[Frameworks] Super-8 Shooting Ratio

[Bill Basquin]

Sarah,

You can get close to a 1:1 shooting ratio if you plan in advance what shots you want to get and plan what time of day you want to shoot each location; location scouting will be helpful to you in this regard. 

Since a 1:1 ratio means that you will use almost everything that you shoot, it also means that you only get to shoot each thing once, and you have to get it right that one time. It also means that you don't shoot it unless you are pretty sure it will be useful, so it means you need a lot of information about the purpose that your shots will fulfill within the larger film. 

If you are asking this question because you are negotiating the budget for your part of the project, then I would recommend budgeting for at least a 2:1 shooting ratio, as this will give you some room to collect shots that have aesthetic value and might just be the right thing, and may not be what ether you or the director would have imagined using in that situation.
That said, a 2:1 ratio is still very tight, and you will still only get to do about one take of each shot, but you will get to collect a wider range of material.

Will the film be finished on 16mm film, or on some other medium? Because, if you are finishing on 16mm, then you also have to budget the film for optically printing the super-8 to 16mm, and because of the conversion ratio between them, you will add about a third to the total footage count once the super-8 material is converted to 16. I can go into more detail about this if you would like me to.

Sincerely,
  Bill Basquin
<billbasquin at earthlink.net>

-----Original Message-----
>From: Sarah Reynolds <reynolds.sarah.a at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jan 30, 2011 1:19 PM
>To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>Subject: [Frameworks] Super-8 Shooting Ratio
>
>I'm shooting B-roll footage on Super 8 for a 25 minute documentary.
>
>Can anyone recommend a suitable shooting ratio for this scenario?
>
>
>
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Bill Basquin
San Francisco, CA
415.317.7611
www.BillBasquin.com
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