Last JNR Steamship

[Kiha66]

Shortly before the last steam powered Seikan rail ferry was retired, a JNR employee used his access to take 8mm film and sound recordings of the last H class ship. Launched in 1948 the ship was sunk during a typhoon in 1954, raised, rebuilt, and was operated as the last steam ferry until 31 March 1970.  I love the combination of sound and insider footage, such a unique and beautiful ship.

 

 

[cteno4]

Excellent! Love the ambience of the film. Looks like she had a hard life. Love the anchor drag exit. Perfect for getting out of that corner slot.

 

i got to do a few exhibit videos using this type of pro/am film from the 30-60s, quite fun. It’s iteresting as the POV feels very different from modern cell phone video. 

 

Cheers

 

jeff

[kvp]

6 hours ago, cteno4 said:

It’s iteresting as the POV feels very different from modern cell phone video. 

The only difference is see is the different field of view for the lens and the use of zoom, including progressing zoom shots. A good Sony cell phone could pretty much do the same, including having a wide enough lens, continous zoom accessible with physical buttons and the ability to record in 4:3.

[cteno4]

By POV I mean what is photographed, how the camera is held, time on subjects, frsming, etc. of course folks could do the same with cell phones, it’s just a very different feeling. I’ve done stuff with newer and older footage and there seems to be a change about the 60s in the over all POV of the shooter. Not sure of the cause but may be change to watching most media on small tv screens around those times. 

 

Ive had discussions with video editors I’ve worked with in this and they have noticed it as well. One actually had taken some more modern home movies and run them thru a b/w and an 8mm filter (distorts colors and adds flicker and spots to mimic an old 8mm home movie) and they did not come out really feeling older so it’s not jut the color or Sam film funkiness that’s giving the feeling.

 

its one of those very subjective things that is hard to put your finger on directly.

 

one museum exhibit I worked on we had 4 home movie set ups from decades of 30, 40, 50, and 60s. Content all about the same, actually 60s one probably had more iconic stuff in it, but everyone always gravitated to the older videos mostly. Might have just been more exotic being the same place and things just more different, but we were going for people stuff more than place and things in content selection and we were trunk to just depict people in the different decades in as similar a way as possible.

 

jeff