[MacDV] Re: The quality of 8MM film

[Jim Asherman]

On Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at 03:28  PM, Steven Rogers wrote:

>
>
> Paper will probably be too small.  Get a big sheet of foamcore board, 
> and spray it matte white if necessary to avoid any glare spots

Darn good one
>
>> Position the camera as close to the projector as possible an still 
>> control both.
>> White balance can be tricky. Auto is good. Indoor is good. Sometimes 
>> the outdoor shots actually look better if you switch to outdoor.
>>  Film can be fragile and I have had some bad luck. VideoTape every 
>> frame you play.
>
> You can get Kodak presstape splices. Its not great, but it works.  The 
> only real danger is tearing sprocket holes when the film becomes 
> brittle.
And that has happened . Also 40 year-old edits are fragile.
>
> The main trick is getting the camera and projector shutters to 
> cooperate. The best solution I found is to put the camera in automatic 
> mode and adjust the brightness of the projected image by size to 
> indirectly give the camera a shutter speed that minimizes flickering.
Since I think the films I did were 18 FPs I just put the camera on 15FPS.

> You may have to reset the screen distance for various scenes. A rear 
> projection "copy box" can help a lot for scenes that are underexposed, 
> but I found it washes out too much for regular use.  If you had neutral 
> density filters for the projector, you could accomplish the same thing 
> as moving the projector, and probably get better results from the copy 
> box.
I found it harder to get the copy box set up right and the picture 
straght than the other way.
Jim
>
> The quality of 8mm film varies a lot by the camera and lens that shot 
> it, but it can be really good - better than VHS.
> Definitely
Jim