Film Photographer Spotlight: Sam Waite’s “The Hidden Gem”
Blog by Paige Kay Davis
16mm BW Film, 7 mins 03 seconds, MOS (scored)
The Film Photography Project (FPP) is thrilled to sit down with Sam Waite, a self-described “newbie” to motion picture film photography who’s short 16mm film “The Hidden Gem” won Best Film and Best Supporting Actor awards at the 13 Stories Film competition in Boise Idaho.
FPP: Sam, thank you for taking the time to chat with us about your award-winning short film, “The Hidden Gem”, and your film photography journey. To kick things off, when did you begin shooting film and what inspires you about film as a medium?
Sam: Shooting on real film is something I’ve been wanting to do for most of my life but has just been barely out of reach for me until recently. In my last year of film school, I realized the university (Boise State) was focusing entirely on digital cinematography and only funded analog film projects on a case-by-case basis. So last September (2022) I bought the first good working 16mm camera I could find and shot my first 100’ roll of 7205 (Kodak 250D Color Negative Film) and have been hooked ever since. I love the fact I can replicate looks from the past authentically as well as the do-it-yourself aspect that gives me the freedom to experiment with a whole new (to me) medium. Even though it’s been around for so long, it seems like there is plenty of untapped potential for 16mm existing in the current decade.
FPP: Is “The Hidden Gem” your first attempt at a narrative feature short? (if not, please share some of your learning process with us – what worked and what didn’t prior to this point)
Sam: I have made several attempts at narrative shorts and the ones that worked out were always the ones that were well pre-visualized beforehand. Getting the screenplay right is crucial, so I try to get as much feedback as I can from my friends and family. Film school was also a pretty big help in learning how to structure a story and accept criticism on my work.
Cast Photo in front of the Idaho State Penitentiary
FPP: Would you tell us a bit about the specific criteria – if any – for participation in the 13 Stories Film Competition? And how that inspired or challenged your vision for “Hidden Gems”?
Sam: The competition involved making a 7-minute short film inspired by a real-life inmate who served time at the historic Idaho State Penitentiary. Being able to shoot 16mm film inside of a decommissioned prison was such a cool opportunity and just added another layer of authenticity to the film. I knew that since we would be the only team shooting on film we sort of had a duty to make something that couldn’t be done digitally, and I was excited to take on the challenge.
FPP: We’d love to know a bit about your choice of tools – which 16mm camera did you shoot with, and which film stock did you select? Knowing what you do now, would you make the same choices?
Sam: I filmed using the Canon Scoopic 16, the same 16mm camera I acquired a year ago from eBay. Since its purchase, it has been serviced by Du-All Camera in Westfield, NJ, and now functions perfectly with the built-in light meter. For “The Hidden Gem,” I used two different 16mm stocks and an 8mm stock for the film titles. We utilized FPP Sonic 25 BW film for outdoor shots and Eastman Double-X BW film for indoor scenes, with a blue lens filter to mimic the orthochromatic aesthetic of Sonic 25. Although I didn’t feel confident enough to use Sonic 25 indoors due to our limited time in the prison, in retrospect, it would have been interesting to try. We ran the scoopic at 16 fps which saved us a lot on film compared to a 24 fps project, and allowed our 8 reels of 16mm film to give us over 30 minutes of footage to work with which ended up being more than enough for a 7 minute short.
FPP: We’re also very interested in your pre-production and production process, often the most detailed plans can require serious pivots on the day of shooting. Did you and your team need to adapt to any conditions that weren’t anticipated? And if so, how did that affect the final film?
Sam: We actually never expected this film to actually see the light of day and fully anticipated a complete and catastrophic failure, but that was sort of what made it so exciting. We had some pressure plate and jamming problems that popped up in the first days of shooting, wasting 2 reels of our Sonic 25 film and forcing us into a complete reshoot. Our 2nd attempt was a breeze since we had already spent so much time during the first attempt on rehearsals and we still had some extra rolls of film in case of an emergency. Thankfully having the ability to develop film at home in my Lomo tank gave us the ability to figure out exactly what the problem was quickly enough that it didn’t really affect the quality of the final film at all and may have even made it better.
Sam Waite filming on his Canon Scoopic camera during the first day of shooting
FPP: There are so many aesthetic choices I’d like to highlight, but let’s start with two: Your font selection for the title cards, and the visual FX. Would you elaborate on these choices and the process you used to integrate them into your short?
Sam: The title cards were actually rushed a bit and one of the very last things we shot along with the flashback sequence which was done on an 8mm magazine camera, the Bell & Howell Zoomatic, I purchased at a thrift store in Boise. The font is inspired by a similar font used in a Buster Keaton film titled “One Week” and was projected onto a screen and then filmed with my Zoomatic with some magazines with double-x 8mm film I spooled using Mike at Filmboy24’s method of re-spooling magazine film he shows on his YouTube channel. I developed the film in my Lomo tank, dried, slit, and scanned the film on a Digitnow HD scanner within just a few hours. The VFX was all done in Adobe Premiere and utilized exclusively film footage that was either scanned by myself or at The Negative Space in Littleton CO.
FPP: Sam, thanks very much for taking the time to share your creative process, tools and tips with the FPP and the analog film community! Before you go, please take a moment to let us know how and where we can stay up to date on your creative efforts.
Sam: Thanks for spending time to get to know a newbie’s perspective, you guys make it super easy to get into film and I really appreciate your dedication to keeping this stuff alive so there can still be newcomers to this. I have a YouTube channel “Film Film Films” and a website, FilmFilmFilms.com where I will be posting more short films and informative stuff on my personal film experiences.
About Paige Kay Davis – An interest in early-to-mid 20th century genre cinema sparked Paige’s career as a producer and executive in the home entertainment industry spearheading acquisitions, marketing and licensing of independent genre films domestically and world-wide. A frequent behind-the-scenes contributor to the Film Photography Project, Paige is Director of Film Media, the motion picture film restoration and preservation company in Fair Lawn, NJ.