.   Just about a year ago we encoded the entire family archive that were  gathered from several generations of different family members home movies to file format.  This was a huge improvement from our prior version which was DVD.  You can not edit a DVD, so there was  no option for extracting clips.  This version has the home movies encoded to digital files on a  Codec called  Pro Rez  422.   The entire archive was organized into playlists on several hard drives. This encoding gave us the ability to plug the hard drive into our Mac Computer  We could quickly scan through each film and extract clips of our loved one throughout her life.   We were then able to  edit the clips to tell a story.  We are not experienced editors, but these new programs are extremely easy to use.  We used Final Cut Pro, but imovie, or any computer base editing system (compatible with the Codec you chose) will work.  We found appropriate music.  The process took about 6 hours to look through 1 TB drive worth of material, select our clips and edit them.

We were able to burn our  10 minutes edited piece onto a  DVD to play on a loop at the Wake.  In addition, we  burned  copies to give to family members so that they would have this tribute as a permanent memorial to our loved one.  The power of this cannot even be put into words.

I think especially during those private moment of sadness and grieving, the ability to create a story without the assistance of strangers or a hired production company is so wonderful.  It is an extension of the love you feel for the departed, and allows you to  tell the story that you want to tell, the way you want to tell it as a visual Eulogy.

I hope this post will help motivate you to be ready for whatever life’s events can be more fully realized through the memories and healing power that lie within your family films.  Our loved ones and their legacy live on and are sustained through our photographs and films.  Take care of them, and treat them with the integrity they deserve.

-Rhonda Vigeant (c) February 23, 2012

http://vimeo.com/32595596    (sample) 

“Mourning is one of the most profound human experiences that it is possible to have… The deep capacity to weep for the loss of a loved one and to continue to treasure the memory of that loss is one of our noblest human traits”. (—Edwin Shneidman, 1980)

 

New Pro8/03 ASA 50 Daylight Negative Vision 3 Filmstock

 

CURTS COLUMN

50D  -  the Super-8 that tops the stops!

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Says Curt: “Imagine being able to buy a Super-8 film stock with 14 (yes, fourteen) stops of latitude, and still be within the area of the finest of grain structure?”

Well, look no further because Pro 8mm, in conjunction with mighty Kodak have rolled out their first batches of what is called ‘Pro8/03’. It’s the very latest Super 8 stock produced from Kodak’s new Vision 3 colour negative emulsion!

The new 50D Colour Negative Film is the latest addition to the Vision 3 family, with improved colour reproduction for more natural skin tones, colour consistency across the exposure scale, and extended highlight detail. And what’s more they make the claim that is still the word’s finest film grain stock.

So confident are they of its quality that they, Kodak, have sent the company of ‘Pro 8mm’; a special survey for use by their clients who choose to test the new stock before it officially hits the market. So much so, that this has encouraged this company to make a very special introductory offer of a test roll which includes both processing and HD scanning. That’s just so you can tell them what you think!

This means that, if you’re amongst their first twenty-four customers to try this stock out you’ll benefit from a special discounted price. Now surely that’s an offer no Super-8 user can refuse?

You can find out more by clicking on this button link,

but I imagine that you’ll need to get in fast for that special offer!

See you next time

CURT BUCHANAN
Your Pittsburgh Reporter
p.s. Pro 8mm offer some great Teleseminars  -   worth a look.

Will Kodak’s Filing For Chapter 11 have an effect on Super 8 film?

-A personal statement from Phil Vigeant, President of Pro8mm

When I first worked at Super 8 Sound in the early 1980‘s the problems were the same for Super 8 film as problems Kodak faces with 35mm film today. The market for super 8 film in the early 80’s had dropped so dramatically due to the overwhelming success of VHS that everything crashed.  We are not talking about a little dip in sales. We are talking about a crash in sales that resulted in a   90% drop in business. http://www.dtvgroup.com/Super8Sound

At that time all companies involved in the super 8 industry either went out of business, filed for bankruptcy or where part of a larger company that could absorb their losses. In this predicament you have to make a decision:  Do you believe in the future of your product or it is just time to call it quits?

I believed that there was a future for Super 8 film and so I went through the pain of taking the company through bankruptcy so that I could re-start the business. If there was no Chapter 11 then Super 8 Sound ™ could not have been reorganized. There would be no Pro8mm, and at the risk of sounding boastful, there probably would be no Super 8 film today. This is the point of bankruptcy. It gives you a chance at life;  a new beginning for those that believe in their product for future generations. For us, it gave us the opportunity to invent super 8 negative film, Max 8, and complete workflows so that Super 8 film could be used as a professional production medium.

There are risk to all this and there will not doubt be lots of changes at Kodak. Sometimes the people that take over are not interested in the future of the company and are only interested in disposing of the valuable parts of a business If you have watched the movie Wall Street (the original) you know what I mean.

We are already feeling some of these changes, which we must intern, adjust to.

As for Super 8 film, Pro8mm has its own Super 8 film manufacturing process, and we have been making Super 8 film since 1992. Although Kodak is our premier supplier and we work very close together we have other vendors. We have successfully been making super 8 films from Fuji film stocks as well as Kodak film stocks for 20 years now.

Since the big crash in the use of Super 8 film in the early 1980’s as a format for home movies and intro film classes.  it has enjoyed a steady growth in other applications.   Super 8 is not part of the crash of current 35mm film sales.  It is in fact “It’s own thing”.  We hope the leadership at Kodak has the right intentions for the future and will re-start the business, as we did at Pro8mm so generations in the future can enjoy their products.

Will Kodak’s Filing For Chapter 11 have an effect on Super 8 film?

-A personal statement from Phil Vigeant, President of Pro8mm

When I first worked at Super 8 Sound in the early 1980‘s the problems were the same for Super 8 film as problems Kodak faces with 35mm film today. The market for super 8 film in the early 80’s had dropped so dramatically due to the overwhelming success of VHS that everything crashed.  We are not talking about a little dip in sales. We are talking about a crash in sales that resulted in a   90% drop in business. http://www.dtvgroup.com/Super8Sound/

At that time all companies involved in the super 8 industry either went out of business, filed for bankruptcy or where part of a larger company that could absorb their losses. In this predicament you have to make a decision:  Do you believe in the future of your product or it is just time to call it quits?

I believed that there was a future for Super 8 film and so I went through the pain of taking the company through bankruptcy so that I could re-start the business. If there was no Chapter 11 then Super 8 Sound ™ could not have been reorganized. There would be no Pro8mm, and at the risk of sounding boastful, there probably would be no Super 8 film today. This is the point of bankruptcy. It gives you a chance at life;  a new beginning for those that believe in their product for future generations. For us, it gave us the opportunity to invent super 8 negative film, Max 8, and complete workflows so that Super 8 film could be used as a professional production medium.

There are risk to all this and there will not doubt be lots of changes at Kodak. Sometimes the people that take over are not interested in the future of the company and are only interested in disposing of the valuable parts of a business If you have watched the movie Wall Street (the original) you know what I mean.

We are already feeling some of these changes, which we must intern, adjust to.

As for Super 8 film, Pro8mm has its own Super 8 film manufacturing process, and we have been making Super 8 film since 1992. Although Kodak is our premier supplier and we work very close together we have other vendors. We have successfully been making super 8 films from Fuji film stocks as well as Kodak film stocks for 20 years now.

Since the big crash in the use of Super 8 film in the early 1980’s as a format for home movies and intro film classes.  it has enjoyed a steady growth in other applications.   Super 8 is not part of the crash of current 35mm film sales.  It is in fact “It’s own thing”.  We hope the leadership at Kodak has the right intentions for the future and will re-start the business, as we did at Pro8mm so generations in the future can enjoy their products.

Super 8 Documentary About John Mellencamp in Theaters and DVD

http://media.mellencamp.com/email/12_29_2011.html?utm_source=Publicaster&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EMLJMEOS_update_20111228&utm_content=http%3a%2f%2fmedia.mellencamp.com%2femail%2f12_29_2011.htmlNR

JOHN MELLENCAMP: IT’S ABOUT YOU – A FILM BY KURT & IAN MARKUS — JANUARY NYC & LA SCREENINGS ANNOUNCED
John Mellencamp: It’s About You - A Film By Kurt and Ian Markus will premiere for a limited engagement at the IFC Center in New York City (January 4-16, 2012) and at the Music Hall in Los Angeles (January 6-16 2012). WatchMellencamp.com for updates and a great contest with special items surrounding the film. Please note that this is the complete 80 minute version of the film. A shorter version was shown before concerts on John’s No Better Than This Tour. Additional screenings of the movie in other cities may be announced and watch for a DVD release later this year!

JOHN MELLENCAMP: IT’S ABOUT YOU
Directed by renowned photographer Kurt Markus and his son, Ian Markus, It’s About You is a new musical documentary that offers a rare and intimate look at the life and music of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp. The film premiered at this year’s SXSW festival and follows Mellencamp on his summer 2009 concert tour and during the recording of his most recent album, 2010′s universally acclaimed No Better Than This, the sessions for which took place at American musical and historical landmarks, including Sun Studios in Memphis and the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA. We see Mellencamp recording – with a single mike and mono tape recorder more than half a century old – in the same hotel room where legendary bluesman Robert Johnson created some of his most memorable work. Along the way, Mellencamp reveals a side not often seen by the public, in a film that becomes a soulful, highly personal meditation on small-town America.

Kurt Markus’ photography has appeared in such leading publications as Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, GQ and The New York Times Magazine, and he has shot cutting-edge ad campaigns for BMW, Armani, Nike and other companies. His unique vision has been brought to bear on It’s About You, which was shot on Super 8 and whose vintage Americana look is the cinematic equivalent of a well-worn pair of jeans.
Running Time: 80 Minutes
Rated:

Pro8mm  was the all inclusive lab for this film .  “It’s About You,” a 90 minute documentary shot entirely on Super 8 film by Kurt and Ian Markus.   The  filmmakerts folllowed John Mellencamp for  six-weeks  in the summer of 2009  where he was performing in small outdoor stadiums across America  along with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. During the tour, Mellencamp recorded his new album, “No Better Than This,” which  included  a session at  legendary Sun Studios in Memphis . Kurt and Ian shot Pro8/19, Super 8/63, and Super 8/85 with a couple of  6008 Super 8 cameras, which we modified for Max 8 and crystal sync. Following the premier at SXSW in Austin, which Mellancamp attended, the film continued to screen at all of John’s live concert’s at venues around the country and in Europe. It served as his opening act. What an amazing experience to see  our Super 8 workflows  with thousands of people on a 40-foot screen. It was a proud moment seeing it in LA at the Nokia Theater watching the crowd react with thunderous applauses.   Working closely  with filmmakers Kurt and Ian Markus , we provided all the super 8 film, processing, HD scanning to Pro Res  as well as the camera support.  Kurt shot the film with two Beaulieu Cameras modified for Max 8 (16 x 9 aspect ratio) and crystal sync.  In the scanning suite colorist and Pro8mm Owner Phil Vigeant performed a number of  special effects.  These included scanning photos that Kurt Markus shot   that were rephotographed  on  Super 8 film .

Life is Super Gr8

Last month Phil and Rhonda attended the second annual Super Gr8 Film Festival in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a charming little town in the Shenandoah Valley, and home to James Madison University.

Organized by two local residents and incredibly wonderful guys, Paul Somers (artist, poet, filmmaker and educator) and Tim Estep, (TimeStepFilms), The Super Gr8 Film Festival is a community-organized event that featured 48 super 8 short films (shown over two nights) made by local filmmakers. Many of the filmmakers had never made a short film before this event.

In August of this year, Tim and Paul asked Pro8mm if we could sponsor the event and attend the festival. We were thrilled and honored to do so, as this festival is one of the first to used Pro8mm workflows entirely. Paul and Tim bought 48 rolls of film ½ Super8/66 Tri-X and ½ Pro8/13 Tungsten for the festival participants, all processed and scanned on the M2 at Pro8. As a sponsor we also added The Power of Super 8 Film Seminar to the agenda the day before the festival. This pre- event was held on campus at J.M.U. where we were joined by award winning wedding super 8 filmmaker and photographer Kate Headley who drove down from Washington D.C. to speak to an enthusiastic and engaging audience.

All the short films, approximately 3.5 minutes in length were edited in-camera, with-out sound. Each filmmaker then created an original soundtrack for his or her short film. This in some cases included live performances during the screening. This festival is unique in that none of the filmmakers get to see their finished films until the night of the festival screenings.

The screening was held over two nights at the Court Square Theatre to a packed, sold-out house. The topics covered in the films were as diverse as you could possibly imagine and they were absolutely fantastic! The panel of judges voted, and then the audience also voted for an audience favorite. The first night featured the black and white films and the second evening color negative super 8 film. An after party and awards ceremony will follow the screenings each night.

Super Gr8’s mission is to bring the community together through film. It was amazing to me how in this small Shenandoah Valley college town, everyone, everywhere we went stepped right in and got totally behind Super Gr8. Actors, filmmakers, crew and fan club were all a part of the festival is some way. This was a community labor of love unlike I have seen before. Tim and Paul spent endless hours finding cameras, getting them repaired, lending them out to contestants, and training them how to use them. They contacted local merchants to sponsor the event and local artists to raffle off their work as a fund raising effort. Even the trophies were unique, one of kind objects of art hand made out of old super 8 cameras, mounted on a stand. It was clear to us that Tim and Paul were very well respected King Pins of the community.

For me, I have to say with absolutely honest, this Super Gr8 festival was the high light of my year. Never have I met people more appreciative, warm, and friendly as I did in Harrisonburg. It affirms what I have always believed. Give people a creative opportunity, make it affordable, accessible, and add in a chance to collaborate with others without competing for anything other than a chance to totally immerse themselves in something enjoyable and enhance a sense of community pride, and you have the perfect recipe for a life that is Super Gr8!

http://www.supergr8.com/
Photos by Josh Gooden
Festival Organized by Tim Estep and Paul Somers

Kate Headley speaking at The Power of Super 8

The Super Gr8 Film Festival 2011 in Harrisonburg, VA

 

Phil Vigeant talking about the tiny Super 8 format

Tim Estep and Paul Somers, Super Gr8 Festival organizers

Reposted From AV Concepts 12/12/11

CURT ON SUPER-8

Speeding the process

Writes Curt: “When I first became involved with non-professional movie making the maximum Kodachrome ASA sensitivity speed rating obtainable had just made the fantastic leap forward from 10 ASA to a massive 25 ASA. But that was for emulsion which was balanced for a daylight colour temperature.

If you wanted to film under artificial light then you needed a blue conversion filter which chopped that rating right back to nearly the original 10 ASA. This, in turn, meant that you required lots of lighting units with all the extra heat thereby generated (not to mention the additional cost of either buying or hiring such bits of gear).

Later on Kodak, Agfa and others, introduced a 40 ASA rating balanced for tungsten illumination and, with the introduction of Super-8 this became the ‘norm’; cameras having an in-built filter (orangey coloured Wratten 85B) allowing daylight use. 

How things have changed in the intervening years. Super-8 stocks have proliferated to the point where those early users of the gauge would be totally amazed. A choice of black & white emulsions, negative as well as reversal types also being available.

And now, to cap it all, we have a 250 ASA daylight balanced Super-8 emulsion
This gives glorious colour rendering, but no words can explain it quite like seeing the results, so just click on my picture and TO SEE A GREAT DEMO OF ITS POSSIBILITIES and see if you agree with me.

Technically speaking…

…we have here a sample of the New Vision 3 5207 cut down and loaded into Super 8 at Pro8mm. ASA 250 Daylight . Now Available. Shot with the Max1014 (Canon 1014 XLS modified for Max8) .Pro8mm.com Scanner to HD in Native 1080P 23:98 encoded in Prores 422 HQ , compressed to H264 Apple TV at 1280×720.

Trot that little lot out at a party and stand back and judge the effecty!

Yours

p.s. You can find out more by going to 

James Chressanthis uses Max 8 in TNT’s Mystery Movie Night: HIDE

Last night I watched in awe the remarkable use of Super 8 film in the TNT made for TV movie HIDE. Based on a thriller mystery novel by Lisa Gardner, the film was directed by James Gray and beautifully shot by cinematographer James Chressanthis, ASC. Hide marks their reunion, as they have collaborated on other projects such as Ghost Whispers and Brian’s Song.

The deliberate choice by Chressanthis to shoot full Max 8 to punctuate the numerous flashback scenes by different characters in the story had a strong aesthetic punch. Never did you feel as if you were watching a home movie, but rather a vivid porthole into the memory of painful events that these characters were being asked to retell investigators. 

 

Chressanthis chose our MAX 8 1014 XLS camera with crystal for the Super 8 sequences. Shooting was done with  Pro8/19, a Kodak Vision 3 200T film stock that is highly versatile for both bright and low light conditions. The film has 13 stops of latitude, extremely fine grain, and an ultra wide exposure range. It captured both the shadows and highlight details so well that  in some shots you could actually see the skeletons of the mummified bodies inside the hanging body bags down in a low lit  underground pit.

 

We scanned the film in native 1080 to ProRes 4:4:4 HQ with 3 separate passes at different frame rates. “We shot mostly at 9FPS on the Max 8 camera. Editorially they used all the frame rate transfers:  24, 12, 6 fps. I shot the various frame rates to speed up, slow down and blur the image and also to increase the grain. That’s because normal Super 8 is so clean that it can look like good 16mm but we wanted an edgy, grittier  look in representing the deep memories of the characters. It looks fantastic!” says Chressanthis.

 

Plot Summary: Carla Gugino (Californication, Entourage) plays Boston Police Detective D.D. Warren, who is called to the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital where a buried chamber is discovered. Inside are the mummified remains of six young women, who have all been missing for years. The case leads D.D. to Annabelle, played by Bridget Regan (Legend of the Seeker). Annabelle is a young woman who spent her childhood moving from city to city, from identity to identity, hiding from someone or something totally unknown to her. D.D. uses clues from Annabelle’s secret past to unravel the mystery behind her twisted family history. Mark-Paul Gosselaar (TNT’s Franklin & Bash, NYPD Blue) and Kevin Alejandro (True Blood, TNT’s Southland) also star. Hide is written by Janet Brownell (Eloise at the Plaza), directed by John Gray (Ghost Whisperer, Helter Skelter) and executive-produced by Stephanie Germain (The Day After Tomorrow)  (summary from TNT website)

 

Chressanthis has used Pro8mm workflows is such projects as No Subtitles Necessary (2008)and Brian’s Song (2001). He is a three time Emmy Award Nominee, and has been a member of the ASC since 2002.

 

If you missed last nights premier, check for an opportunity to stream it  directly from TNT’s website http://www.tnt.tv.

 

Why People Use Super 8 Film To Create Hip Campaigns for National Brands

Recently, various members of the press who have been curious about who uses Super 8 in 2011 have interviewed me. Their curiosity has been sparked by the release of the recent J.J. Abrams Film, Super 8. The press usually starts their inquiry about Super 8 with people at Kodak, or some college professors who may have taught a super 8 class “in the day.” They may have spoken to an archivist who works with home movies and historical collections that represent a fabulous montage of our history and culture from the 40’s, 50’s 60’s and 70’s. But then, invariably, the get referred to me, a director of marketing for a company that has specialized in Super 8 film for over 35 years and who has had the privilege of knowing first hand that thousands of projects of all kinds, from various industries, are shot on Super 8 film every year.

A few days after the Super 8 movie came out, I was called by MSNBC who wanted to do a segment at a real Super 8 camera store. They were hoping to see an enormous collection of vintage camera models, both obscure and common. When I told the person that called that we didn’t have any cameras like that or any projectors– she said, ok then, we will have to get back to you. Which they didn’t. They didn’t get it.

Unless the interview is being done by one of the film industry trade magazines, (which has a little more understanding for the desire to work with a variety of mediums), the conversation usually goes something like this.

Interviewer: “So, is Super 8 back?”

Me: “Back? Where did it go?”

Interviewer: “Well, who shoots this stuff? A few people who want to create a sense of nostalgia, right?”

Me: “Well no, actually it is being used in some very hip campaigns for companies such as Roxy, Billabong, Whole Foods, Swiffer, Ford Automobiles and hundreds of other national brands for food, beverage, clothing, sports teams, fast food restaurants, and more. You can see it in TV shows such as American Idol and True Blood, and Music Videos for some of today’s hottest artists such as Katy Perry and Beyonce, as well industrials, independent projects and political campaigns.”

Interviewer: To create a sense of nostalgia, right?

So instead of feeling frustrated and defensive for the umpteenth time that “they just don’t get it” or offended that no matter how much time I spend explaining about how we upgrade the cameras with things that modern filmmakers would want, state of the art negative film stocks which we reformat, 16 x 9 aspect ratios, native 1080 scanning and Pro Res files off our state of the art scanner, I started thinking about it. What is nostalgia from more if an intellectual perspective? And I decided, maybe these interviewers are more intuitive then I thought.

Nostalgia is by definition as a sense of longing. I decided to embrace this possibility. What is it that makes me nostalgic? What is it that I long for? For me it is a wish or desire to connect with people in a way that is engaging, organic, and intimate. To get away from the Facelessness of Facebook and the 500 people in my network, many who I really don’t know that well, or in some cases, at all.

I think that purveyors of National Brands get this. Modern society tends to be very isolated and spread out. Many people are looking for a simple way to communicate their product or brand. This perhaps may be the fall out from all the corruption we have seen in recent years in the finance industry, bailouts, and sex scandals among the politicians.

I think there is a movement happening. A shift toward taking back our power in small ways individually. It’s an awakening that does make us feel nostalgic for the corner store or a place like “Cheers Bar,” where everybody knows your name. The needs and wants that have been created by a corporate-driven culture that feed our egos are being replaced with a need to feed our souls.

Community. Connectivity. Individuality.

Big brands are caught up in this, and now have to re-brand themselves to fit in with this movement and economic cycle. They want to embrace the local farmer; small bank and many in the face of unemployment are themselves cultivating entrepreneurship. They want people to see them as committed to sustainability and protectors of the environment.

So how does a company like Wal-Mart portray themselves as the local hardware store? Personal story telling. Focusing on individual contributors as opposed to corporate culture. What better way to do this then with Super 8 film?

So yes, bring on the nostalgia. Everyone loves a good story and that “feel good” feeling especially shot on Super 8 film!

Super 8 Filmmaking is Alive, Well and Remains a Hot Production Medium at the One-Stop Burbank Shop, Pro8mm

 The release of the J.J. Abrams film Super 8 is bringing renewed attention to the popular film format which millions of families captured their home movies on during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. The format gave a vehicle for today’s most beloved filmmakers to experiment with a home movie camera that proved to be the gateway to some of the most prolific careers in filmmaking.  Directors such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Oliver Stone, Sam Rami, Tim Burton, Francis Ford Coppola, and Ron Howard, among others, have all launched careers that have roots in Super 8 film.   As kids, they picked up the family Super 8 camera and saw it as much more than a tool to make home movies.  They used Super 8 as a production tool to experiment with a craft. This is the theme that runs through J.J. Abrams film Super 8 -  a group of kids who were making a real independent movie for a film festival with a Super 8 camera.

 While the general belief is that the Super 8 format died an honorable death with the advent of consumer and pro-sumer video, Hollywood insiders and savvy independent filmmakers know that the power of super 8 film is alive and well in Burbank, CA!

The company Pro8mm (formerly called Super8 Sound) has been working on over 1,000 professional projects every year since the mid 1980’s. Pro8mm hit its heyday in the 1990’s, working on every episode of VH-1 Behind The Music, Where Are They Now, and numerous MTV shows and specials.  More recent music videos have been shot on Super 8 film for such artists as Katy Perry, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Harper Simon, McFly, and  John Mellencamp. Commercials for consumer products such as Ford cars and trucks, Swiffer, Home Depot,  Billabong and Roxy, as well as inserts in TV shows such as American Idol, 48 Hours, The Grammy’s, and My Name Is Earl have all embraced the Super 8 format.  Additionally, 35mm theatrical releases such as Super 8, My Sister’s Keeper, and Factory Girl have incorporated Super 8 inserts to create the sense of flashback scenes and vintage moments throughout their feature films.  This list is just the tip of the iceberg for professional applications that the Super 8 format has worked particularly well for.

Additionally, Pro8mm specializes in the HD archival transfers of homes movies and historical films for use in museums, documentaries or the personal archives of the worlds most famous faces. Pro8mm’s projects include the Hewlett-Packard Family and The Estee Lauder Family, The Richard Nixon Library, and tour footage from The Eagles “Hell Freezes Over” tour. Pro8mm has also transferred the first films of many famous directors and cinematographers.

Pro8mm focuses on a hybrid of products and services that make it possible for filmmakers to do professional production work with the Super 8 format. Pro8mm turns its work around very quickly, sometimes even the same day.  All services are on-site, including a retail store for purchasing or renting cameras and film, the processing lab, camera technicians, and the scanners, which digitize the film in 1080 high-definition to a hard drive for ease of editing.

Pro8mm rebuilds classic Super 8 cameras with modifications that a modern filmmaker would want, such as 16:9 aspect ratios and sync sound. Pro8mm also reformats over 20 different Super 8 film stocks, cutting down Kodak and Fuji 35mm film. This gives cost-effective access to the same film stocks being used to make Hollywood blockbusters. Recently, Pro8mm invested over one million dollars in a Millennium II, 4K scanner, with daVinci 2K color correction, custom modified for Super 8, regular 8 and Max 8 formats.  This is the same type of scanner you would see at a high-end 35mm post-production facility.

Over the past two years, Pro8mm has made a monumental commitment to educating the next generation about the benefits of shooting on Super 8 film.   In 2010, Phil Vigeant, President of Pro8mm, wrote a book titled, “The Power of Super 8 Film – Insider Secrets Every Filmmaker Should Know.”  The book focuses on why the pros use it, love it and keep it a secret. Phil gives his expertise on the format and explains why he invented products that change the way filmmakers and the entertainment industry use Super 8 film.  Additionally, Pro8mm has launched a series of free teleseminars that focus of Super 8 applications and technical information about the process. Pro8mm has expanded their educational products by offering free hands on film shooting workshops at schools, major industry events and even private workshops at their shop. Pro8mm also hosts their own 2 day Super 8 training workshop, where Phil Vigeant gives in-depth technical sessions on Super 8 filmmaking, and guest speakers talk about and show samples shot on Super 8 film of the many applications of Super 8, such as weddings, commercials and music videos.

COMPANY HISTORY:

Founded in 1971 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company, which was originally called Super8 Sound ™, pioneered the belief that the Super 8mm film format had tremendous potential as a production medium.  History Of Super 8 Sound . A small group of inventors and entrepreneurs designed a line of specialty sync-sound full coat (audio tape that has sprocket holes) and cassette recorders, editing benches and crystal sync modifications to Super 8 Cameras and other production accessories. The idea was that you could replicate 35mm filmmaking using Super 8 equipment. This indeed made the Super 8mm film format and Super8 Sound ™ an integral part of hundreds of university film programs worldwide. Film programs could teach in double system filmmaking on cost efficient super 8. It became widely used by individuals with a desire to make independent films.

In 1982, Super8 Sound employee and staff accountant Philip Vigeant had the opportunity to buy the company. In the years that followed, Vigeant bought out other small companies in the Boston area including a film lab and a camera repair shop adding their services to Super8 Sound™.

A film chain telecine which transferred film to videotape was also added that year with the firm belief that the future of small format film laid in the ability to integrate it into the video arena. An in-house publication called The Independent Producer was launched which focused on the success of the independent film scene, focusing on people who were shooting on super 8. The magazine highlighted the stories of individuals making low-budget super 8 music videos and film for video distribution.

In 1987 Super8 Sound expanded the business by opening a second office in Hollywood, California. This expansion was driven by the amount of clients the company had on the west coast who were involved in producing MTV style music videos for their bands.

In 1989, another expansion was implemented to a larger Burbank location, adding a technical camera repair room, on-site processing lab, and film to videotape transfer services. Now a complete turnkey, one-stop shop, the company redirected it’s focus to meet the demands of their growing list of studio and industry mainstream clients. The Boston office was eventually closed in 1995. The Rank Cintel telecine suites with daVinci color correction were added, permanently eliminating film chain consumer quality transfers.

One of the biggest innovations for the company came in 1993 with the development of a line of Pro8mm negative film. Prior to this, only reversal super 8 film stocks were available from major film manufactures such as Fuji and Kodak. The idea was that a line of professional film stocks in the familiar easy to use 50-foot preloaded cartridges would offer a palette to filmmakers allowing for greater creative options for the cost efficient, highly portable super 8 format.

The company developed a manufacturing operation on-site to cut and reformat professional 35mm film stocks, loading it into super8 cartridges. All-inclusive packages were offered so that film, processing, and telecine could be prepaid, allowing for better targeting of the production budget. The industry, students, and independents embraced this concept with huge enthusiasm. Today Pro8mm has an expansive line of over 20 reformatted film stocks that range from 50-500 ASA and 3 different scanning systems, including high-definition. In addition, they repackage Kodak Super 8 film stocks to include their award-winning processing and HD scanning services.

Over the next 10 years thousands of projects were shot on Pro8mm film including dozens of episodes of VH-1 Behind the Music, hundreds of commercials, segways for prime time television shows, and scenes in theatrical releases.

The name of the company was changed to Pro8mm in 1998, which was more in line with the company’s mission statement and goals. Professional Super 8 and

Pro (in favor of) 8mm. The days of sound on film and mag full coat recorders were gone and the new direction of the company would be to integrate the small format film into the digital world. Profound changes were to follow to bring Super 8 into the HD world.

In 2003 Pro8mm expanded the small format product line to include Pro16mm, loading 16mm film onto 100’ daylight spools, rebuilding classic 16mm cameras and expanding our processing and telecine services.

Aligning with prosumer and industry trends, 2005 brought Pro8mm into the widescreen era with the introduction of  Max 8, a 16 X 9 widescreen super 8 camera and scanning system. Pro8mm began building classic cameras with a new expanded gate, allowing for 20% more image to be captured where the old sound stripe used to be on the film. The development of modern aspect ratio products and scanning committed Pro8mm to be on board for the world of high-definition and the future.

In late 2007, Pro8mm began purchasing HD Scanning Equipment and set up an HD Scanning Suite. Their Millennium II HD Scanner and 2K daVinci Color corrector gave Pro8mm the capability to move forward by both preserving archival material in HD or by directing scanning in native 1080 off the frame, and accommodating our production clients as all broadcast moves to digital.

As a generation of filmmakers began to finish film school without ever shooting a frame of real film, 2010 brought the company to the realization that they needed to make a hefty commitment to education people on how to shoot on Super 8 film. Company president Phil Vigeant wrote a book called  “The Power of Super 8 Film – Insider Secrets Every Filmmaker Should Know” and the company began running free shooting events, teleseminars, workshops, and two-day Boot Camps for a nominal fee.

Pro8mm is applauded for being a one-stop shop where Super 8 cameras, film, processing, digital mastering, hands on training and treasured family archival home movies can all be handled by a dedicated staff with decades of experience. The company has enjoyed continuous growth for over 40 years in a niche market that in our opinion exists at all because of the dedicated hard work and entrepreneurial spirit to continuously move forward in alignment with the media industry.

Check out Pro8mm at pro8mm.com or call 818-848-5522

By Rhonda Vigeant, Director of Marketing  Rhonda@pro8mm.com