8mm Forum: First prints

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Topic: First prints

Guy Tessier
Film Handler

Posts: 33
From: Australia
Registered: Apr 2010

posted May 26, 2010 07:11 AM

Hi all - as a newbie to this forum (and out of 8mm collecting since about 1980) I've enjoyed it immensely (especially the print reviews and screen grabs) Whilst not technically a "review" I thought I'd reminisce about my first 8mm movies. It was about 1972? that I received a motorised "editor" called a Goko minivision for my birthday. With it cam a 50ft colour (silent) Disney extract titled "Island of Mystery" (Swiss Family Robinson). Well I watched that thing maybe 20 times in two days - but was completely blown away when my Dad showed it on the family projector for the first time. I was mesmerised - the colour was beautiful and focus so sharp. Funny how such minor things can grab you. I remember it well. Next milestone was the family buying a sound projector (1974 - Eumig 810 SD I believe). Of all places we bought it form a chemist who also carried package moveies. My brother got a "Film Office" b/w sound Tom and Jerry cartoon and I chose the 200ft Castle "Frankenstein". Well - again those things must have been run dozens of times a day - amazing. We watched movies with sound on tv everyday but the projected thing was just way different. Last but not least, about the same time I sent away (from Australia) to the Captain Company from an ad in Famous Monsters of Filmland for two 200 footers of Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula. I was floored when they actaully turned up - about five months later. They were silent but came with a flimsy acetate record to play along on your home stero. How many of you remember "starting the film on tone" and watching as the thing actualy kept in synch (for about two minutes?) then kept skipping the stylus to make it catch up. Anyway - cheers and thanks for reading.

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Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 26, 2010 01:40 PM

I still have the AMERICOM titles you spoke of + "Birth Of Frankenstein" which was culled from the first 1/2 of "Curse". You're right... The sound would be in sync for about 30 seconds and then you would be fishing for a start point in hopes of catching up. Pretty awful, but loads of fun.

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 26, 2010 02:40 PM

Guy,

Great post! I did move it from the Review section to this neighborhood.

I have many Americom films and here's a thread all about that very subject.

Doug

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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Guy Tessier
Film Handler

Posts: 33
From: Australia
Registered: Apr 2010

posted May 27, 2010 06:58 AM

Postscript to yesterday. Another facet of collecting (in Australia anyway) in the 70's was trying to work out exactly where the digests were coming from (source rather than country) Two examples - A 50 footer I had called "Death Dive" and another called "Woman in the Coffin" (at 13 or so I had a bent for horror movies). These were obscure things (Mountian films I think) that originated in the UK. Thought of as jumk at the time. However, they were, as I found out later, clips from, respectively, "Hideous Sun Demon" and "Awful Dr Orloff" which in time became respected and sought after cult classics. There you go!

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

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

posted May 27, 2010 10:46 AM

Mountain had a habit of issuing very short cut-downs with "catch-penny" titles.
These were intended for the young film collectors who were attracted by the reasonable prices and lurid illustrations in the Mountain catalogue.

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Maurice

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 28, 2010 08:01 PM

I haven't run into "Death Dive" yet!

Doug

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 28, 2010 09:55 PM

You really have to love your first print, because until you get some more you wind up watching it like 80 times!

When you get to about the 150th print you can say "Oh! I'd like to see that one again!" after a few months in between. This could be the best way to maximize their lifetimes (...and your interest).

My First 8mm Print

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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