video -> super 8
May 14, 2007 4:04 PM   Subscribe

 
Well, the link delivers what it promises
posted by mrnutty at 4:13 PM on May 14, 2007


Hand cutting projector sprockets with a box cutter! Incredible.
posted by JBennett at 4:16 PM on May 14, 2007


Hand cutting projector sprockets with a box cutter! Incredible.

Incedible, or... just this side of insane!

This person's dedication to a pursuit which has thus far resulted in, well, the little clips he's posted to his site... uh... Maybe that's just the other side of insane? Still, I should say that I do like the idea, and I do like low-res images. So, hey, what the hell! Go, Jesse! It can only get better, right?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:35 PM on May 14, 2007


Maybe then I could be a filmmaker
Celluloid is more fun than paper
You never see the screen's corners curl

posted by Eideteker at 4:39 PM on May 14, 2007


Neat. Reminds me of that guy who would take 1 still from each shot in a famous film sequence (for instance, Psycho's Shower Scene) and shoot it with a camera and then make a large photo of all the single shots side by side.

Anyone have a link?
posted by dobbs at 4:52 PM on May 14, 2007


Usually these art-housey, look-at-how-I-co-opted-technology-to-create-something -of-questionable-artistic-value projects leave me cold, but this one was surprisingly interesting. Kind of like someone spent a weekend running frames of an animated .gif through Rasterbator... *goes to buy extra ink and a case of paper*
posted by Benjy at 4:53 PM on May 14, 2007


Anyone have a link?

Got ya covered.

posted by davelog at 5:00 PM on May 14, 2007


Ok, who took away the image tags?

Link
posted by davelog at 5:02 PM on May 14, 2007


Hey, wasn't this guy in Lethem's _Fortress of Solitude_?
posted by Justinian at 5:08 PM on May 14, 2007


Jesse is a friend
Yeah, I know he's been a good friend of mine
But lately something's changed,
It ain't hard to define:
Jesse's got himself some film
And a bloody lot of time
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:18 PM on May 14, 2007


You've got to have a shitload of time on your hands when you're listening for hidden messages in old Steve Winwood songs.
posted by puke & cry at 5:20 PM on May 14, 2007


There's no information about this following clip on the guy's site, but last week, when I first read about the project in this thread, I went to Jesse's Vimeo page and found what I believe to be the most amazing thing I have ever seen on the internet. I don't know if jesse made it or what but I watch it at least once a day.

Damn straight! It's right up there with Zep's "little tool shed"...
posted by Tube at 5:36 PM on May 14, 2007


Man. I think that's really awesome. I made a silent film on super8 a couple years back and loved ever minute of the goddam by-hand editing.

My wife thinks this is an incredibly stupid way to do it, though, and I can't really argue with that.

But it's awesome.
posted by cortex at 6:20 PM on May 14, 2007


stealing this idea.
posted by shmegegge at 6:31 PM on May 14, 2007


this would make a great medium for a Boards of Canada video.
posted by joeblough at 7:50 PM on May 14, 2007


You've got to have a shitload of time on your hands when you're listening for hidden messages in old to Steve Winwood songs.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:39 PM on May 14, 2007


Did this guy think it actually would work well? All you need is some technical knowledge about your printer and the media to figure out this will probably look like crap.

The printer can only put down so many dots per inch, and the media can only resolve a certain number of dots per inch. Most higher quality printers will max out around 600 dpi, and only the higher quality papers will take that resolution (not to mention that many printing programs can't handle 600 dpi to start with). Cheap plastic transparency sheets meant for overheads will NOT capture the highest resolution of a printer - that's not a hard concept.

Now, here is where you save countless hours messing about - before you begin this experiment, consider that a single frame of film captures enough resolution to be blown up to 8x10s or larger with high quality resolution - a resolution usually greater than a printer can output. Now you want to reverse that process and ask that same printer to squeeze an amount of resolution greater than it can print on an 8x10 into something the size of a negative?

It isn't going to happen. If you want that kind of resolution you have to switch to digital or find a way to put that high of resolution onto plastic - it's what you call "film".
posted by Muddler at 9:28 PM on May 14, 2007


I do believe the point is not print resolution, but rather to explore the difference between video and film and various ways to exploit the all-too-common prejudices on both sides of the video debate.
posted by shmegegge at 11:01 PM on May 14, 2007


I hear those pinhole cameras that are all the rage have pretty crappy resolution, too. I guess that's why Walgreen's doesn't sell them.

Really, this was fantastic, and I can't wait until somebody exploits it, and then it will become old hat and we all can go back to hating it. Fair enough, Muddler?

neustile: that really flipped my flapjacks.
posted by dhartung at 1:08 AM on May 15, 2007


But what kind of camera was used to to take the digital video of the projected super 8 film printed from the Photoshop compiled Premier "filmstrips" generated from the original video?
posted by DanielDManiel at 2:05 AM on May 15, 2007


Neat post. In a similar vein, Virgil Widrich (wikipedia) does amazing work with photocopied film:

My favorite:
Copy Shop (realplayer)

His award-winner:
Fast Film Review (realplayer)
posted by churl at 3:13 AM on May 15, 2007


It's not about the resolution or quality of the image so much as an effort to rescue a discontinued and "obsolete" technology with current hardware. That act in itself is fascinating. It reminds me a bit of the vinyl video project.

Tangentially, the aesthetic is in keeping with the whole Lomo/Holga phenomenon. Convenient, crisp and high definition images create a desire for the grain, distortion and grittiness of older formats.

Anyway, it's neat!
posted by aladfar at 8:32 AM on May 15, 2007


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