Our interview this month is with Chris Cottrill, the editor and founder of the successful publication Super 8 Today. The slick pub is enjoyed by Super 8 fans from all over the world. In recent issues, we noticed Letters to the Editor from Texas, California, Germany, North Carolina, Canada, New York, Georgia, England and Australia. Readers appreciate “the nuts-to-bolts information on film types”, “stuff they couldn’t find anywhere else”, and “much enthusiasm for Super 8 film again”. Enjoy what Chris has to say about Super 8 today and tomorrow.

A couple of years ago you created Super 8 Today – The Magazine for Professional and Amateur Super-8 Filmmakers. What was your inspiration for starting the publication?
Super 8 Today was started a little over a year ago. It was created due to two observations I made. One was that there seemed to be a renewed interest in Super 8 film. I noticed more professionals using the film format than ever. In fact, Super 8 had evolved from an amateur format to a professional format. Along with this came more film stocks available than ever before, and more and better options to telecine the film to a digital format. There was just so much happening all of a sudden it seemed like a chance to bring back a magazine to keep up with all the developments.

Chris Cottrill

The second observation I made was that of the many video or digital filmmaking magazines out there, some with very large circulations, I could find virtually nothing that told a filmmaker how to make a film with all that high priced video gear being advertised and reviewed. Basic filmmaking techniques that can apply to any format were missing from these publications. They were all about spending more money replacing last year's equipment with this year's versions. So there seemed to be a need for a real filmmaking (as opposed to equipment buying or reviewing) magazine, and with the renewed interest in Super 8, along with my own long time interest, the filmmaking magazine turned into a magazine about Super 8 filmmaking.

For those who have not seen an issue, please tell us what they would find inside.
Basic filmmaking tips and helpful advice are inside each issue, plus interviews with people that have made award winning films in Super 8, or videos that have incorporated Super 8 quite a bit into the finished product. Also you will find comparison test of different film stocks, telecine methods, news about who is using Super 8 and what the suppliers are working on - even marketing tips for independent filmmakers, and classified ads. Each issue is a little different, but there is usually quite a variety of articles in each touching on a lot of areas. I try to keep the two original concepts in mind with each issue: print a magazine that Super 8 users will enjoy, and incorporate filmmaking knowledge that would be useful to any low budget filmmaker regardless of the format he or she is using.

Starting a new business can offer many challenges. What have been some of your hurdles with Super 8 Today? Were there any big surprises along the way?
One of the advantages I have is owning a small printing company, so I don't have the added expenses and time delays of outsourcing the printing. So there have been no surprises as far as that end of the business goes, because anybody in the printing business knows printing is nothing but surprises, and you learn to deal with all of the possibilities that encompasses. The main hurdle is getting the word out to potential subscribers. For the time being, the magazine is subscription--based only, and therefore not sold on newsstands, as I have no distributor deal set-up with a regular magazine reseller. This may change in the future, but for now, subscriptions and single issues can only be purchased from the Super 8 Today web site (www.super8today.com).

One of the main surprises is that there is never a lack of content, and good content, to fill each issue. It's not just that the Super 8 community is busy right now, but there are many people using Super 8 in part or completely, for their commercial projects and they all say the same thing, "They love Super 8." Thus, there are so many passionate people out there that have valuable information to share and write about. It seems that many of these filmmakers are proudest of the part of their work, be it documentaries, music videos, even features released to DVD etc, that incorporate Super 8 film into the mix. That makes for good stories.

How do you market yourself and Super 8 Today – Internet, MySpace, direct mail, etc?
Most of my effort is put into making the best magazine I can, and therefore the marketing of the magazine sometimes gets short-sighted. I have put some ads on the internet, used google ad words, and put small ads in Big Reel, Movie Maker, and In-Synch print publications. I sell some copies through eBay, and that's how some people learn about it. A lot of marketing becomes grassroots oriented, however. I try to keep my web site up to date showcasing the latest issue, and many other web sites have mentioned the magazine or have offered a link to mine. This internet "word of mouth" is probably the main consistent marketing tool out there for me.

Super 8 Today cover

You’ve had the opportunity to meet many filmmakers and learn about their projects. Can you tell us some of your favorite stories?
I interviewed Margaret Blair of Happy Day Video & Super 8. She is a wedding videographer in California who started incorporating Super 8 into her videos to help differentiate herself from the other wedding videographers out there. And it worked! The brides and grooms love the stuff she makes, which are weddings that have a cinematic look. I saw a sample reel of her work and was awestruck, some of the images were so beautiful. Now other wedding videographers are starting to do the same thing, so the idea is catching on.

But there really have been so many fascinating stories and fascinating people. Rick Palidwor, who along with Mitch Perkins, made an entire feature called Sleep Always with Super 8. Rick was interviewed and I did a review of the film as well, which is a pretty decent film by the way. In another issue, an article was written about John Porter, a man who has made over 300 Super 8 films. That is a fascinating story by itself, but the way which many of his films are presented to an audience is even more fascinating, and something that would be very hard to do, if not impossible, with digital or video. Wolfgang Hastert wrote an article about a video he made for a European TV Channel which included hand-processed black & white Super 8 film. I found that to be enthralling. And the latest issue has an interview I did with Al Nigrin, who is the executive director of the Rutgers University Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center. One of the things he does is to help run the Super 8 Film and Digital Video Festival, which is now in its 19th year, and probably the biggest festival of its kind in the U.S. They normally get about 150 or more entries, and half of them are from filmmakers shooting with Super 8. I could go on, but I guess you get the idea there's a lot of people and filmmakers out there that have left an impression on me.

Tell us about yourself. When did you get involved in filmmaking? Did you have any formal training in filmmaking?
I started taking some filmmaking classes in college back in the early 80s, but ended up with a business degree due to the fact that I also liked business and thought it more marketable in the job market. I have always had a love of filmmaking -- it's a way to please the creative side of myself, although all of my endeavors would have to be considered amateur efforts much in the same way someone paints for relaxation and pleasure in their off-working hours. I can only speak for myself, but I have found that working with Super 8 instead of video makes for better training in the skills of filmmaking, and I find it more enjoyable too.

What advice would you give to others about launching a new business or a new filmmaking publication?
I'm not sure what advice I can give as far as putting out a publication, because I already had the printing equipment in place to make this happen, which also keeps the cost down obviously. One thing I have tried to do, and I think would be good advice for any publication, though, is the desire for constant improvement. My goal is to try to make each issue even better than the last, and I ask myself how I can do that every time I start to work on the next Super 8 Today.

Where do you see Super 8 Today going in the future?
I would like to see it in selected bookstores, next to other independent filmmaking publications, so more people are aware that we exist. And I would like the magazine to keep spreading the word that not only does Super 8 exists, but it has a bright future. It's distinctive, unique, and just plain fun, and that seems to me what independent and low budget filmmaking should be.