8mm Forum: New Year Musing

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Topic: New Year Musing

David Michael Leugers
Master Film Handler

Posts: 264
From: Fairfield, OH, USA
Registered: Feb 2004

posted December 31, 2018 06:37 PM

This is a matter of weather the glass is half full or half empty. It has long bothered me that the video craze came when it did. Just as the greatest projectors and cameras were coming out. If the video take-over had waited a few years, imagine how many more great projectors like the Eumig 900 series and the Elmo, Fumeo and Beaulieu offerings would be available... Then again, if it had come about a few years sooner it would have made a big negative impact to us all that enjoy this hobby. I have to say the glass is half full. I never would have imagined that 40 years later, people all over the world still love and enjoy S8mm film.

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Live Free or Die

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted January 01, 2019 02:34 AM

Unless you are a mechanical/electronics engineer it's difficult to keep all our loved projectors running as they should, moreover, there's the lack of spares and also very few engineers.
However, we must thank Edwin van Eck in The Netherlands who has been able to make various replacement items such as gears by means of a 3D printer.

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Maurice

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Lee Mannering
Film God

Posts: 3216
From: The Projection Box
Registered: Nov 2006

posted January 01, 2019 04:41 AM

I know what you mean about video David having worked in that arena for so many decades. The thing is once film gets in your veins it seems to stay with you the rest of your life. It may surprise a few to learn I keep a projector in my studio and many a customer has expressed interest in film often requesting a quick film show.

We all remember years ago everyone panicking about no new projectors, but miraculously they have in the main kept going if loved. The lack of spare parts is a quick one to fix. I purchased a GS1200 breaker a good few years ago to use for spares and to date only used one part off it a gear! That machine had been dropped but did still work.

Same thing with my Eumig collection, I've only ever changed the odd capacitor in a couple which will come under general maintenance 40 years on and a minor spare part.

My own thoughts on past cine years have to be the memories with friends sharing the same interest, producing my own sound films and showing them to audiences out and about. Also it has to be said making a couple which were distributed on Super 8 sound by good old Perrys Movies.

Just love film and the intermittent movement. Carry on projecting!

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted January 01, 2019 05:18 AM

You are lucky to have the abilities, Lee, to which I refer.
Me, I would be like Chaplin in "The Pawnshop" where he destroys a customer's clock when opening it up to discern its value.

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Maurice

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Dave Groves
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 508
From: Southend on Sea, Essex, UK
Registered: Feb 2015

posted January 03, 2019 11:33 AM

I simply say thank goodness for my friend John Salim who seems to know what to do with my Fumeo super 8 machine when it needs a little tlc. And thanks to Kevin Brown who's kept my 16mm B/H's running sweetly. I often wonder what might have happened to the 16mm scene if video had come 20 years later. Would we be watching stereo optical sound prints? Would Super 8 have revived it's optical sound opportunities. Would Derann still have closed? We can just be grateful that we can watch Cinema's best past and, relatively present, stars, living again those heady days when we stood in the rain outside the Odeon. What a fantastic age to live in.

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Dave

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David Michael Leugers
Master Film Handler

Posts: 264
From: Fairfield, OH, USA
Registered: Feb 2004

posted January 03, 2019 06:50 PM

Well said Lee. I still get that feeling when I thread up a projector, turn it on and look to the screen. Yes, keeping the old equipment going is a challenge at times, but I know I can keep at least one of mine in running shape until after I am gone. It is hard for me to believe that the newest projector I own is about 40 years old... but then, that is just about everybody else's reality.

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Live Free or Die

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