So after finding a Super 8 viewer on Ebay I began consolidating my old Super 8 films into 400 foot reels in order to digitize them. I’ve been very apprehensive about putting myself into my documentary about my dad, but a big part of the story about my dad is me. Our relationship and his experiences together. I’m the only one who really knows things about my dad, so I need to put myself in it no matter how much I really don’t want to do it. I’m better off camera, then in front of the camera, so I need to show what I was doing in my formative years of development & that includes my love and desire for filmmaking, and show how my father’s relationship with me changed. How we became less antagonistic to each other & how we finally found common ground, and how his shadow still permeates my own existence now.
To say the least I’ll be digitizing a lot of film, video, and scanning many of my mom’s photo’s. It’s going to be an archival palapalooza. I have 8mm, Super 8, 16mm film, & Hi 8 video to digitize. I can do the Hi 8 myself. Still have the camera, and it works, and I may just digitize it through a old firewire card I installed into my computer awhile ago. I may also try and get some 1/4 inch audio tape if I can find a place that does it & it’s not too cost prohibitive. I’d really like to hear my dad, and I think it would give people a bit of a better idea of the man. The photo below is the result of my editing my Super 8 footage. The splicer is from Fuji, and I’ve had it a really long while. It’s helped and works like a dream. Even had extra splicing tape. My uncle got this for me a long time ago, and I used to cut all my old back-yard epics with it. They were always stronger splices then the regular ones, and they cut a straight line on the frame. You could make great edits that way and you never see it. Sometimes with the other edits they cut in a pattern and they were never too precise, so you could see the splice as it went through the projector. That’s why I feel in love with this splicer. When it was time for me to splice 16mm I feel in love with the 16mm guillotine splicer. It reminded me of the Fuji splicer in a way. Still have one. and I’m sure I’ll be using it more for this project. I have to say it feels good to unpack the old skills. When you edited film you felt the texture of the film. Saw the images on the film, and there was a skill to doing it. I learned a lot about editing that way. What worked and what didn’t. You had to see it in your head first before cutting. No multiple cuts. You had to know, and I have always believed that it makes you a stronger filmmaker knowing this. Many hours sitting at a editing work station playing through the viewer sometimes tearing up bad edits and fixing them. It was fun and you learned a lot. It was also a bit of a solidary existence. Like my dad working on his electronics. Soldering components on a board and knowing what they all do when put together. Right there there is a pattern between me and my dad. So just by doing this I’m feeling a bit closer to my dad and how the apple does not fall far from the tree I guess.
I also have an idea on filming my uncle and talking to him about my dad and his sister my mom. But I need to do that soon, since he’s older and time is of the essence. So I have a lot to do and I still don’t know how to begin the film. I’m hoping that the elements that I get back from my digitizing will possibly give me a clue how to begin the film, and how to shape it. I was told by Albert Maysles at a seminar that he always didn’t know how to to start a film until the elements presented themselves. What I found interesting was that he didn’t dictate the form. The elements presented themselves, and he molded the footage and elements into the film. Like a sculptor finding a sculpture in a piece of marble. Maysles hated narration too, and yet I don’t know how I’m not going to do the film without using narration. We’ll just have to see, and see how the film evolves. That’s what I find exciting and why I’m doing this. Maybe I’ll figure something out or learn something new that I didn’t now or think of about myself and or my dad. I like the blank canvas. The possibilities are endless, and all you have to do is start painting, so sorry for not writing sooner. Till next time….
KGB PRODUCTIONS 