8mm Forum: Home Movies or Cinema movies?

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Posted by Mike Spice (Member # 5957) on April 07, 2018, 07:41 PM:

In my time I have owned a condensed Up Pompeii, Sound of Music and Tom & Jerry Sound Super8.

One or two Silent movies, Oh Mr Porter, what a film....

All long gone... I wish I still had them...

Do you favour Cinema or Home Movies or perhaps you have a very liberal library of celluloid....

What I do have, is a chinese film scanner and some of my Mum on Super8mm....

My Mum, on Super 8. (1977/8)

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on April 08, 2018, 03:17 AM:

Of all the mediums to watch family on,you cannot beat those old movies, that is a great transfer to the digital format for youtube you have there, and i bet the colours look as good today as the day you shot it.
we still have all of our home movies of the family from when i was around 8/9. But like most on here, we also collect, (and have done for 40 years) movies, from trailers to full features and everything between. Its been nice seeing the library of films grow, especially last year, but now have slowed it right down due to how difficult is is becoming to find what we want, but also due to the stupid prices being commanded. This makes it a very expensive hobby these days, however, 16mm is what we are concentrating on as there is much more out there at very good prices, and in my opinion, the image produced is better, pin sharp every time,but super 8 is and always will be our main bulk of films. [Wink]

Posted by Werner Ruotsalainen (Member # 6217) on April 08, 2018, 03:42 AM:

I myself prefer collecting private films in addition to the 100+ rolls I shot in the 80's (and will shot as soon as the weather gets better here in Helsinki, LOL).

It's a GREAT intellectual challenge to try to find out where (and, in cases, when) a particular shot has been shot. I have to consult Wiki, a lot of travel guides, history sources etc. a lot to find out these. During this, I learn a LOT about geography, history, the customs at a given time in a given country etc. I like this very much.

In addition, private films one purchases off flea markets or eBay are all unique, unlike "stock" movies. This is why I also keep scanning and YouTube'ing them all, with all my findings (locations etc.). Take a look at my channel if interested:

Playlists (wiith categories based mostly on location (country and, in cases, even town) and time (year)): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ3JqZMyf0LDLNofpBtzow/playlists

The (non-categorized, but up-to-date) video list: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJ3JqZMyf0LDLNofpBtzow/videos

Occassionally, one even finds private films shot as real feature ones; for example, the one ("The Thought-facilitator") at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asOw8hx4vg0 (I'll add the audio track audio later to this video).

Posted by Mark Davies (Member # 6249) on April 08, 2018, 04:36 PM:

That's a really nice video Mike.. and if it had not been for the yellow headlamps on your maxi, I would have sworn, that was the one we had bought.

It's also amazing how many 8mm films contain visits to ships..

Kind Regards Mark

Posted by Jason Smith (Member # 5055) on April 09, 2018, 01:54 AM:

Most of my collection are Hollywood films but recently I started buying home movie collections in bulk. Unforunately I do not have any family films of my own that were shot on film.

Recently I have been finding that collecting home movies on a smaller gauge like 8mm can be a less expensive hobby than collecting features and digests.

Werner, I am also interested in sharing some of the home movie films that I have bought on the internet. What scanner did you use to scan your films?

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on April 09, 2018, 06:28 AM:

Its funny you should say that, i have often been quite curious as why anyone would want to buy other peoples home movies. This is a subject that has come up here and other forums in the past.
I see a lot of people on ebay selling off there treasured home footage. Personally, i would never sell them, i have copies of them on DVD's and my family know that they must never be sold off.

Posted by Berend De Meyer (Member # 5856) on April 09, 2018, 06:56 AM:

Hi all!

Very interesting question for this topic. I love to work with Home Movies from my family and friends since I purchased the Somikon HD-XL. Now and then I search Ebay for 8mm Home Movies too, but never bought any. I can't imagine to sell our own 8mm archives, although I've converted them all to Digital.

@Mike nice video of your mum!

@Werner nice collection and tempting me to buy a few on Ebay!

@Tom I totally agree with you, about selling my the Family archives.

Posted by Mike Spice (Member # 5957) on April 09, 2018, 07:39 AM:

I am doing a re scan of my old Navy films, using my fancy drop box, to try and get completely jitter free scans.

Once done, I don't know what on earth to do with the reels, I am unlikely to view them on the big screen again, I have no family to leave them to.

The same with hundreds of slides my mum took when she was alive. I have scanned many of them but I have no idea what to do with them.

Thanks Berend and Mark I am so happy to have shots of my mum on film.

I do look at flea bay with a view to buying one sound film, for old times sake. Stupid prices seem to be the order of the day ..

I'd love to have a condensed Sound of music or Up Pompeii again.

here goes the first re scan. I might try and do some colour corection this time

Posted by Melvin England (Member # 5270) on April 10, 2018, 11:51 AM:

In my experience, during the 1970's and 1980's the super 8 fraternity were lodged in two camps.
There were the super 8 home movie makers.... those who shot either "baby on the lawn" stuff or took their hobby a little more seriously and made their own little acting films or documentaries, edited,titled and sound-tracked them.
Then there were the super 8 package movie collectors who were more intent on seeing highlights of the latest blockbusters (and in those days they WERE) on the cinema screen in their own home without too much concern for home movies.
I am not going to use the phrase "never the twain" as I certainly had a foot in both camps. I made my own holiday films, documentaries etc and entered them into the local cine club film competitions, but also thrilled in the fact that I could also see that amazing football match from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" on a 5' screen in glorious black and white silent, as it was due to the pocket money situation in those days!
This evidence of super 8 having two camps was always evident at the cine club. Most of its members were far older than myself,and all long gone as I am talking 1980's here, had served their apprenticeship on Standard 8 and had taken the massive leap across to super 8 film making with cameras that ran on b a t t e r y power instead of having to keep winding them up. That was their love. On the odd occasion that we held a package movie evening, the very few young ones amongst us really looked forward to it, but was greeted by the older members with toleration at best, disdain at worst. This wasn't really what super 8 was for, and nor was the club!
However, Blackpool was in existance and it was such a refreshing change to be surrounded by the "other" camp every November. The ones who knew their Blackhawks from their Derann's, their "full-length's" from their "digests." Every year the collection got bigger and bigger and bigger.... in the days when the name of the game was quantity, not quality!

Today, the situation is very different. We still have the package movie fraternity which, quite frankly, has got bigger and better since the advent of the Web, Ebay and this wonderful forum. There was a point somewhere back down the line, when I became a complete loner in this hobby. No communication with fellow collectors apart from the annual Blackpool convention (yes,I know there were other events also happening) or maybe the odd trip to Dudley for one of Derek's legendary open days. I could never have imagined in the early 90's that down the line I would be speaking to so many collectors WORLDWIDE let alone in the UK.... that the best films in my collection were still to be bought..... and wouldn't have dared to dream of a full length Ben Hur or Grease or Wizard of Oz, amongst others, that now adorn my shelves. Yet here I am.... and there they are! It is just a pity we are not getting any new titles anymore.

And today's "home movie" brigade? In a word.... video. I know there are still one or two ( and I mean one or two ) that are still filming in super 8. Sadly, not anymore for me, much that I would love to. Kodak really put the nail in the coffin when it withdrew K40. Other brands came out with ASA's that are incompatible with the cameras we have...that are not positives,nor process paid..... at a cost where it would be pointless robbing a bank...... you need to OWN one! Potentially, however, the future could look a little more promising, with these rumours circulating on this forum of the return of super 8 cartridges that can be used in our presently redundant cameras. Let us all hope a renaissance blossoms... at a price we can afford.... and that cine camera of mine can get cranking one more time!

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