Supa'

I've now commited myself to trying to get this super 8 vid done to be premiered Easter weekend during Van City, a nice idea, and I'm working hard at getting it done, but there are a few variables that are out of my hands, here's a little look-see at the process. I've no idea why this bit is underlined.

First of all you've to get people interested, organised(ha) and down to film, best laid plans often end up a bit like this, but hey, good times.
I've never really planned to shoot anything with a skate video, its normally just been go skate, see if someone is up too much, then film. With this its been fifty fifty. Some things have been winged, others I've put a good bit of planning into them. There's no point in trying to make it like a normal skate vid in terms of giving someone 100 goes. Its a bit of a gamble though', no footie checks here, and each reel of film is 50ft, which at a normal frame rate only gives you 3 mins. So you want people who'll land stuff, first try, Wayne, for example, has dutifully obliged.
Once you've got the stuff filmed its posted off to the lab, in my case I use one in Rotterdam.
Then you wait. It can take a week or two (which is the biggest problem for getting it done for Van City). Colours, synching, film catching properly, its all up in the air. She doesn't care though, she only cares about deez (cashew) nutz.
They send the film back to you on little reels like this.
Early signs can look good, but its so small that you can't really tell until its on the projector.
The reel gets hooked on the small projector spool thing, then you feed the film through the machine. The first projector I had was the best load of bollix and would only work at constantly variable speeds if I held down a switch with my full weight, which would result in a cramped hand, a slight workout and no real results. So I invested in a good'un, and it was worth it, no film chewed and way easier to operate.
That said, this stage of the process (although simple in premise) is the biggest pain in the ring. You've to line up the projector and camera so the image is framed right and not warped/angled. You've to make sure the aperture is right on the projector relative to the film, be it dull or over exposed. Then you get the film at the right point to start capturing. Then the camera cuts out, so you reset the reel. Then you realise you forgot to adjust the white balance and the footage all looks green. So you reset the white balance, its going perfect, then a light gets turned on, or the cam cuts out again coz its shit, then you realise hours have passed and you're simultaneously sweating and dying for a wee wee..etc etc
Then you think about editing, but watch sex and the city or something equally low on brain tax.

It can be quite rewarding when something comes out as you planned, even one thing on a whole reel can make my day.

And in the interest of (cautious) hype, here's 30 seconds of your life: