"Super 8" Brings Mystery and Old School Filmmaking to the Summer Blockbuster
by Stacy Phay
“In the summer of 1979, a group of friends in a small Ohio town witness a catastrophic train crash while making a super 8 movie and soon suspect that it was not an accident. Shortly after, unusual disappearances and inexplicable events begin to take place in town, and the local Deputy tries to uncover the truth - something more terrifying than any of them could have imagined.”
In his latest film, director, producer and writer J.J. Abrams wanted to portray several different themes. First and foremost he wanted to remind kids of all ages that all it takes is an idea, a camera, and a group of friends willing to spend a summer with you, to make a movie. Second to that is the idea that even in a world filled with 24/7 information access, you can create something that contains mystery and suspense even as you see the first images on screen.
“Super 8” marks a first time on screen collaboration between J.J. Abrams, who has created some of television’s most talked about series (“Lost,” “Alias,” “Fringe”) and directed some of the most popular movies of this era (“Star Trek,” “Mission Impossible III”) with the filmmaker behind some of the most popular films of all time, Steven Spielberg (“E.T.,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”). It is surprising that this would be the first on screen collaboration between the two popular filmmakers, due to their history.
Both Abrams and Spielberg began their love for filmmaking as youngsters, and both used an 8mm film camera to shoot the stories they made up in their own minds. Known as a “Super 8,” the old style device shot on actual film that had to be spliced together when editing and crafting the complete story. At 15, Abrams was asked by Spielberg’s then assistant, Kathleen Kennedy (who went on to be a producing partner and his wife), to splice together old home movies Steven had shot on his own super 8 camera.
When J.J. brought his idea of making a movie set around a group of young teenagers filming a super 8 movie, Steven was immediately on board. And his interest was even more sparked when J.J. melded together an earlier idea he had come up with revolving around moving items from the mysterious “Area 51,” a government facility wildly thought to house things that are of alien decent.
“I had an idea about a train transferring contents from Area 51,” Abrams says. “[Super 8] was a premise without characters, and then I had these great characters who needed a premise. So I thought if they came together that could be a compelling movie.”
Spielberg agreed. “When J.J. came back to me and suggested taking the idea of kids making Super 8 movies and blending that with a larger, sci-fi event, where something appears in their film that sets off a mystery and crisis throughout the town, to me that was really intriguing,” he says. “I felt it was going to be both a movie about the 70s movie-making culture and it was also going to be about what all that led to.”
Everyone who came together to work on this film, especially behind the scenes, had been affected in some way by the phenomenon of filmmaking on a small film camera built in 1965. This gave “Super 8” a very authentic feel and kept everyone excited about the project from day one.
As for the cast, many of them were not even around in the 70’s. Abrams and company were intrigued by the idea that a young group of kids would be caught in the middle of this suspenseful phenomenon. Several of the actors who took on these roles had never been on the big screen before. Joel Courtney who plays “Super 8’s” main character Joe had never acted before. While Elle Fanning, who plays Alice, is already a veteran at 12, starring in recent films like “Babel” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Rounding out the young cast are Gabriel Basso who plays Martin, a gullible kid who finds himself the butt of his friend’s jokes, Riley Griffiths who plays Charles, the perfectionist writer/director of the movie the kids are making, Ryan Lee who plays the group’s most mischievous member Cary and Zach Mills who plays confident, know-it-all Preston.
The group became instant friends. And enjoyed their time on set immensely. “The friendships in the movie are very real,” Zach notes. “We were always hanging out on the set and having fun together even when we weren’t filming.” “We’ve become really good friends, almost like family,” Joel explains. “It’s been so amazing to have kids our own age to talk to.” Elle sums up: “As soon as we started rehearsing, we just clicked, and became best friends. We had so much fun together that just being together became another cool part of making the movie.”
Playing the adults in “Super 8” are Kyle Chandler who is most known for his role on TV’s “Friday Night Lights,” as Joe’s father Jackson, the town Deputy. Alice’s father is played by Ron Eldard who starred in “Black Hawk Down,” and the creepy, hard-nosed nemesis type military head is played by Noah Emmerich who has been seen in movies like “Little Children,” and on the popular TV series “The Walking Dead.”
At the center of “Super 8” is the backdrop of a small steel town that is thrown into a frenzy when these mysterious events begin to occur. Abrams and company set about finding the perfect place to film for authenticity and they found it in Weirton, West Virginia. A small steel town just outside of Pennsylvania, the cast and crew found that they could turn the town into a 1970’s era set without too much trouble. The people of Weirton welcomed cast and crew with open arms and even got a chance to be a part of the film.
“Super 8” has been one of the most talked about films of the summer, aside from the fact that it comes from the genius minds of Abrams and Spielberg, their goal of keeping it a mystery has been kept in check. As unique as the film is, their marketing strategy has equaled that distinctness. For the first time ever, Twitter teamed up with the studio behind the film, Paramount Pictures, to hold pre-screenings of “Super 8” across the country. For the past 2 months they have used Twitter to promote the movie without giving away so much as a hint of what the big secret is. Everyone is talking about “Super 8” and we’re not even sure what the big “wow” moment is all about!
For more information about “Super 8” check out these sites:
Check out the trailer here: