Schlagwort: super 8

Stein! Berg! Kirche!

So at some point, when I was looking at the village sign where my parents live, I thought: “Stein! Berg! Kirche! … Stone! Mountain! Church! … Rock! Paper! Scissors!” …
and a new film idea was born.

3 women playing it, simply having fun. Mountain beats stone, stone beats Jesus (Church) and Jesus divides the mountain.

They played it, I filmed it. Super 8 of course, black and white. It’s been developed and right now waiting to be digitized, then edited. I recorded voices and laughter.

Let’s see what I can tinker!

Thank you, Mama and Antje and Birgit (and my brother who is holding the subtitles!!)

Ode An Juni 2023

Now I start editing my 11th Ode an Juni / Ode to June film!

“In diesem Monat werde ich sehr viel unterwegs sein, Workshops und Filmfestival und Bokel, wo der geheimnisvolle Zirkuswagen steht und seinen Zauber voll entfaltet und wo ich eigentlich hauptsächlich die coolen netten Hühnchen abfilme!
I will be on the road a lot this month … a workshop, a film festival and Bokel, the Bokel, place of the mysterious gypsy caravan which is unfolding its magic … the place of funny and friendly free running chicken!
Und wo es das schönste Freibad von ganz Norddeutschland gibt! They have the most beautiful public pool of North Germany there!”

Shot completely on super 8 (what else …) … it will be about 20 minutes long. Here is some info about all my June films.

So Sachen / Such Things

This is a report about how things can go awfully wrong and in the end can become something beautiful and just … magically matching somehow.
Maybe it will be a bit too chemical and diving deep in photographical layers … but it will be funny too, promised!

I spent a week at my friend’s spot on the countryside and we had some very cool film and story ideas. Yes, sometimes I am not totally self-centered … with the right person there can be a swinging mood in the air vibes!!

We took a black&white TriX film (fresh from Kodak), filmed our ideas and then decided to develop it reversal. Meaning: positive. It is much more complicated than developing it negative. Which I do all the time using coffee and my breakfast remains and such things.

Reversal developing needs a very strong bleach to get rid of the first developed black silver. Then there’s a second exposure to light (the first exposure happened when the film was, well, exposed in the camera!) to activate the sleeping silver salt molecules which will then turn black when they get in contact with the second developer. Phew!
We used FOMA chemicals. FOMA is a czech factory that produces lovely stuff like foto paper, films and chemicals.

First developer, bleach bath, clear bath, and then: the moment when you shiver and open the tank lid and see: YES! Pictures! (a film that has just come out of a bleach bath looks milky-white with clear images). The rest of the procedure can be done in daylight.

So we rinsed it and then poured the second developer over the 15 meters of well-bleached film … and then Yell and Shriek: the emulsion began to fall off! To peel off! To run away in flakes!!! The images that we just saw just slipped away under our fingers! Out with you, developer! Some seconds in fix, no rinsing, just carefully hanging the long spaghetto to dry … and then scanned it the next day.

Now what happened here? I know that this bleach made from permanganate and sulfuric acid gives a lot of stress to the emulsion … softens it and makes it very sensitive and vulnerable – better not touch or rub too much! So was it the harsh and strong second developer that crushed it? Is the Czech soup too strong for a TriX?

Next day brings freshness in mind and mood. Somehow the two-third destroyed film appeared miraculous to us … and to the film story. We thought about defocussing, about stuff that happens in the corners of your eyes, of your consciousness, about second sight … and the film and the story melt, kiss and prosper!

This is just a little glimpse into it, I think the real film will be a longer one than usual and it will take a while. I am happy.

Watch a little Trailer on Youtube!!

Yksi Kaksi Kolme

Sometimes films just fall from heaven. I was ready, trees were sugared, friend was happy to help with camera, the dung heap – all odor and vapor. I count to three, yksi kaksi kolme in Finnish, so beautiful words, resembling to nothing else!
And the film came.
Double, triple exposed, two Dagies, three Dagies and my ever questioning how the hell does the universe ticktocktackle??

Here’s the film (German)

Here’s the film (English)

Lametta

Spontaneous filmmaking. Me and my lover, a super 8 camera, a TriX film, very bad German winter weather, a village, no people around, just one dog called „Bine“ (Biene = Bee) … some pun about merde and la merde and lametta … a tripod, no wind, good mood, a field full of fallen winter apples that I collected and used later for developing this very film.

And I must say: when I go out filming I make the experience that almost never there’s anybody feeling offended – could be because super 8 cameras look very much like toy cameras, could be because I smile, could be because I don’t come around with an army of a crew … I don’t know … well anyway that lovely old lady just popped out of her cozy house, smiled at the scenery and popped in again. Loved her.

Here’s the film >> X

Eastman Ektachrome Commercial Film SO-425

This post is dedicated to Peaceman / Friedemann and his film experiment blog called Filmkorn!
He bought a heavy load of very expired (1971!!!) old colour double super 8 film rolls and gave me some to play and experiment with.
This film is rare, has about 6 ISO and was used as a copy film.
He did several tests with E6 and some replacements of the not too well working first developer, used Dokumol and Diafine and got very very different results!

He inspired me to continue his tests using eco friendly first developer!
And what came out is just fantastic.

E6′ first developer is weak and boring, Caffenol is best, Rodinal is lovely, black tea, if too strong, distroys the colour layers beautifully and Vodka makes you think you are hallucinating!!!!!

(from left to right: E6, tea, Rodinal, Caffenol)
(The vodka film stripe comes later, not yet scanned)

Wabisabi In Berlin Part 1!

Yeeha, the first Berlin-workshop is over (the second is in July and full).
7 people, 2 intense days full of filmish vibes, lucky developers, great ideas, infecting mood! It’s every time (this was only my 5th workshop so far) fascinating how people that have never met before can become very quickly like brothers and sisters in a boat! Thank you for being part of the wabisabi event, guys and chicas!!

This is Nadine hanging in a tree, Cécile despiralizing the freshly developed film from the spiral and Florian hanging 15 m of still wet film through the dark room while we were watching some films on the beamer.

Film on!

The Dresden Feeling

Wabisabi #4!

I held my fourth film workshop – at the Schmalfilmtage Dresden, one of the best short film festivals on earth (8 and 16 mm)! All about the power and beauty and techniques and tricks of Double Super 8 and black&white negative processing. The 8-members-gang was cool and enthusiastic, produced meters and meters of (partly double exposed) great film! Go to www.wabisabisuper8.com and find out more … soon …

This is Marie and Karin writing names in the deep frozen snow:

[and thank you thank you thank you dear festival jury for the prize for my film, yippieh!!! May nightlight shine lovely on you ;-]

Oh yes and by the way: I spent 3 nights in my favourite Hotel called Raskolnikoff which I can definitely recommend if you’re ever looking for a lovely spot to stay. In Dresden-Neustadt, not expensive at all, kitchen for free use, only 3 or 4 rooms, beautiful pictures hanging in them.
I felt well protected by the insect man!!


Cambridge Super 8 Wabisabi Workshop 1

I’m in a hurry and in a blurry wonderful experimental mood!
This one turns out to be one of the best warmest film festivals in the world …
…. and here come some first photos of my Wabi-Sabi workshop (yesterday and today) – so intense and so fun and successful (in terms of films that we processed today: 10! Ekta 64T with Tetenal Reversal Kit E6! God! Beee-yooooou-ti-fullll!!!)

Here’s Julie performing the ultimate Russian Tank Spiral Ballet:

This is our group film hanging in Colins workshop space:

This is the Wabi-Sabi group sunken in Cambridge’s Green:

… and this is Jean, holding the magical tank direction heaven 🙂

……. to be continued ……

Processing Happiness

I’ve been processing Super 8 films myself forever … I like it, diving into chemicals, the excitement of opening the developer tank after fix and watering and checking: pictures on it or not?! This evening I processed a black and white TriX using the Foma (Czech) reversal kit. But I processed it negative which means only the first developer and then fix. Yeah! Great! One cassette contains 15 m (50 ft) of film and they are now hanging zigzagwise through my room, drying nicely! Happiness is a warm film!

Workshop Last Day

Mission possible. More Super 8 makers & lovers!
Thanks Tsveta, Hans, Nick, Mathijs, Mariska, Britt, Judith, Matt, you were great!
To be continued …

This is Mathijs dumping an underwater camera and attracting ducks!!!!! Which was by the way a totally hard job because they somehow were afraid of the camera and instinctively felt it … We had to throw a lot of bread pieces (btw nederlandse supermarket bread is incredibly soft and sandwichfriendly but that is another story) and when the seagulls communicated that the area was safe then the ducks came … slooooowly ….
Filming needs patience but it’s always worth it.

This is Mariska and Britt checking a freshly processed color Ekta film!!

Rotterdam Worm Workshop Day 3

Wow, that was an intense day 😉
Filming paperships, swans from underwater, burning tea-saucers, sofa patterns, bridges, workers, seagulls. And it was also a darkroom day, spiraling film into Russian tanks, diving in chemicals, the magic moment when a film sees for the first time the projector light: blurring night lights (the magic B!!), snow traces, backwards walking sign-seekers, living trousers, subway lights, scary lamps … and more.
To be continued!

Rotterdam Workshop Day 1

Yesterday it started to storm really heavily and today it was all fresh and cold and we had an amazing light outside, very melodramatic. Perfect for the first day of Wabi-Sabi-Filming!

My students are cool, the place is great, the weather plays with us, the first black+white processing made the first group film a masterpiece! More to follow. Tomorrow we will have some outdoor experiments, challenge coincidence to take us on a trip through Rotterdam. I’ll be back!!!

East and West Legacy

It’s a win-win situation! Once there was a guy called Manfred, a photographer, who has filmed half of his life with 16 mm and super 8 and then stopped it. Put his stuff away in the attic … and yeeeears later discovered me on the internet. He wanted to get rid of his stuff and he gave it all to me, knowing that it would be received with open arms 😉 – one good NIZO camera and a lot of Kodachrome 40 film cassettes (Kodak stopped processing this type of film last year. It’s impossible to self-process it. There’s only one lab in the world as far as I know that offers processing for a good price, it’s Dwayne’s in Kansas, USA!).
I’m very thankful, it’s a precious gift.

It reminds me of another legacy story: As everybody knows the GDR was over in ’89. ORWO was the Eastern photo and Super 8 brand. I always loved it. Before the wall came down I sometimes went over the border (how easy for me as a Westerner!) and bought ORWO photographic paper and super 8 films. Smuggled it over. No real danger actually, it was not really legal to export it, but some films in the bag if they checked you … was ok, no bad experiences.

There was one lab in (East) Berlin-Adlershof that, after the GDR merged silently into Westgermany, still continued to develop ORWO films for 2 more years. Until 1992. I remember, I often went there with the S-Bahn (interurban train) and brought them my films and got them back some days later. I went there during the closing period and when I went there for the last time they were all packing, throwing old folders on trash heaps, emptying their offices. All in silence, it was so calm and sad, I felt the winds of history, honestly!! I went into a room, sneaking around, met a man in a white working coat who looked really sorrowfull and we had some conversation and in the end he gave me an ORWO book of chemical recipes! I told him that I’m a self-processor and that I’m in love with film making and especially with the ORWO grainy warm-colored quality and I felt he was a tiny little happy when he gave me the book, knowing that it would fall in loving arms 😉

Thanks guys! 

Super 8 Workshop Day 2

Whow!
Today was Animation Day!
(sorry for the out of focus picture above … my cellphone camera got too hot I guess 😉 /// we transformed the filmcenter into an animation center: 2 tables covered with moving things like fruit, lighting ducks, burning candles, bread, words written on paper … my students did a crazy good job animating, bringing objects to life! I’m proud of them.