From: Mark Toscano (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Dec 09 2008 - 10:59:08 PST
Steve -
Yes indeed, Unconscious London Strata was shot on Super 8 (I think Ektachrome, but haven't confirmed yet), blown up to Ektachrome Commercial 16mm, and only then did Stan edit it. The original raw Super 8 rolls still exist as well.
Stan made a batch of Super 8 films in 1976 which were released in Super 8 versions. These include Absence, Airs, Highs, Desert, Rembrandt etc. and Jane, and a few others. All of these films (except, it seems, Sketches and Gadflies) were eventually blown up to 16mm and issued that way as well.
A number of films were also shot in Super 8, but only released in blown-up 16mm versions, as far as I can tell. This includes films like @, RR, Burial Path, Centre, Purity and After, Sluice, and Thot Faln. Most of these (if not all) were edited in Super 8 before blow up, but sometimes a few additional edits were done once the films were in 16mm.
Also, almost all of the Roman Numerals and Arabics were shot in Super 8. There are only three exceptions - Arabic 2, Romans I and VIII were originally made in 16mm. The 16mm original for Arabic 2 is actually composed largely of color print stock, which had been printed from some unknown positive element. In other words, the image is reverse polarity; for instance, it could have been printed from a positive original through an orange mask, or something similar, like an IP.
And answering to another mention by Freya - I should qualify my comment about Love Making in 8mm vs. Super 8 by saying that it's very possible that Grove Press also made a Super 8 version available, but the internegative for that would probably still be in the Grove Press collection, which lives at Harvard Film Archive. So the eBay print could potentially be a Super 8 print.
Mark T
--- On Tue, 12/9/08, Steve Polta <email suppressed> wrote:
> From: Steve Polta <email suppressed>
> Subject: Re: [FRAMEWORKS] Brakhage in 8mm (was: Film print as collectible (?))
> To: email suppressed
> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 9:04 AM
> Some of Brakhage's other films were shot in Super-8 and
> blown-up/completed in 16mm (i.e. there is no s-8 original),
> for example the little-discussed UNCONSCIOUS LONDON STRATA
> (which, in my opinion, is a neglected masterpiece). I am
> also of the belief that some, if not much, of the material
> comprising the ARABIC NUMERAL SERIES may be small gauge
> originally, but this is purely my personal deduction based
> on the look of the films and not anything anyone has told
> me.
>
> Jim Shedden's Brakhage doc seems to show him shooting
> Super-8 quite a bit, or perhaps I am mistaken.
>
> Of course, I would be quite pleased if Marilyn Brakhage
> and/or Mark Toscano would clarify these points.
>
> Steve Polta
>
>
>
>
> --- On Tue, 12/9/08, Fred Camper <email suppressed>
> wrote:
>
> > From: Fred Camper <email suppressed>
> > Subject: Re: Brakhage in 8mm (was: Film print as
> collectible (?))
> > To: email suppressed
> > Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 7:07 AM
> > The "Songs," originally made and released in
> > standard-8mm, were sold
> > starting in the mid-1960s for as little as $10 or $15
> each.
> > There were
> > also ten super-8 films released in 1976. Neither is
> > available in new 8mm
> > prints anymore, but as 16mm blowups.
> >
> > Brakhage said at the time that his model was a fine
> art
> > book or
> > classical music recording. He did want people to see
> the
> > films at home.
> > And the "Songs" in particular are in general
> > better in 8mm and on small
> > screen than in 16mm, in my view.
> >
> > Fred Camper
> > Chicago
> >
> >
> >
> __________________________________________________________________
> > For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> > <email suppressed>.
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.