8mm Forum: Derann Films

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Topic: Derann Films

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted February 10, 2018 04:59 PM

I have been slowly reviewing some of my 8mm collection in order to see print condition for my future cull of 8mm films.

Tonight I watched a couple of Derann releases.

I have to state I was a bit taken aback with the print quality of two of them. They were not as good as i remembered them to be.

First I watched the Derann re-issue of BELOW ZERO Laurel and Hardy.

This has turned a slight blue/green tint as it was black and white printed on colour stock.
Also the print was rather dark with slightly washed out highlights. The sound was rather low too.

I then watched the 2 x 400' edit of THE MALTESE FALCON.

It was redited in the correct sequence order and joined onto a 600' spool.

Again the two prints were variable. One was not too bad with good contrast and loud sound volume level. However the other was very lightly printed with some detail highlights washout and a bit grainy. The sound on this one was recorded at a much lower sound level.

I will watch more soon. It is a good reason to keep my Elmo GS1200 projector running. I don't think it has been ran in over 2 years.

Its funny how nostalgia for something can be oh so different to the true reality aint it ?
[Wink]

[ February 10, 2018, 06:20 PM: Message edited by: David Hardy ]

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" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

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Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003

posted February 11, 2018 07:41 AM

Get on David, glad to see you enjoying these again, we are still working our way through the entire 8mm collection in order to make sure everything is ok, its been a year now and only half way through with everything going on and of course, my join up to 16mm. Loving this stuff.
I am also trying to decide what i can move on with fade setting in on some titles now. I will use the sales to hopefully get more 16mm and will also be on the look out later for another good NT1, i will only want optical playback and i will want one thats been well looked after and in good nik [Wink]

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David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted February 11, 2018 09:16 AM

Yes me too Tom. Its a hard slog through the 8mm titles I have but like you it will be worth it in the end.
Also a lot fairer on my family when I kick the bucket.

Its the LPs that are going to be a lot harder getting sold. [Smile]

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" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

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Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003

posted February 11, 2018 09:18 AM

David, thats an easy one to sort, just leave it all to me [Big Grin]

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Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014

posted February 11, 2018 11:36 AM

Some of the trouble must be that prints improved a lot since the ones you mentioned were made. Better pre-print and film stock. What we thought was good then was eclipsed by the best of we got later.

Derann even went to Agfa to get 1,000,000 ft of B&W stock produced when the tint problem got really bad. I believe The Elephant Man cause a great deal of trouble getting decent tint free prints.

Having just screened my Maltese Falcon prints I find extract one is lightly printed with no detail in the highlights in some scenes and good level sound. Part 2 is printed dark with crushed black levels and very low level sound. I have not edited them together as, as well as the previously mentioned faults part 2 has a very different frame line to part one.

[ February 11, 2018, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: Brian Fretwell ]

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Bill Brandenstein
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1632
From: California
Registered: Aug 2007

posted February 13, 2018 04:40 PM

Derann was amazing, but not infallible by any stretch of the imagination. I guess I'd put it this way: they achieved the best quality possible under their current circumstances. Which varied.

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David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted February 14, 2018 05:15 AM

Brian those are exactly the same problems I have found with my Maltese Falcon copies.

Tonight I hope to screen my Derann 2 x 400' edition of The Sea Hawk to see how they stand up today quality wise.

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" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

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Mike Newell
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 826
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Jun 2003

posted February 24, 2018 06:12 PM

Two of the first titles I bought from Derann were Maltese Falcon and Angels with Dirty Faces and apart from having to reedit them in right order the print variations between reels was glaring. I actually avoided buying Derann releases after that until they started selling the remainder of the Universal 8 horror stock that they acquired.

I think at some point Derann started selling them the way they should have been edited because I have a print of Tbey died with their boots on with no splices and later picked up second hand Angels and Maltese prints that we're miles better than the new prints I had bought.

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