The film Jarmusch created, Year of the Horse, is a document of the 1996 world tour staged by Crazy Horse, the ragged hard rock band Young has worked with on and off for nearly 30 years. Super 8 is such an extreme that, for me, the magic is often enhanced."
The effect of light passing through film of any kind is something I find beautiful there's something magical about it. The footage becomes almost abstract because of the graininess and rawness of the tiny image. Super 8 seems to go really well with the raw sound of Neil and Crazy Horse, the world's greatest garage band. Using Super 8 format for theatrical film was not that much of an aesthetic stretch for Jarmusch, who offers, "I'm insistent that the visual quality of a film be suggested by the content and nature of the subject.
Just bring those little cameras you used for the video and see what you get.' I thought, 'What a great idea.'" It's not going to be that expensive it's not like we'll be shooting 70mm. He said, 'I'll pay for it we'll just start shooting some stuff and if we don't like it we'll throw it away. Jarmusch recalls, "Neil liked the look of Super 8 and enjoyed seeing us scurrying around with these little cameras, pulling them out of bags and filming whenever we wanted to. Jarmusch had some initial reservations about the idea's merit, but Young quickly convinced him from both a fiscal and photographic standpoint. Director Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train, Night Earth, Dead Man) had just finished shooting Super 8 footage for the Neil Young and Crazy Horse music video "Big Time" when the veteran Canadian rocker suggested that the indie auteur produce a feature documentary on his band in the very same format (see "Transforming Super 8," AC Nov.