Super 8 Negative Work Prints

[Will2]

Is anyone actually making work prints from Super 8 negative? I understand a company in Europe is doing it but has anyone on this forum used that service?

[richard p. t.]

Andec is the only lab offering this in the world at the moment. No, never tried their service.
richard

[Chris-B]

You can make your own by simply modifying a super 8 viewer.
Or even better modify a super 8 steenbeck!
Chris.

[woods01]

Does Kodak even make S8 print stock anymore? Or is Andec splitting their own film.

[Maurizio Di Cintio]

Can you clarify, please?

You can make your own by simply modifying a super 8 viewer.
Or even better modify a super 8 steenbeck!
Chris.

Thank you.

[richard p. t.]

Yes, its simple enough to use a gang synchroniser or a steenbeck or a projector or anything that has a mechanism that is capable of bi-packing as the basis of a rough and ready diy contact printing setup. I have done this myself with 16mm. The results are interesting.
There is still the question of acquiring the print stock and doing the processing. In 16mm these resources are out there. For super 8 ... well you might use bw tri-x or orwo un54 processed as positive. I have used UN54 like this to make diy optical prints of super 8 bw neg. But colour positives from colour neg super 8 ... you would have to acquire the ecp print material (perhaps from andec) and then be able to process ecp in super 8. Again, its not rocket science. The ecp kit chemistry (which comes in the order of 200 litres) isn't that expensive. It is an easier process than ecnII as there is no remjet.

[Maurizio Di Cintio]

Thank you.

[Will2]

The more I think about it the more I might want to print super 8 negative to a 16mm positive. I wonder if that is easier to have done in the States somewhere?

[woods01]

In the last Super 8 Today they had an article on Colorlab in Maryland, and it was mentioned among their many services S8 blow-up is mentioned.

There are also quite a few places that offer video-to-film (Kinescope) where you could get your Workprinter scanned film out back to film. This is the low budget option, if you've got the bucks you could get a pro HD telecine and then have that printed to film.

Most affordably there are many film co-ops where DIY-types do their own blowups, of course you'd need to get really down & dirty, but ultimately you'd have the most control and the costs would be minimal (apart from your time).

[jpolzfuss]

You can make your own by simply modifying a super 8 viewer.
Or even better modify a super 8 steenbeck!
Chris.

This would only be that easy if the negative is really an inverse image. However at least Kodak's vision-stocks do have an orange/brownish base. Therefore you would have to apply some filters, ... .
(Not to mention that most super 8 viewers would have a nice hotspot-problem!)

Does Kodak even make S8 print stock anymore?

I guess that they'll have to split it themselves as e.g. the KODAK VISION Color Print Film 3383 is available as "16 mm with Super 8 Perforations", but not as "8 mm with Super 8 Perforations"...
http://motion.kodak.com/motion/uploaded ... 9_2009.pdf
(That PDF is very funny - I didn't know that you can really buy empty Super8-carts at Kodak!)

Jörg

P.S.: I haven't used Andec's service myself, but the two prints I've seen so far were excellent (original camera-stock was Kodak's Vision2 200T, prints were made on polyester-stock).

[richard p. t.]

This would only be that easy if the negative is really an inverse image. However at least Kodak's vision-stocks do have an orange/brownish base. Therefore you would have to apply some filters, ... .
(Not to mention that most super 8 viewers would have a nice hotspot-problem!)

You have to remember that colour print stock is specifically designed for making prints directly from colour negative with an orange bias (its a colour bias, not a base colour by the way). But yes, some filtering will usually be required. This kind of diy contact print is always pretty rough and ready - but its worth doing if you are interested in experimental film practice.

[jaxshooter]

I've been researching this for awhile as I love showiing my work on a conventional projector, but don't want to risk original film in a projector. The problem here is where do you go from a workprint? To use the entire old school film workflow, you would also need an edgenumbering machine and a super clean edit table to conform your neg on. I used to conform 16mm negative and reversal back in the day and I can tell you that keeping the dirt away is a big headache in 16mm and perhaps at least twice the problem in 8mm.

Now let's say you're successful with above, what then? I even asked this once on this very forum and got the same response: It's a dead workflow. Once you have your cut A and B rolls, who's going to make your answer print? Does anyone even still work this way in 16mm? I doubt it since the 16mm release print is virtually dead. You basically now have two choices: Go to video and project that way or blow up to 16mm or 35mm.

[woods01]

Well at what level has the ability to make S8 prints from A/B rolls ever existed? How many people were getting prints struck from conformed reversal in the 1970s? Kodak never put edge coding on S8 because it was an amateur format.

I think that most modern S8 artists either edit in camera and project original film or they work with the film blown up to 16/35mm. I've seen some work where they edited the original film directly and then get that blown up to create prints. The results were quite gritty with visible splices and heavy film damage. Since you're in the hood you should check out: http://www.the8fest.com/ and find out there just what people are doing for their S8 prints.

Now there are plenty of people still working the traditional film method in 16mm but their work tends to drift towards the avant garde. Their are many labs that can do the prints, the hard part is finding someone to conform the negative and getting optical sound made. Since you're in Ontario you have some options. Talk to the Black & White Film Factory or Niagara Custom Lab to learn what their customers work flows are or call up LIFT.

[Will2]

With 16mm you can always just make a work print at the time of processing; that way dust is minimized if the lab handles it all.

It costs about the same as the film processing itself at AlphaCine. I did it this time to see what I get back but it is not a cheap way to work.

[jpolzfuss]

The problem here is where do you go from a workprint?

The problem starts with the fact that you can only get a "release print" at Andec. So you'll either have to edit the original negatives before ordering the prints - or you'll have to manually edit each print later on.

who's going to make your answer print?

AFAIK there's no such thing for super8
However you can still go this way for 16mm at Andec...

Jörg