Surf on Super 8: Air Mats and Body Whomps
The most durable lesson of shooting surf footage during Spat Out in Glory's stay in Nicaragua: It isn't as easy as it looks...
Which is to say two things. One: A 42-year-old body with athletic handicaps takes longer to learn hollow beach breaks than one might think. Two: Film and video are both fickle bitch goddesses who make you pay your dues before they yield perfectly fruited imagery.
Witness the Super 8 footage after the jump. ...
The Camera Monkey burned about a dozen rolls of Ektachrome 64T in our three and a half months in Nicaragua. We'll trickle out the digitized takes of same over the next few weeks. On the black side of the ledger, she showed serious licks in terms of composition and settled into an unlikely affection with the Beaulieu 4008ZM. On the red side of things, we went in without a clue as how to go after whatever effects it was we wanted. In fact, we didn't know what effects we wanted. That said, big ups to the Monkey for getting what we did.
It was a foolhardy heroic proposition, really. Thinking we could capture perfect Super 8 in our first efforts with the Beaulieu. The kind of can-do, damn-the-torpedos attitude that has scuttled movie projects innumerable and separated rubes like us from their money for generations. Knowing one's place in the order of things draws some of the sting.
The two embeds here are Super 8 outings that capture some attempts at stress relief. As frustration with trying to surf Playa Santana built in February, Spat Out in Glory occasionally opted for less demanding modes of wave play. A go-out with a surf mat or a little bit of body whomping in the beach break does wonders to take the edge off.
Surf Mat at Playa Santana
Body Whomping at Playa Santana
Film, Nicaragua, Super 8, Surf craft, Video | tagged Beaulieu, Ektachrome 64T, Nicaragua, Playa Santana, Spat Out in Glory, Super 8, Surf Film, Surfing | Apr 21, 2010 at 7:52 PM 
Reader Comments (10)
Maybe you should try Super 9....
Touche, Jodi. Think Heidi will authorize more equipment expenditures?
I can definitely relate to the "biotch-goddess" thing. Nice footage. One question: did you have the daylight filter in place when this was shot? It may explain the blue-ish hue. Also, may I ask where you had it transferred?
Lealar - On this reel, I didn't have a filter in place. Later in the trip I finally got my hands on a polarizer and I think I note a little improvement. I got it transferred at Yale ... You know anything about their rep for reliability and accuracy? Thanks a ton for any help.
You would need a (number 85) filter to ensure proper color correction for anything filmed during daylight. Your Beaulieu should have this built-in. There should be a switch on the camera body that lets you toggle between a "bulb" and a "sun" icon. The reason being that E-64T is a tungsten-based stock (hence the "T"), meaning that it was intended for use indoors (artificial lighting) when no filter is used. On the other hand you have stocks like Ektachrome 100D that are intended for use in daylight with no filter.
(NOTE: many use an external 85 filter since the ones in these camera can be old and foggy).
Ever notice when you white-balance a videocam indoors, then take it outside with the same WB that everything looks blue until you white balance it again or apply the daylight mode preset? In the same manner that a videocam needs a white balance, film needs a filter for the correct color temperature to be filmed accordingly, otherwise it will look ultra-blue.
A polarizer contains no color correcting properties, it refracts rays in a certain manner to reduce reflection, glare or to bring out the blues more in the sky.
Reversal film such as this can be color-corrected in post, but only to a certain degree. It's much easier with negative stock.
I've heard generally good reviews from Yale. I haven't had much experience with many labs and their telecines since I do them myself at home. It's mostly a hobby, and I don't claim my work to be professional by any degree and surely my equipment does not come close to what the pro's have. But shooting film can be a real lesson in delayed gratification...you need to shoot, send for developing, wait for it to be developed, then wait for the telecine. Cutting down the last stage just lets me get it done quicker, and that's the real reason behind my efforts. So to sum up I don't believe the blue hue had anything to do with the processing, it's just the result of a lack of the use of a daylight filter.
Sorry if I went on and on. Hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Best,
Art
Hey Art ... Wow thanks so much for all the good info. ... I'm pretty sure we had the Beaulieu on the sunlight setting but I'll double check. Maybe the internal filter is faulty, so I could just default to the external.
The filter holder on my Beaulieu was broken, so I had it removed when I sent it in for maintenance.
Hello,
The comments are pretty much correct here - I've been repairing/selling and shooting with Beaulieu's for 7-8 years. The 85 gel on a 4008 is always in place. You need the filter key to insert in the side of the camera to push the 85 out and the clear gel in. These gels can get dirty over time and ruin the picture, despite a clear lens, so an inspection of the gel is in order.
If you happen to have the Schneider 6-70mm offered on the later models, usually the ZM4, but a few zm2's also, then the gel is located on the lens and not in the camera body - so no filter key used.
As for the overexposure issue - I have shot tons of footage at the beach - Malibu, Topanga et all - my experience is that the footage will look overexposed unless you compensate. The amount of light reflected back at the lens by the water, and the overall bright conditions, combine to produce overexposure by 1 to 2 stops. The bracketing of exposures on a test roll is a good idea.
Also abandoning 64T film would be a good idea -this is not great film to begin with, and less so at the beach.
Here is a short test reel of 64T shot at the beach. It's converted to an flv file by photobucket so a little quality is lost. It is from a Beaulieu zm2 with the Schneider 6-66mm. Shot at 24fps - about 25 - 28 shots were taken, reel time was 2.5 minutes and a quick edit to a jazz tune was done that used 1/2 the footage, lasts about 1 minute:
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Kodak now sells Ektachrome 100D from their outlets in Hollywood and New York directly to the customer: 1-800-621-3456
This is a great film. On the beaulieu, set asa to 200 when at the beach, even 400 when shooting at the water, if you're going to leave the camera on auto exposure. This will bring exposure down enough for a solid picture. Also, a ND filter on the lens would be good, because the 100asa speed puts the lens aperture in the f/16-f/22 range - even bumping against a fully closed aperture. An ND 2 filter will bring this down into the f/11 to f/16 range in bright sunlight. (the Schneider 6-70mm only closes down to f/16 due to physical design of the lens - so this lens will bump closed at the beach with this film)
Buy a couple books on camera technique - there is no camera technique here - just read these books over and over as watch your footage: "The grammar of the shot" by Roy Thompson - "The five C's of Cinematography" by Joseph Mascelli. A picture frame is the same whether it's a painting, still shot or moving shot - it needs to be compose in relation of subject to the frame, including motion when there is motion.
If your camera does not operate properly I can check it out and get it fixed for you.
Regards,
Monty
818-442-8752
Here is another address of the test reel:
[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v638/osterhus/?action=view¤t=QTH264Prgfrmhighkey24sm.flv][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v638/osterhus/th_QTH264Prgfrmhighkey24sm.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Monty - That's awesome information. Thanks a ton for the feedback. I'll check all that ... Wow. Thanks.