Reel Film is a service dedicated to the capturing and documenting of your most important occasions on Super 8mm film.

Reel Film was conceived in 2007 by photographer Josh Hetherington upon his introduction and conversion to Super 8 when he stumbled across and purchased a second-hand Super 8 camera at a flea market whilst on holiday in Sydney with his wife, Cara.

By combining his experience in still (mostly film-based) photography, photographing weddings professionally, a musical background, film-editing experience and an irrepressible love of and passion for retro, analogue-based technology, he set about developing and honing his skills. For the next two years Josh immersed himself in home movie making – documenting and editing family birthdays, holidays and celebrations, along with a series of weddings and events on Super 8 film, which he had transferred frame-by-frame to a digital format and then cut, via a software editing platform into silent films synced to sympathetic and transforming musical soundtracks.

The results were delightful and compelling – the essence of their beauty lying ultimately in the unequalled emotional resonance of Super 8 and the innate and incomparable aesthetic, romantic, nostalgic and vital qualities of the Super 8mm film format itself.

Reel Film offers the opportunity to capture your own wedding, special occasion or event on this magical format – on film! Super 8 is alive and well, and more flexible and malleable than ever now, thanks in particular to the possibilities the digital age has imbued this essentially obsolete technology with.

Reel Film offers a simple, straightforward and highly enjoyable service along with a final product which is unique, timeless and priceless in terms of the results the incomparable Super 8mm film format in conjunction with Josh’s beautiful and tasteful films deliver in their final, edited form – beautifully presented to you on DVD.

In addition the Reel Film service provides the final raw film footage for your archive. Celluloid is renowned not only for its unique aesthetic qualities and emotional resonance but also for its archival qualities – and your original silent film footage, well stored, will remain in excellent condition for generations – offering a wonderful original record of the occasion exactly as you might have experienced your grandparents wedding on 8mm or even 16mm film. Indeed witnessing your own original silent film footage – the moving photograph rolling before you as a physical record of the occasion – through a (readily available Trade me-sourced) projector is an unequalled and magical experience in itself, and well worth the effort!

The price of the Reel Film service is dependent on the extent of the raw footage shot – and that factor’s direct influence on the post-production editing time (which is exponentially influenced by the extent of the footage). Each Super 8 cartridge contains 50 feet of film which translates to around 3 minutes 20 seconds of raw footage at the Super 8-standard frame rate of 18 frames per second (or 2 minutes 30 seconds at 24 frames per second). Three reels of film therefore provide about 10 minutes of raw footage, which translate to a final edited film of around seven and a half to nine minutes. Five cartridges (around 16 and a half minutes of raw footage) translate to a final edited film of around 12 to 14 minutes.

Therefore the cost is directly related to the amount of footage agreed upon (though I will always carry more than enough film with me on a shoot, of course). With this in mind the price begins at $1,800 (+ production costs) (+ GST) for two reels (or around seven minutes of raw footage) – and the final product includes five copies of the final edited film on a beautifully presented DVD, along with the original, uncut reel of Super 8 film footage for your archive.

Film production costs are dependent on the relationship of the NZ dollar to the Australian dollar (as most film is sourced from Australia, and all film processing and digital transferring is done in Australia). Film stock, processing and transfer costs come to around AUD $110 per 3:20 cartridge.

Additional production costs are dependent on transport requirements, etc., with regard to the location of your wedding or event.

Please get in touch with any questions you might have with regard to Reel Film, the service, price, production, logistics, and so on, and I will be happy to provide you with a specifically tailored quote dependent on your requirements. I would also love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments regarding the Reel Film service, the Super 8 format, the possibilities it offers, or any other enquiries you might have.