workshops
we run straight 8 workshops of various shapes and sizes for a variety of organisations and sometimes without one
we held a very analogue filmmaking workshop at the prestigious d&ad festival, in london, 24-26 april 2018
morning 1 was led by straight 8 founder, ed sayers, and will cummock of straight 8 and cinereportage, the group created a film together using just one super 8 cartridge, with only in-camera editing. no advance ideas, equipment or experience were necessary, just total up-for-it-ness. using jeff zorilla's 2016 cannes straight 8 film tortillas for inspiration, the group made a risky and experimental film using rewinding techniques to double expose the film, and shoot in-camera split screen...
meanwhile, john mahtani of cinelab london, personally took the film to be processed at the lab...
morning 2 was led by ed critchley and gary downing from leland originals. the group created their film's soundtrack - even though they hadn't seen the film. musical ability was optional, joining in was compulsory and no computers were used as the 3.5 minute soundtrack was finally recorded as one single take - with no edits, mixing, overdubbs and other fiddly fiddling shenanigans...
on day 3, we saw and heard the film, 'split personality', for the first time, at its global premiere, with the d&ad festival audience, as part of ed sayers' talk... 'straight 8: happy accidents in filmmaking and embracing them'. even we had not seen the film so no-one knew whether it had come out or not - and it had.... very well! so congratulations to the group and the team for making it work!
the premiere - shortly before we all found out the film worked
we had a blast and so did everyone who made the film. the premiere was as raucous and nerve-wracking as any straight 8 premiere
this was the first straight 8 workshop for a long time and we'll be doing more of them
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now, watch 'split personality' below - and remember when you do: straight 8 is one of the hardest ways on earth to make a film... it's about accepting imperfection, embracing accidents (happy and less so), being creatively playful and open, and losing that crippling fear of judgement. you find that when you do all that, it's amazing what can happen...
