I was browsing eBay to see what Beaulieu R16s are going for nowadays. (Not that I need one or will buy one; just looking.) There’s only one, but there are a number of Beaulieu super-8 cameras. I have a Beaulieu 5008.S, two Elmos (one is my first movie camera), and a ‘Quartz’ Russian spring-wound super-8.
I know that the old 4008 is a popular super-8 camera that’s sometimes used in ‘real films’ (having been retrofitted with a crystal-synch motor). A Polish Vampire in Burbank, Curse of the Queerwolf and Zombie! vs. Mardi Gras were feature-length films that were shot on super-8. I think some bits of Natural Born Killers was shot on super-8. There are a lot of hobbyists who still use the format, and some artistic filmmakers like it.
Super-8 started to die in the mid-'80s when VHS recorders started to get cheap enough for people to buy. Kodak no longer makes super-8 sound film. (Unlike professional equipment, ‘home movie’ equipment sometimes had single-system sound – a magnetic stripe on the film.) A consumer shooting at 18fps would pay about $5 (at the time) for 3:20 of film. Someone shooting at 24fps, the standard for professional films (25fps in Europe), would have 2:30 fo film. Then there’s processing. And you need to drag out the projector and have a dark room to watch the footage. VHS gave people 120:00 with sound, and no processing. Video cameras got cheaper, and the formats improved. Betamax died. So did VHS-C. Finally, so did VHS camcorders. 8mm tape gave VHS quality in a smaller package. Hi-8 improved the image dramatically. Now we have a few digital formats.
Why wouldn’t consumers stop buying super-8 film cameras? My first super-8 camera cost $760. That’s 1980 dollars. My first VHS system cost about $800 in 1985 and used a camera connected by a cord to a portable (rather heavy) deck. Super-8 was far more portable and easy to use back then. But now, for 800 current dollars, I can get a kick-ass digicam that’s smaller than the super-8 gear I used to use. There’s no more sound film; and the last time I looked, a super-8 silent cartridge was pushing $20 without processing.
But I still like super-8. I like the look of film. I don’t have a use for it just at the moment, but I want to shoot some footage sometime. I have a few rolls of outdated film in the freezer. I might be able to use it in an actual film so that I have some contrast with the 16mm.
What about you? Do you still have any super-8 equipment? Do you ever use it? Do you want to use it? What’s some of the cool stuff you’ve shot on super-8? If you have kids, have you thought of teaching them how to use it? (I’m thinking here that it might help to teach aspiring filmmakers the value of thinking before they shoot, since their resources would be limited.) What super-8 stories do you have?