DVD Art - DVD Coming Soon

Today I wrapped up the art work for The Good Soldier DVD. It took a bit longer than expected but I think it looks pretty good. Also, I came up with a special "Featuring Super 8 Film Technology" logo that I'm going to put on my future projects - and hope others will too - to identify the choice to shoot in Super 8.

So the next step will be to get my master DVD and art to the duplicating company. After that it will just be a matter of time before seeing the final product. The DVD contains English subtitles, chapter index, behind-the-scene slideshow, the theatrical trailer, and a link to online interactive content. And while I would have liked to include French and Spanish (and by recommendation, Portuguese) I unfortunately couldn't get all of that done by my deadline. So instead, I will have to make some alternate versions in the future.

I will be hosting a special screening of the film later this month for cast and crew - it will be their first viewing of the film. Then on June 11th the film will premiere to the US at deadCENTER Film Festival.

Following that, who knows what?

I have another project that I've begun, relative to my experience with this film - it's a writing project. Ok, I'll be real, it's book about Super 8 filmmaking. At this point it's a young project which could fall off a cliff at any time...but we'll see where it goes.

Also, I have a couple of other Super 8 film projects I'm working on. One I've entitle the "Physics Philm" project - it's a project I started years ago but I'm hoping to breathe some new life into it.

Super 8 Films - Oklahoma State Fair

I've been talking about this for some time so I'm finally getting some Super 8 films that I've shot out here. I've got 8 films total and I probably won't put them all online but I am going to get all the State Fair ones out here. Keep in mind that none of these have sound. Super 8 film is silent. That is, unless you have a Super 8 *sound* camera AND sound film. It's not the sound cameras that are so difficult to find but the sound film can be difficult and expensive. Not to mention that to transfer both the film image and the associated sound would cost - well, I don't know how much it would cost but I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap.

All film was transferred at mymovietransfers.com - and from what I see of the films I had transferred I am really excited about using them again for future projects.

So, a little bit about this first film (shown above):
This film was shot in Sept 2006. Every year my wife and I go to the State Fair and every year we make it a point to ride the giant slide. This year was no different. This film was shot by both of us. My wife shot the portion of me going down the slide - that's me in the hat and glasses smiling at the camera after racing down the slide. The rest of the footage, I shot. This was B/W film and shot on my Zeiss Ikon Movieflex S8. It was a bright and sunny day so much of the images are a little overexposed. I'm sure I could up the contrast a bit in Final Cut (editing program) but I chose to keep it in it's original unedited form.

This next film is from the State Fair - Sept. 2007.



I really like this one. It is the essence of what S8 film is all about to me. Rich colors, fluid picture, handheld camera feel, up close and real - filled with personality. This was also shot on my Zeiss Ikon Movieflex S8, this time using Ektachroome 64T film.

This film features several different elements of the state fair - the "freak" show tent, the unusual State Fair cuisine; fried Twinkies and Oreos, and a few of the lighted midway rides at dusk.

The two people in the film are Chris and Leah. Chirs is taking his first delicious bite of a fried Twinkie and then offers Leah a bite. I would note that Chirs went on to finish that Twinkie and followed it with a couple of fried Oreos. Shortly after that he was moaning with a stomache.

I especially enjoy watching the ride footage at the end and will probably shoot some more footage of rides in future films.

Hope you enjoy these two films.

~Aaron

Riding Bikes

With everything else going on I've neglected updating this Super 8 blog. I received footage back from Lost In Light - a while ago - but have only recently been able to transfer it from DV tape into digital files broken down for the web. I am still in the process of segmenting and editing them but wanted to share some of the raw footage.

So I present to you a day from my childhood. The boy on the bike is me. The boy in short shorts chasing me is my brother Ryan and the baby being pushed around in the stroller is my youngest brother, Adam. The film was shot by my Dad with a camera he bought from JCPenny - a camera I still have and, yes, it still works!

We used to visit this church parking lot that was just across the street from our house in Oklahoma City. It was a great place to ride bikes - and run. I remember riding around that big parking lot - seemed like you could go as fast and as far as you wanted.

I have many more films to add but it will take some time.