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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: Super 8
Films I would Like to See and Wanted Info
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Marty Hamrick
Kilroy

Joined: 15 Nov 2011
Posts: 1

 		Films I would Like to See and Wanted Info
Old, obscure 8mm systems
Small format films are all over youtube as well as videos of folks showing off their old cameras and projectors. There's videos of Fairchild Cinephonic 8 cameras,Bell and Howell projectors and plenty of people's home movies and test footage. I'm just curious as to what happened with some of the more "exotic" small format systems and films made with them.

Take for instance the Fairchild Cinephonic 8, a standard 8mm camera from the early 60's that shot single system sound on film, more than a decade before the Kodak Ektasound super 8 cartidge. I'm curious as to how many of those thing weres actually sold, who might have bought them and how much prestriped double 8mm film sold.As far as I know, there were two models, one was a more professional model with a 200 foot magazine and reflex zoom lens.Their heyday was around 1960-65. Then I would like to know how much film that was shot with those things ended up getting transferred somewhere. I ran a transfer business back in the 80's and never saw a reel of Fairchild 8mm sound film come through. It would've been a challenge to transfer as I would've had to look for one of the few suitable projectors to modify to telecine.

I'm also curious about Bell and Howell's pre Ektasound efforts. I remember when the film making bug bit me at age 12 back in 1972. I was watching a game show where a couple had won a vacation and a Bell and Howell Filmosound 8 super 8 system that included camera, projector and cassette tape recorde to preserve their vacation memories. I'm curious as to how many of those things were sold, to whom and how many people actually were able to keep all of that crap together. I imagine many cassette soundtracks got away from their films, but surely there had to be some organized hobbyist who kept their stuff together. I wonder how many transfer houses have gotten shoeboxes full of 50 foot reels and matching cassettes and if they were able to sync it up in the transfer.

Finally I wonder about what happened to many of the ambitious small format productions that I used to read about in Super 8 Filmaker magazine back in the 70's. They used to report about super 8 features, TV docs, educational and industrial films. Where are some of these folks now and where are their films? Dennis Dugan, who used to write a lot of technical articles for S8FM wrote about a feature he shot in 8mm with a Fairchild Cinephonic. I think the title was Endangered Species", what happened to that film and some of the others? I recently connected with Lenny Lipton on facebook, today he has no interest in super 8 and has not put any of his old films online and has no plans to. Kind of a shame since I remember reading all of his production articles on some of hisfilms and I would've liked to have seen them. Doesn't look very likely that I ever will.
I remember when I worked at a film lab in Jacksonville back in the 70's I worked on several student films that got some notoriety. One was titled "TV Dinner" by Tony Barbon from FSU I believe (16mm, black and white, 1978, aprox 16 minutes) that won a few awards and I've often been dissapointed that it and a few others never showed up on youtube or Vimeo. One went international, I recall, don't remember the title,but it was around 5 minutes, colour,16mm. It took place in an open field and you saw huge cutouts from popular ads being carried across the field. You couldn't see the people moving the cutouts, so it looked like the Marlboro Man was having a picnic with the Black Velvet woman.

There were also the many professional systems pioneered by Richard Leacock as well as Optasound , who also sold stylish accessories like the "Slinger", a belt that carried the cassette recorder. The ad featured a smoking hot model in tight hip hugger jeans sporting a super 8 camera and recorder. Super 8 Sound represented the epitome of super 8's efforts to grow up and they still exist today. I would be interested to know how many folks shelled out the major bucks for the high end systems and how many of the films made still survive. I'm sure many of these old systems were sold to schools and businesses as they were quite expensive.

How many childhood and adolescent memories have I stirred up for fellow small format film nerds?
Marty Hamrick

Photojournalist,cinematographer

Oshawa, Ontario

PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:52 pm
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SkekTek
Decorated


Joined: 24 Aug 2010
Posts: 252
Location: South New Jersey

 		I just inherited a bunch of 8 mm items from my childhood, which probably go back to my parents' childhood. This was before super 8, so all the movies were silent. But since I could watch monster movies anytime I wanted, they were so cool. I personally used the following camera to make my own movies- don't think any survived a fire that swept through our house when I was 9, but I still have the camera...

Heh. If I only had film for it, maybe I'd bring it on the Friday excursions.
camera.jpg
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camera.jpg

PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:55 pm
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Zeittriven
Greenhorn

Joined: 11 Oct 2011
Posts: 3

 		Wow, it's a real rarity. How old is it?

PostPosted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:37 am
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