Super 8 film scanning/conversion - FREE at your local library (maybe)!

So, I did a thing today...

FB/Film Festival friend Skizz Cyzyk is responsible, posting over a week ago a photo of loads of 8mm/Super8mm film reels, and how he did it using a machine that he rented for 3 weeks (said machine positioned behind the Wall O' Reels) - a 8mm/Super8mm film digitizer! Checking out the company he rented from (BorrowLenses.com - $60 for 7 days... not bad!), then looking at other places, then going straight to the source: WOLVERINE, a company that makes image converters. 

More to the point; those Super 8 scanners - the MovieMaker Pro, which can handle up to 9" reels and its slightly-lesser priced brother, Wolverine 8mm and Super 8 converter, which can handle up to 5" reels - make quality film transfer affordable for the DIY artist and family archivist. Both devices do frame-by-frame capture, so it's not a quick process - my first time out, I was able to do 2 400' reels in 8.5 hours - and converts it to MP4 files in 1080p (for the Pro - the 8mm/Super 8 machine will output files in 720p). Basically, if you can thread a 8mm/Super 8 projector, this will be just as easy to operate.

 

Here's some screen grabs, so you can gauge the quality - the oldest film is from 1985; the most recent is from 1992:

 

That's pretty good. And when it's running smoothly, it's wonderful - you can leave it to run itself, if you like. Those who know better will stick around, because they know that things NEVER go as smoothly as initially advertised.

You can expect to do several passes; condition of the film, sprocket hole issues may not make this a 'one & done' type of experience. And regarding framing, if you need to make adjustments, you'll need to stop and start, which will create a new file. Same with adjustments of exposure and sharpness, though in those cases, you'll probably just do another pass. So you'll want - nay, NEED - to do some prep on the film (cleaning, checking splices) before doing a scan.

If you're wanting 2K or 4K quality, then you'll want to send it to a professional service. But if you just need it in blu-ray quality and have the time & obsession to oversee it yourself, THIS IS AMAZING!

The rental prices are pretty reasonable - $60 a week (I expect there's also a deposit involved) - and if you have access to a large amount of film to scan, it's worth the purchase price ($400 for Pro, $300 for the 8mm/S8 Converter) -- but you might check your local library first. A good many public libraries have updated their A/V equipment and spaces to use it; mini studio facilities for the Public to use... FREE!

I actually found it by accident; the Topeka library did not have equipment for film/negative scanning (as of yet - that may change in the near future), but the Lawrence library did have a scanner for negatives and that could capture 8mm/Super 8 in .jpgs... lot of work to assemble on the back end, but better than nothing. So while making inquiries, the clerk mentioned that they DID have the Wolverine for film scanning - Even Better! All that was needed - besides a library card - was to go online and reserve a session(s). 

Apparently, it's gotten continual use since it was acquired last summer, which is a good thing. Some libraries also have devices to convert VHS and audio cassettes to digital, available to the Public to use FREE OF CHARGE.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC LIBRARY!!!

JAYHAWKERS Premiere weekend, Feb 14 - 16, Lawrence, KS

Stirrings after enforced silence, yet again. Stirrings for good reason...

 

trailer:

I'll see you there this weekend...

More "Guilty of Being WHITE" film selections coming very soon, plus some other things.

Those Kids... (in Lawrence, KS)




The ThroughAGlass guys, Jeremy and Chris, have been pretty busy over the past couple of years... their feature musical, AIR, has been screening around the country and the world; but when would it finally be able to get into the public's sweaty hands?

April 6, 2010 - Cinema Epoch (the same people who released fellow Lawrence filmmaker Patrick Rea's THE EMPTY ACRE) are bringing AIR to the public at large... and you'll also want to keep your eye open about where to get the soundtrack album, too.

Since I mentioned Patrick, I also need to mention that more news and stills about NAILBITER have surfaced on the Dread Central and Bloody Disgusting horror websites... the news is indeed good, and I can say that I look forward to meeting fellow crew and cast again sometime this spring...

BUNKER HILL returns to Lawrence, May 9.



Just got this in - for those who may have missed the BUNKER HILL screening in March, it will open in a limited engagement at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS starting on May 9.

This is the opening salvo in BH's release, which the filmmakers are handling themselves -
as reported by Jon Niccum of the Lawrence Journal-World:

Filmmakers forge distribution network

Lawrence filmmaker Kevin Willmott came to this realization: “Nobody cares about your film more than you do.”

And Willmott learned it the hard way after his second feature, “C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America,” was bought by a major distributor ... and the company didn’t quite know what to do with it.

“Filmmakers have this romanticized reality with distributors. ‘If I could just sell my movie to so and so, I will have finally arrived. I will have made it.’ That’s just not true,” he says

So Willmott decided to launch his own company in order to distribute independent, socially relevant and specialty films.

Micheaux Motion Pictures — named after pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux (1884-1951) — intends on using a hybrid model of placing its films in a network of theaters throughout the country, in addition to in-house DVD sales and barnstorming appearances by cast and crew.

The company will launch its first project today, when Willmott’s own “Bunker Hill” begins an engagement at Liberty Hall, 644 Mass.

“This is not a new idea for me,” he says, admitting he was inspired by the recording industry after established musical acts began to take personal control of their recordings.

He says, “It’s the hole in the independent film chain. You get the money on your own, you do all these things on your own, then in the end when it’s done, you sit around and go, ‘Well boss, are you gonna call?’”

Willmott is joined in Micheaux Motion Pictures by local writer/producers Tom Carmody, Greg Hurd and Scott Richardson. They settled on the Micheaux name (which is in the public domain) after working with the family of the legendary artist.

“It’s in honor of Michaeux obviously, and this is what he did at a time far more difficult than now,” Willmott says.

Next month the company will screen “Bunker Hill” at the ACLU headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“The independent filmmaker has to be proactive,” he says. “You can’t become this passive person waiting for someone to get it. Your job is to get it to the audience.”

So, it appears that BUNKER will make its way through the country for the rest of the year...
will keep up to date with it as information becomes available.

SUSPENSION screening in Lawrence, KS.

Back in the fall of 2005, I worked on a feature shooting in Lawrence and Topeka with the working title of REST E-Z -- It's since been retitled SUSPENSION and has started making the festival rounds. Now local audiences - and the cast & crew - will get a chance to see the film.

SUSPENSION for two days only!
Sunday, February 3rd, 1PM and 7PM
Monday, February 4th, 7PM
Director Q & A to follow the movie
Tickets: $5
Liberty Hall: 644 Massachusetts, Lawrence, KS,

SUSPENSION was filmed locally in Lawrence, Topeka, and Kansas City,and directed by Lawrence-born filmmakers Ethan Shaftel and Alec Joler.

Tickets are available the day of each screening at the Liberty Hall Box office, (sorry no online ticketing for this one).

Trailer at:http://www.suspension-movie.com

Theater info at:http://www.libertyhall.net/

Hope to see you there!