Z1 + super 16 together
 

Hi all,

I've just finished shooting my first Super 16mm short (shot at 25fps).

Unfortunately, due to time, budget and stock constraints (£2,000 + 3 days for a 10 minute short!) I had to drop some shots - namely the title sequence. This sequence was going to be nothing more than a series of close ups of someone's hand as they write on a notepad.

I can't get the 16mm kit again, but I can get a Z1 and an SG Pro 35 mm converter. If I shoot in HDV, and deliberately treat the Z1 footage to look grainy / old / almost 8mm, do you thing I could use it for the title sequence and then add it to the Super 16 film?

Exhibition format for festivals is going to be Digibeta (we are editing from digibeta master in FCP and outputting to DBeta).

Any advice on this much appreciated - I know I could shoot super 8 easily, but we have exhausted all the favours we have re: telecine discounts etc, and we really can't shoot any more film unless we get more funding - we're tied into a formal funding scheme with an English film board.

Many thanks,
Marco

***EDIT - I should add that I'm in the UK so would be shooting 50i***

One way to add grain is to shoot with gain. I've just start with a self built adapter and my FX1. I've tested in some pretty low light situation where gain was a necessity, and grain seems to be pronounce at 12db. Might be something you want to experiment with...

Thanks for that
 

Thanks for that - it's something I was aware of though. But you have highlighted that fact that I've left out the key question of my post! What I should have stressed is that I'm concerned whether the Z1 HDV footage will stand up to festival exhibition on a big screen, or whether when compared with the S16mm (even from DigiBETA) it will look c**p.

It won't look crap, but it might look noticable different in quality from the 16mm footage. If it's a discrete sequence (i.e. not intercut with super16 footage) it probably doesn't matter too much.

You might want to consider under-exposing by a stop, and biasing the white balance in the Z1 towards the blue side a little, and then colour correcting in post.

Thanks Dylan
 

That's what I thought Dylan - but limited S16 experience means I need to hear it from other people. So thanks for posting - it's much appreciated.

The Z1 / SGPro combo footage would be for a 25 second title sequence which would fade to black before fading up to the first scene of S16.

Also, I intend to make the title shots deliberatly stylised and somewhat 'degraded' - almost to have an 8mm (but 16:9) look to them.

So hopefully that, plus the fact that the two will never be intercut, will let me get away with it.

Marco

Just finished DPing and editing a short film with exactly the setup you mention - front section plus titles shot on tape, fade out, back up to S16mm telecine.

The giveaway is the digital titling itself.

I used MB Editors (FCP) after I was done to put a "film look" on the entire head portion, which seemed to take a little of the video curse off it.

The Z1u footage looked okay under the titles (there was a fair amount of Motion compositing in there too), but after the titles themselves lost their digitality, the entire thing looked better.