straight 8 Gets App and at Them

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After a 'fallow year' in 2013 straight 8 is back with a digital bang this year. Ed Sayers, the founder of the in-camera-editing short film competition which utilises Super 8mm film has just launched an app and has announced that 2014 will be the first digital straight 8 competition.

Below Sayers discusses the thinking behind the move to digital, what it means for the traditional competition and what people can expect from the new-look straight 8.

Why did you want to create an app for straight 8?

Everything seems to have an app now but that's not why. The straight 8 app is the chance to offer an alternative way to enforce the straight 8 ethos of filmmaking: digitally, as opposed to having super 8 cartridges flying around the world, which is still cool too.

straight 8 has been going for 14 years now; why did this seems like the right time to create an app?

Well, it's seemed like the right time for a long time but it took a while to get it together.

straight 8 has always embraced traditional filmmaking, is the app looking to create another avenue for Straight 8?

I’d say straight 8 has always embraced 'going for it' filmmaking. In our non-linear age, straight 8 has always meant not going back. No Apple+Z. Super 8 is gorgeous: it's film and it has a certain look and feel you just love. We can hear it travelling through the camera and spending our money.

But for straight 8 it was always more than Super 8 film aesthetics and economics - it was the tool to enforce our rules of no re-takes, no edit, no post. It resulted in the thrill that while you're pulling the trigger and exposing film, you're also finalising your edit - and damn near projecting it.  

The app offers a similar thrill with some new twists and lets straight 8 connect with a wider range of established and wannabe filmmakers worldwide by offering them a different and more immediate entry point.  I really hope that the app straight 8ers and the Super 8 straight 8ers will also cross-over.

Will there be a separate digital competition to the traditional Super 8 one?

Watch this space. To get things moving we're kicking off an app only competition with the London short film festival right now, and that will be an interesting start. Then I'd like to see future straight 8 premieres being double bills: celluloid and digital, so we can see them live together in harmony.

What was the toughest part of building the app?

Initially, it was finding the right partners. Then it struck me to do the most obvious thing and ask the straight 8 Facebook and Twitter communities. That immediately led me to re-connect with Paul Beard who'd made a couple of great straight 8's in the early days. He told me that he and his film school pal, Joe Morsman, another past straight 8er, have an app company, Widebeam Digital.

They'd made apps for Aardman and Hattrick and others, and most importantly are filmmakers and totally 'got' straight 8, having both been through it. So we set about it.  Then it got difficult again. 

Through further discussion we totally changed the original approach. It was important to embrace some of the qualities offered by the iPhone - synch sound for example, and reviewing a take - so we embraced some of these things and then had a hard time deciding what to leave out.  There's quite a lot of functionality in the app, but equally you can just pick it up and shoot.

The traditional straight 8 competition took a break last year; will it be back in 2014?

Very much so. The Super 8 competition took a fallow year. This felt like the natural thing to do after celebrating 10 years straight at the Cannes film festival, and to allow focus on the app.

The plan is to put the Super 8 contest back on for 2014, maybe with some changes.  I wasn't clear enough about the fallow year last year and left it a bit open in case it was re-mounted. I got a kicking for that from some people online which taught me that the passion is strong.  It's scary and it's awesome. 

Are there any more straight 8 announcements we should look out for?

Well I'd like to say, the first straight 8 feature film, but all these things take so much longer than you think!  We shall see...

Are there any features in the app that people may not expect?

Yes, I think so. For a start, there are NO Super 8 looks (for the moment) - well we couldn't do that really - that'd be sacrilege. Instead there are lovely sets of filters created by Simone Grattarola from Rushes - you can apply them only shot-by-shot and you can't change them later - just like using a filter on a film camera. 

There are a whole bunch of optional camera controls such as focus, exposure and white balance locks, and then a remote firing ability using another iPhone.  There's synch sound which is optional shot-by-shot, plus an in-built music library from all sorts of musicians and composers including some of the guys behind UNKLE and quite a few artists from Domino, and we will be growing that.

The straight 8 app can be downloaded for free and works on iPhone 4s/5/5c/5s and iPod Touch fifth gen.

Details on the current, and first ever, straight 8 app competition with London short film festival can be found here and the competition is open to all.