Working with Super 8mm Film in Post-Production
Shooting on 8mm film, also known as Super 8, can be a very creative and stylistic way to tell your story. We were recently given a Super 8 art-house horror feature film called Killer Queen, and tasked with all post-production to complete it. Official selection at the 38th Vancouver film festival. The post production for the movie was done here at Post City Picture and Sound.
Adding Sound to Super 8mm
The sound should match the nature of the visuals. If it's shot on Super 8 then it needs to sound nostalgic and analog, just as it did in the 60's and 70's genre films. In this unique case adding some grain/noise, heavy analog compression, and harmonic distortion was necessary to feel authentic to the genre, to the era, and to keep viewers immersed in the authenticity of the medium. The sound was 100% completely re-done in Post, including ALL Dialog, Sound Effects, Foley, and Music. And it sounds and feels like you're walking into an 70's art-house theatre, sitting down, and listening to an authentic genre film of the era.
Super 8mm Picture Treatment
Working with 8mm gives the timeless graininess to the picture. This could help transport the viewer to a past decade, and especially helpful when the story is set in the past. In this case, the pictures we received needed some special treatment to selectively de-noise the film, see below for before and after edits. Our senior colourist, Christos Evangelou, worked his magic using FilmLight BaseLight to also remove a blue tint that was present over the image. The film was touched up a good amount, however, without removing too much of the Super 8mm film character. Colour work was done by Christos on Baselight and Ilias Adamis on DaVinci Resolve. They used the strengths of both systems to their advantage and the result is very satisfying.
POST CITY Picture & Sound is a full-service film and television post-production company located in the heart of Toronto's Film District with IMAX™, Dolby™, and THX™ certification for Theatrical, Broadcast, and Digital releases. We are the leading boutique facility offering professional post-production services. Contact us for a screening and sound demonstration in our state of the art facility.
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