Super 8 in 2020
by Taylor Hendricks
In August 2019 I had the opportunity to drive from Los Angeles to Monterey California for Monterey car week, a large gathering of historic race cars of all eras participating in racing and driving on regular roads. I was excited to put my 1977 Minolta XL-440 Super 8 camera to the task of shooting high speed vintage metal, and loaded it up with Kodak 7203 50d film.
I instantly fell in love with the format as I felt it offered a new avenue of conveyance that I hadn’t explored yet. I ended up making a 23-minute short film, scanned at 2k resolution, and knew that I wanted to take it to the next level with high production value despite super 8 being a rather small and “amateur format.”
I am currently working on a short that focuses on women in motorsports, deciding to shoot again on super 8, with a more capable Minolta XL-84 camera that will allow me to execute my vision, and will be scanned at an unprecedented 6.5k resolution.
With the current constraints of COVID-19, we are seeing the rise of online film festivals, helping to encourage artists of all scopes in these dire times to get good feedback and focus on refining your craft, preparing for a brighter future.
Super 8 and 16mm are becoming more prevalent in Hollywood productions, music videos, and a plethora of independent projects, indicating that super 8 has a definite place in the future of film photography.
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