NEW TO SHOOTING SUPER8 OR 16MM?

• First of all, DON’T PANIC. Shooting film is meant to be fun. Who cares if you can’t see the results right away?

• You will need a camera that is tested and works. eBay is a good option for this. You can usually pick up a nice film camera for relatively cheap compared to the digital options.

  • Be sure to look for actual “Super8” cameras that take a cartridge rather than the Regular 8mm cameras that took the film on reels. Try to get one with manual exposure settings. I personally love my Minolta XL 601, which can be found for around $50-$70 in many cases. Most Super8 cameras will not require an external, incident light meter but it’s highly suggested that you get one as well.

  • For 16mm be sure to avoid a camera that uses a cartridge. Stick with a Bolex as it doesn’t require batteries, but be sure you get a “Reflex” model with a viewfinder that actually shows you what you’re shooting. Pick up an external, incident light meter as well.

• There are three main charges related to shooting film: Raw stock, processing, and scanning.

  • Raw stock is the film that you need to buy to put in your camera. You can either use fresh stock from Kodak or other suppliers (listed above) or you can purchase stock on eBay.

    • Raw stock comes in many different varieties, but each size of film, whether it’s Super8, 16mm, or 35mm is essentially the same film technology, just cut differently for different camera standards.

    • A single roll of Super8 (50ft) or 16mm (100ft) will last about 3.5 minutes of total shooting time.

    • Varieties include Color Negative, Color Reversal (called “Ektachrome”), Black and White Negative (called “Double-X”), and Black and White Reversal (called “Tri-X”). Negative films are processed with an inverted image and then must be scanned or printed to be viewable, though no printing processes exist for Super8, only scanning. Reversal films are processed with a positive image, which is immediately projectable, though it is still recommended to scan before projection to reduce wear and tear on your original film. The basic rules are this: Negative films have much more flexibility in their color and exposure, while reversal films have a lot of pleasing contrast and their color can really “pop,” though you’d need to be more accurate in your exposure to begin with.

    • For Super8, plan on spending $30 per cartridge of raw stock for Color Negative or Black and White Reversal (Tri-X), or $40 for Color Reversal (Ektachrome).

    • For 16mm, plan on spending $50 per 100ft roll of raw stock for Color Negative, $44 per 100ft roll of Black and White Negative (Double-X) or Reversal (Tri-X), or $60 per 100ft roll of Color Reversal (Ektachrome).

    • If you go the eBay route, take note of the film’s expiration date and any reported conditions that the film has been stored under. Over time film will slowly get “fogged” by infrared radiation, causing a consistent low level of exposure across the reel. If your film is expired, plan on shooting it with some overexposure (usually 1 stop is ok, or 2) in order to bring your exposure up above the fog. Either way your color will end up a little on the funky end.

  • Processing is the actual chemical process taking the film you’ve already shot and producing a useable image from it. There are basically no real shortcuts when it comes to processing besides self-processing in a bucket or a tank like a LOMO. It’s fairly easy to self-process black and white film types and the chemicals are not too expensive, however, color is much more difficult as it uses precise temperature control and more steps involved. Self-processing Color Negative is not recommended because the film has a backing that must be chemically removed before development, which makes that film type quite a bit different than its still-film variants making the chemicals harder to get ahold of.

    • Super8 processing for Color Negative and Black and White is most affordable at Spectra Film and Video at around $24 per roll

    • Super8 processing for Color Reversal (Ektachrome) is most affordable at Dwayne’s at around $12 per roll

    • 16mm processing is around $30 per 100ft roll

    • 35mm processing is around $120 per 400ft roll

  • Scanning takes the already-processed film and translates it to the digital environment. This might sound somewhat trivial compared to the other processes, but it is ultimately very different from scanning still photographs. A single reel of film is usually several thousand images and any variation in positioning or exposure can cause annoying artifacts. Many filmmakers just starting out think it would be easy to self-scan their material, and while machines do exist for this they are very low quality and best thought of as generating “previews” rather than useable scans. Because of its nature, scanning opens up a lot of options.

    • The high-end of scanning technology is extremely good these days, but there are many lower-cost options now that are not recommended. Many of the lower cost options will only do standard definition scans or scans on consumer-level machines. Due to misinformation and marketing, some of these consumer-level machines are reported as being more capable than they actually are so choosing the right option is very difficult. Always ask which machine is being used.

    • Machines to generally avoid would be the Wolverine and the Moviestuff Retroscan. Some models of the Universal are capable of UHD resolution on the camera’s chip, but they scan at 8bit color, which severely impacts your quality of color and contrast, and is supplied with a very low quality optical system, which results in an effective resolution of much lower than UHD resolution.

    • Machines with a good degree of capability and reputation, in general would be Lasergraphics, Scanity, Xena, and the Arriscan. All of these will scan at 2K or higher with some exceptions based on origination format, with 10bit, 12bit, or 14bit color depth (only occasionally 16bit), and with the a good dynamic range of the original image.

    • At least 2K is recommended for Super8, while 4K is recommended for 16mm or 35mm

    • A flat / log scan is low contrast and saturation, and requires color correction to be presentable. Davinci Resolve is a recommended software for color correction as it is free for most purposes. Color correction by the scanner can greatly increase quality and impact of the footage and it can still be corrected additionally after the fact.

    • An overscan shows the film’s perforations and frame lines, which is highly recommended for most purposes. Otherwise the film can be cropped to the image area, just inside the frame lines, for a cleaner image.

    • In most cases a ProRes file is recommended over a format like DPX. They are more space-efficient but still high quality

    • When scanning through The Negative Space, plan on spending $15 per roll of Super8 and $20 per roll of 16mm.

    • When scanning through other scanning services, plan on spending $30 per roll of Super8 and $45 per roll of 16mm.

• Once your film has been shot, processed, and scanned, you are ready to either post or edit your material. If posting on YouTube, it is recommended to upload a UHD ProRes file to help preserve the integrity of the film’s grain. Film looks spectacular when viewed at UHD resolution even on YouTube.

  • For editing, keep in mind that most film scans will come in as 16fps, 18fps, or 24fps. Be sure to use the correct fps in your timeline. Premiere Pro will not export 16fps or 18fps, so be sure to export a 24fps file or if the scan is 16fps you might want to interpret the files as 15fps and edit in a 30fps timeline. Make sure to edit in a progressive timeline, not interlaced. To use true 16fps or 18fps timelines, use Davinci Resolve (which is free for up to UHD resolution).

  • Target around 25,000 kbps for your data rate if exporting H264 MP4 files for HD or 70,000 kbps if exporting UHD or 4K, or use the presets for YouTube compression.

PRESERVATION TIPS

General

• Contrary to popular belief, digital information will NOT last forever. Standards change and media deteriorates. Keep your originals.

• Always store your digital material in multiple places, and never rely solely on media such as a DVD or a flash drive for long-term storage. Mechanical drives are much more reliable as long as they are occasionally exercised to keep the moving parts from sticking.

• Standard DVDs, CDs, BluRays, flash drives, or SSDs have a very short shelf life, often only 1-2 years.

• Mechanical hard drives have a shelf life of about 2-4 years, and it is somewhat necessary to plug in the drive every couple months and give it a “spin” to keep the mechanisms from sticking.

• M-Discs have a realistic shelf life of about 5-10 years. Most services will tell you that M-Discs last quite a bit longer than that (some say 1000 years), but this is mostly marketing.

• Gold Discs have a realistic shelf life of about 3-5 years. Most services will tell you that gold discs last quite a bit longer than that (some say 300 years), but this is mostly marketing.

• The only long-term, offline storage solution for digital material is LTO tape, but even this has some critical problems. LTO will often last around 15 years, but the standard is constantly being updated with limited backwards compatibility.

• The best backup of your digital material that you can keep is your ORIGINAL media, especially if your original is film.

• Cloud storage is a decent backup solution, but always keep a local backup.

Film

• Always keep your film in a cool, dry place. Basements are good, but make sure they are placed on a high shelf to avoid the possibility of water damage due to flooding or leaks.

• Film, whether it’s motion picture or stills, has a very long shelf life. This is realistically several hundred years for non-preservation materials (usually acetate film) depending on the quality of the original laboratory processing.

• Vinegar syndrome is a contagious degradation of tri-acetate film stock, resulting in a noticeable vinegar smell. Keep vinegar films separated from the rest to slow the spread of degradation across your collection.

• Do not stifle your films in airtight containers.

Video

• Always keep your video in a cool, dry place.

• Video tape uses magnetic particles to store data, a lot like credit cards. Be sure to keep your tapes away from magnets or static discharge.

Stills

• Always keep your stills in a cool, dry place.

• Negatives and slides are considerably better storage mediums than prints. If given the choice to get rid of either your negatives or prints, never choose to throw away your negatives as they will always last longer and retain much higher resolution.

SPECIAL THANKS

These archival and production level services were in part financed and crowdfunded by many dedicated filmmakers, enthusiasts, and loved ones. Listed in alphabetical order

Carmela and Mike Coyle, Don Cunningham, dnedrow, Brad and La Jean Dobbs, Phillip Dunlap, Joseph Irvin, Christopher Lee, Evan Luzi, Patrick Lynch, Erik McFarland, Trevor McKenna, Moises Perez, Anthony Prichard, Craig Watson