May
15, 2012 For Immediate Release from Pro8mm, Burbank, CA
It’s “Showtime” for a Low
Budget “Rock-umentry” Made About a High Profile Musician!
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| Kurt Markus with his Super 8 Camera |
The true spirit of independent filmmaking makes
history this week with the premier of “It’s About You” on Showtime! Featuring legendary singer/songwriter John Mellencamp,
“It’s About You,” is a 90-minute documentary shot entirely on Super 8 Film by
award winning Montana based photographer Kurt Markus and his son Ian. The
filmmakers followed Mellencamp for six-weeks in the summer of
2009 where he was performing in small outdoor stadiums across
America along with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. During the tour,
Mellencamp recorded his new album, “No Better Than This,”
which included a session at legendary Sun Studios in Memphis.
With a premier at
SXSW (South by South West Film Festival) in Austin in March 2011 (which
Mellencamp attended) the film continued to screen at all of John’s live
concert’s at venues around the country and in Europe. It brilliantly served as
his opening act. This alone makes the film unique in that thousands of
Mellencamps' die-hard fans screened it live prior to its theatrical or
television debut. Often minimized as having “low production value” the Super 8 film
stocks held up amazingly well being digitally projected on the big screens in
the concert venues, and added to the nostalgic culture of seeing Mellencamp on
the screen performing old and new favorites prior to his taking the stage.
The
world premier theatrical release was in January of this year in New York and
Los Angeles. But the real story
here is that the film was not made by armies of people. It was made by a father
and son with a creative vision to go solo. They filled their dream to go it
alone. While the films reviews were mixed, the
technical merits and accomplishments of what this film says about independent
filmmaking are cinematic feats. To make an Indy documentary worthy of a coveted
spot of Showtime is reason alone to applaud Kurt and Ian Markus.
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| Kurt Markus Shoot John Mellencamp on Super 8 at Sun Studios |
The filmmakers
interfaced with one particular man at one particular company for their entire
workflow. Philip Vigeant, owner of Pro8mm in Burbank, California has been
pushing the Super 8 film format to it’s maximum potential for over 30 years. In
preproduction meetings with Kurt Markus, they discussed what challenges would
most likely arise and how they could be overcome. Kurt would often say, “we’re
attached at the hip”, noting that the film could not have been made without the
coaching and masterminding with Vigeant.
The film was shot entirely on 450 rolls of Pro8mm color negative (Kodak Vision 3 stocks) They had two Beaulieu 6008 Super 8 cameras that were
modified for MAX 8 (a 16 x 9 widescreen aspect ratio) and Crystal Sync. The
film was shot with just one camera at a time, with a second on hand for back
up. Pro8mm processed all the film
in house at our Burbank lab, and scanned it in native 1080 HD to Pro Res 422 on
a Millennium II HD state of the art scanner with full scene-to-scene color
correction. Vigeant, who was also
the colorist on the project worked closely with Kurt Markus to overcome some
the technical challenges faced on doing a project of this nature – shooting on
the road over a 6 week period with no crew.
.
In the scanning
suite colorist Phil Vigeant performed a number of creative special effects.
These included scanning photos that Kurt Markus shot of Mellencamp that were
re-photographed on Super 8 film. This allowed the ability to add movement and
interest. This technique permitted the film to stay true to the “shot entirely
on Super 8” mantra. Some of the digital film back up shot by Ian Markus in the
recording studio was also re-photographed on Super 8 film, which punctuated
cinematic interest.
The choice of
modern Super 8 film was perfect to achieve the “vintage look” that the
filmmaker was going for, but with all the latitude that Kodak Vision 3 stocks
offer. The grain structure held up amazingly well on the big screen, and the
filmmakers were able to achieve their creative vision.
It’s About You is
scheduled to play on SHOWTIME at these times, and “On Demand” It will also be
available on DVD through Amazon.
Thu, May 17 7:30 PM SHOWTIME
Fri, May 18 10:00 PM SHO
2
Sat, May 19 8:30 PM SHOWTIME
SHOWCASE
Sun, May 20 12:00 PM SHOWTIME
Tue, May 22 5:55 PM SHOWTIME
SHOWCASE
Wed, May 23 5:35 PM SHO
2
Fri, May 25 5:00 PM SHOWTIME
Sat, May 26 10:55 AM SHO
2
Tue, May 29 5:30 PM SHOWTIME
Wed, May 30 4:45 AM SHOWTIME
Wed, May 30 5:00 PM SHOWTIME
SHOWCASE
Thu, May 31 6:30 PM SHO
2
Sun, Jun 03 4:30 AM SHOWTIME
Thu, Jun 07 4:00 AM SHOWTIME
Kurt
Markus’ photography has appeared in such leading publications as Vanity Fair,
Rolling Stone, GQ and The New York Times Magazine, and he has shot cutting-edge
ad campaigns for BMW, Armani, Nike and other companies. His unique vision has
been brought to bear on It's About You, which was shot on
Super 8 and whose vintage Americana look is the cinematic equivalent of a
well-worn pair of jeans.
RT: 80
Minutes
Rated:
NR
Guest Phil Vigeant is the
business partner and husband of host Rhonda Vigeant. Phil shared how his company, Pro8mm of
Burbank, CA evolved,
and the Super 8 film format being used by consumers to shoot home movies or a
format widely used by students in film school, to one that provided solutions
for the professional use of Super 8 film as a production format widely used in
Hollywood. The company was originally
called Super8 Sound. Founded in Cambridge,
MA by Bob Doyle in 1973, Phil talks about the companies early professional jobs,
including the famous commercial shot for Nike using the Beatles song “Revolution” in the early 80’s, to Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” Music Video in 1988, and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas as You” in 1994.
In June 2012, Pro8mm, the super 8 experts for production and legacy footage, released the 
