Nick Christian MacDonald "Man on the Moon" - Super 8 + 16mm

Last year I was given an old Russian 16mm camera called the Krasnogorsk-3 (or K-3 if you don’t want to say that mouthful) from Steve Cossman of the Brooklyn cinema arts non-profit, Mono No Aware. And what better way to test a new camera than to create a music video with your folk-singing neighbor?

My neighbor and friend, Nick Christian MacDonald, is an Americana-Folk musician with a hint of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. Check out his music on Spotify and catch him this Saturday at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg! He’s a great dude and I figured it’d be fun to create some art together. So our wives did some quick concepting and ended up tossing Nick in a custom suit I got during my honeymoon in Vietnam which fit him like it was his and we shot in a little set inside my apartment and around our neighborhood in Brooklyn. The images are from a previous photoshoot with Nick.

The actual music video is a mixture of 16mm FomaPan 100R and some expired Kodak Tri-X Super 8 film I got from an old NYC photographer that I shot in my Canon 814XL-S. Steve of Mono No Aware helped me hand-process both rolls at the Gowanus Community Darkroom in Brooklyn and they came out great. Lots of texture and grain but I love that. It’s film!

So I mentioned that earlier last year, my wife and I did a photoshoot with Nick around our neighborhood on Polaroids and 35mm film. The cameras I used were my Polaroid 110B with modded CB-70 back, a Canon AE-1P and a Nikon S2. Nick’s a good lookin dude so it was easy enough to catch his good side.

Also I recently released a music video I shot with the K-3 and Pekky Savan so check that one out as well! Definitely going to be creating more music videos in the future!

Leaving you with some of my favorite stills from the raw scans from the 16mm and Super 8 rolls.

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Crew

Music: Nick Christian MacDonald

Cinematographer: Nick Collingwood

Design/Direction: Halla Creative & Tyler MacDonald

Processing: Mono No Aware

2K Scans: Gamma Ray Digital

Pekky Savan "Today" // Super 8 + Polaroids

My first full length music video is out today! Shot completely on Super 8 out on Coney Island, NY, this music video was for Pekky Savan, a singer songwriter from Brooklyn.

She is a long time friend of mine and wanted to collaborate with my wife/art director, Stephanie Haller, and I to create a music video for her single "Today" on her upcoming EP release.

Stephanie concepted the video and created a custom jacket for Pekky and I also shot some Polaroids throughout the process on my SLR 680 with some expired Impossible Project film. It was a great project to work on and I'm definitely looking forward to shooting more music videos on film.

Also figured I could add a few BTS shots from the shoot Stephanie took on my DSLR.

Exploring Chicago // Super 8 + Polaroids + 35mm

Last August, I had the opportunity to film a wedding outside of Chicago (check it out here!) and always eager to travel, my wife and I decided to make a weekend trip out of it. I grabbed some very expired and grainy black and white Super 8 film I got from someone I met at the Jazz Age Lawn Party and of course, had my Polaroid Spectra with me as well as my newly purchased Olympus XA 35mm camera (loaded with Fuji Pro 400H and Ilford XP2). You can see the Super 8 and plenty of Polaroids/35mm below!

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Having not been to Chicago since I was on a school field trip back in high school, I was excited to check it out. I do love living in NYC quite a bit but am always curious how other major cities stack up. My visit to LA a couple years ago didn't thrill me to be honest so the idea of a more metropolitan style city that is more chill than NYC is intriguing.

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We stayed in the Ukrainian Village above a quite lively bar but we loved it. A cool space and cool neighborhood. Chicago is DEFINITELY less dense than NYC and it was very apparent. Not bad, just took some getting used to. Less people. Less buildings. Still a big city.

 Also got to see a breathtaking MURAKAMI exhibit which was a highlight. Such intricate work and he's done so many incredible collaborations.

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Also went up north of Chicago to explore the Baha’i temple which is the main one in the North America I believe. A truly gorgeous temple and the grounds were very serene as well.

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Overall, good times in Chicago and loving how this extremely grainy, expired Tri-X turned out.

P.S. Had a couple of funny film experiences in Chicago:

First, was walking through Wicker Park area and saw this pickup truck slow down and just yell “YO NICK…….. I FOLLOW YOUR SHIT!! ….SUPER 8!!” and then sped off. To say the least, I was dumbfounded at the interaction. Amazing that someone recognized me walking down the street and shouted to me. The world is a weird place sometimes. I did later find out WHO it was via instagram and met them at the BFC Film Meetup a month later. Crazy!

Also we splurged a bit and bought tickets to see Hamilton since NYC tickets are 3x the price and sold out for close to a decade. Well during the intermission, a guy walks up to me and says “Hey. You didn’t happen to be out in the Ukrainian Village earlier were you?” To which I replied, a bit stunned,“Yes probably” and he said “Ya I saw you shooting with that Super 8 camera and thought to myself ‘Wow! I haven’t seen that in ages!’” We both had a little chat about how he used to shoot film before intermission concluded. Love how film can bring people young and old together.

As another small film thing, got to check out Central Camera Co. which has been around for over a century! So rad!

NYC Film Meetup with Brooklyn Film Camera // Super 8 + Polaroids

With film having a somewhat of a resurgence these past few years, it's no surprise that a bit of a community has formed online to share images, films, and banter. Also shops promoting film like Brooklyn Film Camera and Lomography have been doing their part as well.

Kyle Depew of Brooklyn Film Camera @upsidewalkdown

Julien Piscioneri of Brooklyn Film Camera @julsdylan

Frank Dautant of Lomography NYC @frankdtnt

Christian Polt of Lomography NYC @poltone

Last fall in NYC, the two shops organized a picnic for any film and analog lovers to get together and hang out in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Probably 100+ people showed up and about three times as many cameras! It was a great time and I shot a variety of Polaroids that day as well as a roll of expired Plus-X Super 8 film to remember the event with.

@gramdole

@catherinemcwilliams

@dudemanhouse

@stuzphotography

As far as the variety of cameras, there were Polaroid Land cameras with peelapart film, Polaroid SX-70s, Hasselblads, Contax 645, a Mamiya 7, a WIDELUX, plenty of Lomography cameras, a Hasselblad tintype camera by Kevin Scott, a few odd 35mm cameras, and of course, my Polaroid 110B and my Nizo 801 Macro Super 8 camera. In the 110B I shot with expired Polaroid 669 peelapart film which is really lovely as well as some Impossible Project B&W 600 film. 

Geoffrey Berliner of Penumbra Foundation @geoffreyberliner

Curtis Willcocks of ICP @curtiswillcocks

Phil V of @polaroidsofpeople

Cory Marr @therealcorymarr

It was really cool seeing the different cameras and chatting with everyone about film. Dave Bias of Film Ferrania (which is doing their best to recreate color reversal Super 8 film) hosted a small raffle for bags of film goodies from a ton of different film companies like Film Ferrania, BFC, Lomography, Polaroid Originals, Mike Padua, and tons of other little patches and what not. And of course no gathering of film photographers is complete without a group Polaroid from Nick McManus.

Enjoy the Super 8 film from the event below and looking forward to more film meetups in 2018!

Szewai & Chris Wedding // Super 8 + Polaroids

This summer I had the chance to head back to the Midwest to film a Chicago wedding and I could not have been more excited. Not to mention a Chicago wedding on a farm! So I packed my bags and cameras and headed out to capture Szewai and Chris' wedding on Super 8 and Polaroids!

Szewai is a dance instructor in Chicago and wanted to uniquely capture her wedding day as well as their special first dance they planned for the day. I got to the picturesque, Elawa Farms and had a blast getting to know them and their awesome friends throughout the day. The location itself was amazing with a large main brick farmhouse overlooking their fields where the wedding would be held. For their first look, we found a cute little trail in some flowery fields and knew it'd be a perfect spot for a quiet moment before strolling around the grounds to the numerous vine covered walls and pathways for more time together before the ceremony. Check out their full highlight film below and more Polaroids and Super 8 below that!

Szewai & Chris - Highlight

During the ceremony, a couple of Szewai's close friends played as the family and friends poured in. The ceremony was really sweet and the skies held out just long enough for it to finish before giving everyone a slight sprinkle. Not phased by it at all, things transitioned indoors for a cocktail hour with bubbling "Game of Thrones" inspired drinks and the wedding party literally danced their way into the dinner. It was really awesome!

And of course once the reception started getting going, so many good dancers in one place makes for a killer dance floor, accompanied by a live band "Gussied" who were killing it. Chris and Szewai then had their big moment for their first dance and they absolutely nailed it. A unique request from Szewai was to capture the entire dance in its entirety on Super 8. A thrilling experience to shoot a whole roll in one pull of the trigger but I think the final result is a really lovely memory of their dance. Catch Szewai saying "100 per-cent" at the very end! Ha!

Szewai & Chris - First Dance

After the night wound down, a sparkler exit sent the two off after a spectacular day! You can also see their little teaser film I edited to their friends playing during the ceremony. All in all a wonderful wedding for a wonderful couple. So happy to have been there to shoot it all on film.

Szewai & Chris - Teaser