Why does Super 8 film look so bad?

I can't figure out why Super 8 film looks so bad! You can look at You Tube and see samples--either test footage of home movies shot on Super 8.

In theory, Super 8 should have a much high resolution than anything shot on video. And, looking at it on You Tube, you're not looking at it on a big screen. And, in any case, there has been footage shot on 8mm film that's been shown on movie theater screens that looked pretty good. Look at some of the 8mm footage in the movie JFK. In a lot of movies, for footage that was supposed to have been filmed with a video camera, they will use footage shot with a Super 8 camera.

So how come these movies on You Tube look so bad?

I guess it doesn't matter. I should just be glad we have digital video.

Lenny Lipton

Lipton wrote the book years ago, Independent Filmmaking which gave a lot of information and advice to underground filmmakers. For example, you could get cheap film by buying 16mm print stock. This was the film the labs used to make prints. It was cheaper than camera stock because the labs did their own color correction and they didn't have to be as careful when they produced it.

Lipton later put out a book on Super 8 which argued that it should be used to television production---he said that it looked almost as good on TV as 16mm. He also argued that, with brighter projector lamps, Super 8 could be projected on the big screen in movie theaters.

That's all over with in any case. Now that you can buy a high definition camcorder a hundred fifty bucks.

But Lipton was also arguing for a new approach to filmmaking. Super 8 film was so cheap, you didn't need careful planning. You could shoot footage freely and scrap what you didn't need. Guy Maddin has been doing that, shooting movies with several cameras running at once. It's only Super 8 but it still must be costing him a fortune. I noticed in one of his movies, one of the child actors got screen credit as a camera operator.

So what are the bold new cinematic theories for high definition video? I know there are some.