straight 8: Straight Shooter

straight 8 founder Ed Sayers looks back at the conception of the cheeky ‘cheap ‘n’ easy’ filmmaking event that’s just turned 12 years old and taken Cannes by storm

The blink of an eye and ‘straight 8’ is a teenager. It started in 1999. I had this idea to make a short film on one cartridge of super 8, editing in camera with only single takes. It would be cheap, and easy! I’d just put the developed reel on my projector, cue the soundtrack and see my film. All done. I didn’t have an idea for the story yet but no worries.

Then I thought this would be a lot more fun and more likely to happen if a bunch of people did it together. I named it straight 8 and invited people to enter: directors, producers, runners, DP’s, editors, graphic designers, DJ’s, writers and actors. We’d each have a roll of Kodachrome, a month and £0.00. And no creative constraints. Then we’d screen them all together – unseen – upstairs at a local pub. Cue the manager of a 200-seater West End cinema offering up the venue and asking to join in. So, on May 28 1999, a hot Friday night, we packed the cinema and saw 22 premieres. The party ended sometime on Saturday.

Exciting things have happened since. Nine years screening the best entries at Cannes Film Festival, five years at Cannes Lions, Slamdance, Sheffield Doc Fest and other festivals/screenings all over – including New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Mexico and Brighton. We’ve created workshops for D&AD, and for school kids aged 7-9. We run an intense one-day workshop: script, shoot, hand-develop, project the films – all in eight hours. Also Channel 4 commissioned us to produce a one-hour documentary about straight 8 and recently we screened straight 8’s after the C4 news, four evenings in a row. One million viewers saw the films.

The winners are all of the eight to 12 films we show at Cannes Film. We screen as many others as possible at various cinemas and great events including the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival.

This year’s Cannes selection was mind-blowing. Once again the entries were original and surprising and to such a high standard. There were single shot masterpieces, amazing stop-frame animations, an epic kids’ film from Barcelona (helped by some film crew parents) and another stonker by straight 8 full-timer Will Cummock and his pals George Ancock and Nick Rutter.

The screening at Cannes Film is sublime. People shout and cheer at a single edit, or at a well-timed piece of action or sound. Shakespeare was originally performed in front of a baying crowd of peasants who would shout at the actors and throw stuff. I’m deeply proud that straight 8 at Cannes is pretty much the same.

Massive thanks go to all our supporters including Rushes, Kodak, Deluxe and more. And of course to all the brave and clever straight 8ers past, present and future.

Plans and ambitions include more workshops and global screenings, a digital alternative to the super 8 competition in the form of an app. And even feature films, too. Yes: 25 cartridges, 80 minutes, 1:1 ratio.

We say: if you have a film in you, we want to see it. straight 8 2012 is open now. If you’d like to partner up to bring straight 8 to your home town, please contact ed@straight8.net.