THOSE MYSTERIOUS SUPER-8 FRAMES

        Whenever I get my Kodachrome back from Switzerland, via Clark Photo Labs in Washington D.C., I always look at the little piece of film that falls out of the blue plastic reel and can. This little film is only a few frames long, and in the middle of it is the join that combined two reels of Super-8 as it went through the Kodachrome processor.
        What’s so amazing about a few frames of Super-8? The amazement comes from the fact that on one side of the join is one, two, or three frames from the end of my processed reel. But on the other side of the join is one, two, or three frames from the beginning of another person’s processed reel. It’s not easy, but I can lay these little pieces of film in my editor to get a snapshot look at what other people are doing with their Super-8 cameras.
In just the last couple of months, I have peeked into the doors of these unknown filmmakers and seen a mysterious man in dark sunglasses staring back at me. He is sort of a Don Johnson, maybe even a Mafia type guy with two days growth of beard. There are some high-rise apartments in the background. Another peek showed a scene at an airport, with a large truck passing by and the words DOBBS written on it. Another snapshot is of a deserted highway with a very old looking water tower in the background.
Written on the water tower is probably the name of the town, but I can only make out the word PORT followed by another word that I cannot decipher. Another sliver of film has a picture of a very attractive woman in a beautiful red sparkling dress holding a bunch of yellow balloons with smiley faces on them.
I used to think, hopefully, since Kodachrome Super-8 is processed in Switzerland, that I could be looking at scenes from any part of the world. Wouldn’t it be great to get back a few frames of Super-8 from France, Brazil, or New Zealand? But the more I see of these little magical snapshots, the more they appear to have been shot in the U.S. Most likely, all are from people who have sent their film to Clark Photo Labs in Washington D.C., a very large nationwide mail order discount film processing service.
        While I was a little disappointed to find that the film frames are not from around the globe, almost every role that arrives in the mail does bring with it a frame or two from some mysterious Super-8 user and that I find fascinating in itself. Each is a snapshot of someone, somewhere, filming his or her next Super-8 adventure, or home movie, or even just testing a camera for the first time. The mysteries continue.
        One mystery that we would all like the answer to, is how long will Kodak support Super-8? Their stock answer is always the same: As long as the buying public buys the film. That answer doesn’t address the issue of how much film does the public have to buy to make it worth their time and effort to continue production.
        In the last months of the 1990s, it seems there is talk everywhere of the demise of film itself, especially the 35mm theatrical variety. So, it seemed like a good time to find some answers as to the longevity and future of Super-8. And who better to go to than the source: Big Yellow. I spoke with Bob Strickland at Kodak Laboratories in Rochester, New York. Bob is a film lover and definitely has an interest in keeping the amateur formats alive. He told me Kodak had been looking for some time to replace the discontinued Ektachrome 160, and some had even discussed introducing a 400-speed film. But there was concern that too many amateur cameras out there would not read the 400 speed, so the 125 speed Ektachrome 7240 was chosen. With sales anything but robust, Kodak had to pick an existing film to re-slit into Super-8 size, and had to pick a film that could be used by amateurs as well as professionals alike. Thus the need for a film speed as close to 160 as possible. The decision must have been a correct one, for Ektachrome 7240 is now outselling the Ektachrome 160 it replaced. I couldn’t get him pinned down as easily on the sales of Kodachrome, but I gather that Kodachrome sales are holding there own, about the same as the last couple of years. Kodachrome is still especially strong in Europe.
        There is no question that Super-8 has had somewhat of a resurgence lately. Part of this is due to the fact that things one generation old can often be trendy. When I was a kid in the 1970s, anything 1950s became trendy. Now it’s the 90s, and the 1970s are trendy – including the family home movies and movie cameras. Whether this will last or not only time can tell. Still, just ten years ago many would not have imagined that there would even be a discussion about the future of Super-8 in 1999. And after speaking with Mr. Strickland I do think that in ten more years Super-8 will still be around, and we will still be having the same discussion about its future.
        Now that I’ve just given Super-8 another ten or more years of life – why can’t a manufacturer make a middle to high-end Super-8 camera and sell it today? The camera I would like to see could be silent, but must have the following features: A super sharp lens (should be 8:1 zoom); Pulse synch socket for double sound recording (doesn’t even have to be crystal synch); Manual as well as automatic aperture control; Film speeds of 1,18,24, and 36 fps; Power zoom with a smooth manual override; Plus/Minus exposure correction; Automatic film speed settings capable of 40, 125, 160, 200, and 400 speed film; A nice quiet sound when running, and a fade-in/fade-out button. These are the only features I need, and I would be willing to pay $1,000 – even $1,500 for a high quality camera with warranty from a company that I knew I could get service from for years on end.
        It would seem that if a manufacturer sold to schools, professionals, and amateurs a minimum of 1,000 a year could be sold. At the price I’m suggesting, that’s sales of $1,000,000 - $1,500,000 annually. It’s not going to make a company rich, but one would think there’s a profit to be made here. With interest in Super-8 from new users on the rise, this would seem like the perfect time to introduce such a camera. Now all we need is for somebody to do it.

---  Chris Cottrill
        E-mail:  chris_cottrill@yahoo.com
 

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