Sinister DP Chris Norr was on a mission – To find the highest quality DI scans for the Super 8 footage in his upcoming feature Sinister, directed by Scott Derrickson and distributed by Summit Entertainment. As part of his research he put up his test footage on every high resolution Super 8mm scanner he could find. In the end Cinelicious combination of technical capability and talent won the job.
Super 8 played a key plot point in the film is when the lead character Ellison Oswalt (played by Ethan Hawke) moves into a new house and discovers some vintage Super 8mm snuff films in the attic. Here’s Chris in his own words from a recent article on the process from ICG magazine “I started researching Super 8 on Sinister, where Ethan Hawke’s character finds this frightening old footage. I was able to shoot Vision 3 stocks, Leica lenses, and get a gorgeous 2K scan at Cinelicious in LA, all for a very reasonable price. It’s cool to be using two format extremes – HD with the ALEXA and Super 8 – in the same movie.”