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Super 8mm Sound
Needless to say, all currently produced film stocks are silent. Silent
cameras can only use silent film but sound super 8 cameras can use both silent and sound
film. Don't pass over the sound camera, just don't pay extra for it! Sound film is still
around but for my purposes I avoid it.
What do I do? I create my own synch-sound using my home stereo, CD's, and tapes. The
simple approach is to time music to your movies. I like to use orchestra CD's without
words for this purpose. I simply record different music at appropriate intervals in rough
timing with my scene changes. It is relatively quite easy. You can always cue the tape to
the exact spot using a counter and mark the white leader of the film at some precise spot
on the projector with a black felt and then hit both start buttons at the same time. It
sounds hard but really is very simple in practice. Be sure to use the same projector at
all times and make note of its speed setting.
Advancements on sound technique would be to use a four-track so that you can create
dissolves between tracks (narration over music, birds over water, etc.). This will also
allow you to record live sounds (or use a CD sampler) with a separate tape recorder and
overdub this into the music soundtrack. Tape recorders can be of any kind...think of using
a Walkman-size recorder to get live sounds while filming. I bought a clunky avocado-green
Sanyo tape recorder for $4 at a junk store. Hey, it works! Just put it into a ziplock bag,
tape the seal for the microphone wire to get out and you're set for the bad weather.
News flash: I passed over a B&H Filmosound tape recorder in the goodwill store for $5.
(Good deals still exist.) It was in fine shape but my Sanyo will work for my purposes. The
B&H recorder is designed to recieve a pulse-sync signal on one track and record audio
on the other track. Since I have no intention of using this recorder during playback of my
movies (it can also sync with the projector), I passed it over. Instead, I prefer to
record "wild" tracks and manually sync them via a four-track and have the
playback through my home stereo.
Also, I just picked up a Marantz professional tape recorder for $2 dollars at a yard sale.
The lady had no clue what she was selling. Not only does it play at two different speeds,
there is also a +- 15 percent variable speed dial. Okay, so the manual recording level
doesn't seem to work, but it does work fine on auto mode! It is very similar in nature to
the Nagra style recorders except that this one takes regular cassette tapes! I plan to use
it to playback previously recorded paddling splashes at the same rate as the film is
playing...thanks to the variance dial I can do that! Keep searching everyone!
Something to try: Since S8 film is projected at a constant rate, I am experimenting with
matching a movie to go in exact time with a popular surfing song. How? Simple: Using my CD
player I timed each significant sound change in the song (key or pitch or chord or
instrument, whatever you like) and noted the time on a piece of paper. For my song, there
were 7 major (repeating) changes and I noted them like this: A B C D E D G - A B C D E D G
F - A B C D E D G with a corresponding length of time per change (not all "A"s
were eqaul in length!). Now all I have to do is cut my movie to the exact timing of the
song. Easy! At 18 frames per second, the math is no problem. The only restricting thing is
to limit my shots to the allowed time per scene. Of course, I will be continuing scenes
through the movie as in the pattern above. For this particular song of 2 minutes 11
seconds, I only need (131 Seconds x 3 inches/sec) 393 inches of film (32.75 feet) which is
(131 sec x 18 frames per sec) 2,358 frames!!! All I am pointing out is that S8 can be an
amazingly simple format to synchronize sound. Now just practice hitting two buttons at the
same time and you're all set. Or, use a photostart device to help things along. By
the way,, you get 3600 frames per roll of Super 8mm film (18fps * 3 1/3 minutes).
As you may have guessed, adding sound to your silent footage can be as
technical as you want it to be. Look for the newer super 8 cameras that have a PC
flash sync (X synchronization) connector allowing you to use super 8 in a dual system
setup, as described above.
For myself (as described), I stick to separate sound recordings (for the
time being) and overdub them. This gives me an advantage since I gain in footage by
running at 18fps instead of the usual 24fps required for single system sound cameras/film.
You can also avoid requiring a sound projector using the dual system approach - synched or
unsynched.
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