Small format film magazine

October 26, 2005 3:18 PM

Filmgeeks -- and I know there are many on MeFi -- may wish to check out smallformat, the magazine for Super8, Single8, and 16/9.5/8mm enthusiasts. It's mother is the long-established German magazine of the same name. First issues went out the door only a few days/weeks ago.
posted by five fresh fish (14 comments total)

Disclaimer: I am not a film geek.

But what with the parent magazine having been around forever, there must be something it's doing right. If this English version (translation?) is as good, I suspect you film geeks will want to check it out.

What do you guys do with film anyway? Why not just go with a camcorder? Aren't there film-quality pro-sumer video cameras yet? When you get to the point where people are wanting to host your movie at Cannes and the like, do you pretty much have to be in the film realm? I should think the costs alone would pretty much dictate that if you're on film, you're in the bigger leagues.
posted by five fresh fish at 3:24 PM on October 26, 2005

I know there's at least one filmgeek.
posted by brownpau at 3:38 PM on October 26, 2005

Top 40 Magazine Covers in 40 Years
posted by eddydamascene at 3:39 PM on October 26, 2005

great post, thank you.
posted by Substrata at 4:15 PM on October 26, 2005

Just for starters:
35mm Film is like a 4k x 3k image...upwards of a 12 megapixel image. Imaging good photography running at 24 frames per second.

Film looks much closer to the human eye than video does (it has a different and deeper response curve to light).

But gee, why would you want to use a 35mm SLR, when you have those disposables around.

I like HD, but I <3 film.

Standard def camcorders are about 1 megapixel (720x480 DV NTSC). There are no film quality prosumer cameras. Hi def is close...but not the same

Cannes, others, generally yes. It says you have production values and a desire to make art...not just be cheap....in the bigger leagues. That being said, films like Ep III, Robert Rodrieguez's latest films, and others are all shot on HD. Of course, TV shows are mostly (drama) shot on 16mm film.
posted by filmgeek at 4:16 PM on October 26, 2005

"It's mother ... "

Its mother, fff?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:27 PM on October 26, 2005

P.S. FFF, I might just have to subsribe.
posted by filmgeek at 5:12 PM on October 26, 2005

Sorry, Crash. I hang my head in shame.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:16 PM on October 26, 2005

But gee, why would you want to use a 35mm SLR

Control, , contrast, and sensitivity to light (at least for me); I can go crazy with my digital camera, and I have shot hundreds (if not more than a thousand) images of my 10-week-old children so far -- but I'm soon going to take "nice" pictures to blow up and hang, and for that I'm going to pull out the old Pentax K-1000 and a tripod, and get beautiful pictures from ambient light that no digital camera can ever match.
posted by davejay at 8:04 PM on October 26, 2005

dave, that was my point exactly.
posted by filmgeek at 8:58 PM on October 26, 2005

Somewhere, in a box far away, my Motion Picture Technology degree flutters. Thanks F^3
posted by cavalier at 5:52 AM on October 27, 2005

Y'all are welcome. It was a Pepsi-Bluish FPP, but I risked it because I was confident there were enough keen film geeks to make it an overall valuable link for the MeFi membership.

Hopefully they'll get the couple hundred subscriptions they need to stay afloat, and you guys will get a great magazine out of the deal.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:50 AM on October 27, 2005

I bought the first issue. Thanks again FFF!
posted by filmgeek at 11:24 AM on October 27, 2005

I shot a very short film a couple years ago on Super8 and it was great fun. I shot a lot of 35mm in highschool, and developed it and printed it myself, and it was great fun.

However, I own a digital point-and-shoot and a miniDV cam because, frankly, I can't afford the time or the space to do filmstock and darkroom development for hobby the sixth. There is a practical issue of compromise that makes consumer-level digital photography attractive in the same way that a $600 guitar is attractive to someone who can appreciate the $2000 model.
posted by cortex at 7:01 AM on October 28, 2005