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Shoot once, edit never: the raw magic of straight 8
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What if your next film had to be made in one take — no do-overs, no cutting room, and no fixing it in post? That’s the dare behind straight 8, the Super 8mm filmmaking challenge that invites creatives to strip everything back and trust their instincts. With its industry Shootout now open for business, will you take the challenge?
Modern filmmakers have it easy. You've got infinite takes and seamless edits, post-production polish and crisp audio. But have you ever fancied getting back to the basics?
Welcome to straight 8.
For the uninitiated: straight 8 flips the current filmmaking process on its head. There’s no digital safety net - just one cartridge of Super 8 film, shot in story order, with no chance to view or tweak the footage before it screens.
The rules are straightforward but ruthless: shoot a short film using a single roll of Super 8. All editing must happen in-camera. That means scenes are captured in the order as they appear on screen. Once the film is shot, it’s sealed and sent off for processing. Unseen and unaltered. The soundtrack, created blind, is submitted separately, meaning you have to hope it will match the picture perfectly. Or just really rather well.
C'mon, you're a little excited, aren't you?
Credits
powered bySince launching in London in 1999, straight 8 has attracted filmmakers from around the world - some seasoned, others just starting out - all drawn by the same challenge: to tell a story with zero post-production and total creative commitment.
It’s a format that demands planning but rewards spontaneity. There’s no way to cheat it, no cutting around mistakes, no adjusting pacing after the fact. Every frame counts. But that tightrope walk is exactly what makes it so addictive. When it works, it really works... and when it doesn’t, well, that’s part of the show, too. Especially when, with the industry Shootout competition, every film gets shown. Bearing your company name. No matter how it came out. Yikes.
To add to the thrill, the first time ANYONE sees the results, filmmaker and audience, is at the public screening. Each year, a selection of the best entries debuts at festivals or special events, where the filmmakers see their work for the very first time alongside the audience. It's nerve-wracking, unfiltered, and deeply communal - think Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester on 4 June 1976. straight 8 is the Sex Pistols; everyone wants to have a go.
Here's a camera. Here's a roll of film. Now go make a movie.
Above: The Gold-winning films of the past three Shootouts: AI Cheese (2024) by Imagine This, Pumped (2023) by Iris London, and The Moove (2022) by Work Editorial.
Launching today is the straight 8 shootout, the competition’s industry strand. Creative companies from around the world - agencies to production houses to music companies to editorial to anyone who fancies it - go head-to-head under the same rules, submitting films made blind, without the safety of playback or post. It’s part creative flex, part blindfolded high-wire act.
Each company gets a slate number and the rest is up to them: they source their own Super 8 stock, camera, soundtrack, and crew. Films are shot at 24fps, giving a runtime of two and a half minutes, and, as mentioned, editing limited to the physical trigger-pulls of the camera.
The results premiere during Cannes Lions in a screening co-hosted by shots; a full cinema of peers watching each entry for the first time alongside the creators. And that’s when it gets interesting. Every company in the shootout votes for the winners - but not for their own work - and the winners choose a charity to receive a donation in their name.
Absurdly analogue. Wildly unpredictable. As Juha-Matti Nieminen, Exec Producer Directors Guild (Production Co, Helsinki) and Shootout Gold Winner Cannes 2019, puts it, “Compared to our daily job on commercials, where our aim is to minimise the possibility of failure, we’re so excited about straight 8 being, all the time, right next to absolute failure.”
In a world of safety nets, take the straight 8 free fall...
