I'm hella keen on NatsuMachi right now. One of the details they've been paying a lot of attention to is Kai's (and Remon's) use of Single-8 film cameras.
Given that the anime is current, what could be more awesome than? Shooting video there on Single-8 film, with the same Fujica P300
Contents
Camera specs
I'm currently in contact with a guy in the Netherlands on 8mmforum, he has some Fujica gear he's willing to sell. Looks like I'll need to be a little talkative...
- 2012-02-26 Agreed on payment and shipping. Courier is too expensive (145 EUR) to get them here in time, so he's sending via TNT, which is ~25 EUR, and shipping it straight to the hotel in Akihabara. Fingers crossed it gets there without issue
Batteries
4x AA for main operation, I think.
The P300 needs a separate battery for the light meter, noted as the "H-2D" on the super8wiki page. This is a now-discontinued mercury-oxide cell, so a replacement is needed.
This is made difficult because the accuracy of the meter is likely dependent on the specific characteristics of mercury-oxide cells. The original battery is also a funny size.
These people sell a close match, the PX14. A better (albeit more expensive) alternative looks to be this voltage-regulating capsule that takes two ordinary silver-oxide cells.
I don't have time to order one. However, it looks like a pair of PR-44 Zinc-Air cells (1.35-1.40 volts) will come close. They're too thin when stacked, but I think sticking a 5cent coin between them will fix the height, and hopefully make it about the right diameter. The trick now is finding a place that sells them - they're almost exclusively used for hearing aids due to their favourable discharge characteristics, energy density and long shelf-life.
Film details
Single-8 uses self-contained cartridges, with two spools somewhat like an audio or VHS cassette. Some very quick and dirty notes on film stocks here: http://www.super8.nl/english/e_single8.htm
- Fujifilm stock has 15 metres per reel
- Other stocks are only 12 metres per reel, because they use a thicker backing material
- I think this equates to 3600 frames and 2880 frames for 15m/12m respectively
- At 18fps, this equates to 200sec (3m20s) and 160sec (2m40s) of shooting time
The two types of film featured in NatsuMachi are made by Fujifilm:
- R25N - ISO 25, daylight-balanced
- RT200N - ISO 200, tungsten-balanced intended for indoors shooting - this is the one that Kai is testing in the first episode
More accurately, these films were made by Fujifilm, they stopped production several years ago and will stop offering processing services in March 2012. Pretty much all the remaining stocks of RT200N have sold out around the world as far as I can tell, though R25N looks to be easily available.
Luckily for us (me), Retro Enterprises will process Single-8 (2500yen per cartridge?), and also has other films to sell.
Others have taken it upon themselves to produce their own Single-8 stock, which is awesome:
Cinevia - looks to be Fujifilm Velvia/Provia/Astia stock, packaged for Single-8. Various speeds available.
- Retro-X - an ISO 200 black-and-white film stock
Retro can sell me filmstock, these prices are all-inclusive with developing and shipping. Sweet! http://film.club.ne.jp/english/eng_single8_film2003.htm
Telecining
Telecining is the process of recording the frames into a digital format. Not sure who can do this, but it's kinda necessary if I want to share the fruits of labour with people. The theory is simple: aim an 8mm projector at a camera. In practice, it's a bit more involved, because you want to sync the film frames to the camera's frames. You're basically taking a photo of each frame.
The poor man's option is to project it and shoot a video of that. You'll still have shitty sync issues by doing this (and I'd need to find an 8mm film projector).
These people might? Page looks kinda dodgy though: http://www.avidtech.com.au/documents/frame_by_frame.html
This looks much better, just hope that I can get something other than DVD. I'd really rather not have them performing pulldown on the footage. Their costing examples seem pretty good.
Some dudes in the Netherlands: http://www.super8.nl/english/e_telecine_hd.htm
Baller. "Every single super8 frame is captured with an industrial photo camera in 1440 x 1080 pixels and that gives a file size of about 3Mb to 4Mb for each frame. All these separate images are then combined into one uncompressed .AVI or .MOV file with the according frames per second you ask for. These .AVI and .MOV files are very large (we speak about Gb) and can only be send to you on external hard drives that you can send with your super8, or buy one from us."
- I really like the sound of these guys because the price looks comparable, and they don't put the footage on DVD; it's raw
Audio
I don't know what I'm going to do about audio yet. It's not strictly necessary, but I sure as hell don't trust myself to make something that won't be entirely boring without live sound.
One of the things I saw in my travels a few years ago are handheld Linear PCM recorders made by Sony. They're not cheap ($350 for a good one), and I don't know if they're overkill. Maybe I should just take the handheld stage mic with me, but powering and capturing that is very messy.