The Kansas City Chiefs have released a Super 8 video documenting the NFL team’s championship-winning season recorded on the classic home movie film format which was popular in the 1970s and 1980s.
Filmed over the course of the 2023 NFL season, senior producer for the Kansas City Chiefs Danny Luksa and his team taped Patrick Mahomes and co as the Chiefs claimed yet another Super Bowl title. The video also captures behind-the-scene team bonding moments and loyal fans reveling in the action.
“I love the Super 8 format — it’s very nostalgic,” Luska tells PetaPixel. “The history of the Chiefs has a ton of depth, and with right now being the most important era in team history we felt that the Super 8 look would make people long for something that isn’t gone yet.”
We captured our timeless season in the most timeless way possible… on film 📽️ pic.twitter.com/YSbx7ehwIn
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) June 6, 2024
The team purchased a Braun Nizo Professional to run the 8mm film through but had a steep learning curve as most of the camera crew had only ever shot digitally before.
“Our first camera got water damaged (we think) and stopped working, so one gameday we had to perform open-heart surgery on the camera to get it through the game. We ended up purchasing a second camera from the same refurbisher,” Luksa explains.
“We got good at planning out which film stocks we wanted for each game: Kodak 50D for day games and 500T for night games. Everything about the camera, from the viewfinder to the light meter to the focus mechanism, is very different from the digital cinema cameras we typically use.”
Each film cartridge only yields two minutes and 30 seconds of record time meaning Luksa and crew had to start learning fast.
“The players love it. They’re used to our bigger cameras, but the first day we brought the Super 8 out to practice, tons had questions about it,” he says.
“It’s loud for a camera its size so it definitely gathered a lot of attention. Most enjoyed seeing something that reminded them of something their grandparents might have.”
Luksa says the editing process was not too cumbersome except for having to add the Nat sound which was built in post and features a voiceover from philosopher and spiritualist Baba Ram Dass.
“We received 5.7K digital scans from processing and manually sub-clipped each one. 13 received scans turned into 1,521 individual clips once the cutting/logging process was finished,” he explains.
“Afterward, we are left with digital clips that are essentially the same as what we’d get from a digital camera. The worst part was waiting for the processing! After mailing the cartridges, there was a 2-3 week wait for processing.”
The video is embedded within the article or it can be watched on X.
Image credits: Courtesy of Kansas City Chiefs.
