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Author
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Topic: CineSea 19 in Pictures
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted April 30, 2019 06:56 PM
Welcome to CineSea 19!
This was a good one! (-even though it’s hard to find one that wasn’t).
We gathered (mostly) on Friday, the 26th of April for our bi-annual celebration of small (and not so small) gauge film and the rag-tag army of those who keep its banner high. We came from near and far, the young, and the not so young, and people from many walks of life. We just came to spend a weekend kicking back and sharing something we all enjoy. Through years of this, many of us have made real friends.
Technically, Friday is the first day and that’s when a lot of the crowd shows up. In truth, CineSea is starting to leak into Thursday and I’d like to try that myself someday. Dave Lucidi shared his print of Starfighter and attendance at Thursday dinner was in the 20s: not half bad a full day before anything is supposed to officially happen.
The Friday arrivals this year we will call “intrepid”. This was a stormy one. Several times that day horizontal rainstorms came sweeping up the coast. I found myself Southbound on Garden State Parkway early in the afternoon. Several times, this Northbound wall of wind and rain blotted out the World and I found myself looking down at the pavement hoping to find a line to follow (”Oh LORD, Thy Ocean is so large and my Honda Civic is so small!”) Gradually I found taillights in front of me and followed them at a safe distance (How I didn’t wind up at somebody else’s house is anybody’s guess!).
It was just one of those days when it was best to find something enjoyable to do indoors.
-Fortunately, we had this covered!
If you enjoy these reports, you are in for a couple of enjoyable days. (-If you don’t…sorry!). I want to put one up around 8:00 PM East Coast Time every night for a couple of days. Others are welcome to add in their own stories, pictures and of course discussion, all I ask is you let me stay out in front and not torpedo something I was about to post!
The Show MUST go on!
NEXT: Friday Night Feature
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 01, 2019 04:38 PM
Friday Night Feature
Cinesea was once mainly a Saturday event, with a little leakage into Sunday. People started arriving on Friday for set-up, and then more people arrived. There were informal screenings anyway, so we decided to add an official event: Friday Night Feature.
(What’ll we do on THURSDAY?)
The way this works is for people to nominate their feature-length prints and an e-mail based poll is used to pick the winner. The nominations are to CineSea what Santa ending The Thanksgiving Day Parade is to Christmas! It’s the Declaration that the Season is upon us! I like it: it helps build up anticipation.
We had a bumper crop this year:
Airplane! (1980)- Super 8mm, The Black Scorpion (1957)- 16mm, Black Sunday (1977)- Super 8mm, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)- 16mm , Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968)- Super 8mm, A Hard Day's Night (1964)- 16mm, It Happens Every Spring (1949)- 16mm, Jack the Giant Killer (1962)- Super 8mm, Jaws (1975)- 16mm, Jumanji (1995)- 35mm, Mad Love (1935)- 16mm, Night of the Comet (1984)- 35mm,Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)- 16mm, Roustabout (1964)- 16mm, Shane (1953)- Super 8mm, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)- 35mm, War Games (1983)- 16mm
There are a lot of really great titles here that I would love to see some day: let’s hope many of them are on the ballot next time.
The Winner for CineSea 19 was Todd Tuckey’s 16mm print of Roustabout. The fact that it was its fifth time on the ballot shows that good prints deserve persistence!
Now what did Todd win along with this illustrious victory? -Fame?, -Fortune?, -Power?
-None of the above!
He got the responsibility of hauling a prized print to Wildwood and sharing it with the crowd! So, I’d say “Thanks!” should go along with the “Congratulations!”. (The truly selfish would never enter this contest!)
We are strictly old-school here: you can’t have a feature without a cartoon first: “Cheese It, the Cat!”, one of the three in the Honey-Mousers series.
Roustabout was a great Friday Night Feature: we are nothing if not nostalgic and this movie is definitely from another era. A misunderstood young man finds himself in the middle of somebody else’s problems, leaves because he’s been wronged, but in the end comes back and saves the day. He even gets the girl…metaphorically, of course!
Elvis Presley had charisma that few other entertainers have ever really approached. It must have been daunting being a teenage boy back then and having to compete with…that!
Of course in years since, we saw him become much more…human and then entirely mortal, but last Friday night we saw him pretty much at the top of his game.
NEXT: Saturday Begins
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 02, 2019 05:40 PM
SATURDAY! (-at the crack of early!)
CineSea is still small, and the advantage is we are flexible and manageable. I’m sure there are events that have thousands of people and still pull off group breakfasts and such, but I’m also sure that’s complicated. Now we’re talking caterers and tables and “waitstaff” and cleanup and crowd control.
-we just pile into some cars and go to a diner!
Wildwood is a summer vacation town, so there is no shortage of places to go out and get a nice meal. Friday morning the classic is to go to Uncle Bill’s in Cape May. Saturdays are the Olympic a short walk up the boardwalk or Marvis.
We usually fill up three or four tables and for some reason the waitresses always enjoy us being there. (I guess we’re interesting!)
It should come as no surprise, but although we are largely a group of middle-aged men, there not so much talk about how much our backs hurt or the lawnmower we just got or where the years seem to be escaping to: there is a lot of talk about film: actors, studios, directors and who printed it all on what gauge and when. Don’t get me wrong though, many of us know each other pretty well, so the rest comes out as the weekend moves along.
We generally head off to breakfast a little after 8AM: basically get the day going because Saturday is a full day and we want to get on with it!
Meanwhile, back at the Ranch…
Cinesea is now in session!
Now: note the Grand Hall! What makes CineSea work out as well as it does, or allows it to exist at all, is the Hospitality Room. During the peak of the Season this is where the kids play video games and cool their sunburned hides. In the middle of the week, it’s where the people from the front desk park their cars! So it’s not exactly world class conference space. We got no deep pile carpet, we got no burled walnut (-don’t even know what they “burl” the walnuts in!), but we have usable space that we can afford even with a small crowd. You dress comfortably, maybe bring a nice chair, you’ll do just fine! (Speaking as someone who’s gone camping since Kindergarten, I find it almost plush!)
It’s kind of nice to be able to walk maybe two minutes out the door and find yourself on the beach in any event!
There’s always a lot of film for sale, often equipment, too, but there is more going on here than that. There are also many active screens with people sharing their films. There is also a great deal of General Yak going on, be it about Film or just Life.
Many a projector has found its way back to health at CineSea. Here, Jason Smith applies genuine Elmo Healing techniques learned directly from the Japanese Masters to Dave Baker’s wayward ST-1200! ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
We have at least one active Museum table at every show. Here is Shorty’s. It has a great collection of film books and catalogs and it commemorates Cinesea cofounder John Black and Shorty’s recent trip to Blackpool. This is a great place to go and start a conversation!
As the afternoon shadows lengthen, CineSea gets ready to shift gears. It’s getting time for Saturday Night Show, but before that most of the people in the Hotel need to get up, get out and get fed! Timing is critical! We don’t want to have to end the show just because of sunrise!
Stay tuned! We’ll take this step by step!
NEXT: Saturday Dinner!
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 03, 2019 05:53 PM
Alfie’s…(What it’s all about!)
So, Saturday Night we went out to eat. No surprise there: we always do. It wasn’t the Boathouse this time. It shouldn’t always be: the Boathouse is a great place, but there are many others. Once again, Wildwood is a vacation town and there are a lot of great places to enjoy a meal.
Alfie’s is very nice: good Italian food. Unlike many of the places we go to it’s one of these restaurants that likes low lighting. With this crowd I’m half surprised nobody put a screen up!
As always: we use Dinner as a chance to run the CineCensus: the total was 36 this time: not bad!
The real story here is not just the meal, but what was going on behind the scenes. Saturday Night show was looming and the idea was to get the crowd in the seats as early as possible. We knew it was going to go late, and that is part of the adventure, but we always have a lot of films to enjoy and the idea of them taking us past 2AM is almost painful!
-so adjustments needed to be made.
For one thing, dinner has moved earlier a little and he idea of desert at the restaurant is simply taboo! Coffee and cake were available at the Ocean Holiday during the show. The Tuckeys had the cake ready and waiting, and yours truly was on coffee patrol. The entire time we were at the restaurant, a 40-cup coffee urn was gurgling away in my hotel room. Being that I’d never used the thing before, I wasn’t completely sure it would work out. When I pushed the door open, it smelled like coffee and there was no immense brown puddle on the floor, it felt good! (Maybe that thing about reading and following instructions really WORKS!)
Events like CineSea just don’t happen. They require people that believe in them to make an effort. It can be their money, their time, maybe a little bit of their own soul. A big reason that CineSea succeeds is there are quite a few people that are willing to do this.
NEXT: Show Time!
NOTE: I’m giving myself the weekend off, we will pick this up Monday night!
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 06, 2019 06:35 PM
Saturday Night Show (-the early part)
The time had come!
Films (Check!)
Projectors (Check!)
Seats (Check!)
Coffee (Check!)
Cake (Check!)
Audience….Audience?…on their way!
As I said: I did the coffee. -no self-congratulations here: trust me, I got off lightly! Other people brought the equipment, accumulated and organized the prints and set up the projectors and sound. The same folks also spent a lot of time on their feet running the show. That big screen doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, either!
We had a great mix of 35mm, 16mm and Super-8 prints: hours and hours of them! This is basically anything goes (-within certain boundaries…). There is horror, drama, music, classic comedy, and anything from the classical to the current-day. I usually manage to get a railroad film on screen, and as we speak I am working on getting a canoeing film shown (-this just MAY be a first! ). Basically, what it comes down to is 20 minutes or less, nice condition and a thumbs-up for sound. The films can come from anybody in attendance, and more than once have been sent from a friend of the show that can’t attend this time.
”Just Five More minutes ‘til Showtime! There’s still time to visit our refreshment center for delicious snacks and drinks!...We won’t tell your Cardiologist!...You can have a salad some other time!”
-but seriously, folks! What a great way to start a film show!
Steve Osborne sent a print of the ‘scope Skyfall release. This is a really beautiful print: very sharp, so much so that one of our attendees who only collects 16mm said he was pleased to find out that Super 8 could look that good! (This was a TOUGH screen capture! There is so much action going on in this one it was hard to get anything but screen smear at the exposure speeds needed in that darkened room!)
Neil Sedaka loves his Calender Girls! (Let’s hope Mrs. Sedaka is OK with that!)
The Crimson Ghost has seen his day! Long Live Captain Mephisto! (It’s OK: You should have some Serial every day!)
We were just getting warmed-up now! Stay Tuned! There’s a lot more to come!
NEXT: The Late Show!
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 07, 2019 06:44 PM
-and on past Midnight!
So, we’d reached our stride: one short film after another. I doubt we saw 30 seconds of dark screen even once after we got going. As always, this is a tribute to the care these decades old machines have been given over the years.
In this stretch, it was kind of a procession of familiar faces, maybe even old friends.
Stan and Ollie Came Clean:
Fresh from his feature debut last night, The King dropped by for an encore:
My favorite cartoon character, starting from when I was a little kid, Bugs Bunny is always welcome! (Deep down, even Elmer loves him!)
ChubbChubbs (35mm, no less!)
Here it gets personal: this is one of mine, one of maybe 50 reels I consider a “favorite” (-there is no monogamy where film is concerned!). I bought Mickey’s Fire Brigade new from Derann in 2004. It was actually a gift to myself because I’d been unemployed and I’d finally gotten a job! It’s wonderful print I’ve enjoyed for years.
The joy of it coming to CineSea is I get to see it stretch its legs on that big screen with a Xenon lamp and sharp lens. The potential hidden in these prints can be amazing!
-it’s a little bit like bringing that sports car you’ve been driving to work for years to a race track. (-without the specter of fiery death, of course!)
What’s funny is at home, I rarely project films much beyond 10PM. Here 10:00 is basically half-time! I don’t think it’s so much a matter of running out of films, but more our ability to watch them with eyes fully and consistently open, but the end must come. (There’s something wrong with sleeping in a steel folding chair when there’s a perfectly nice bed upstairs you’ve paid for!)
-so it was time (maybe even past time!) for last call. (You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!)
If I remember right it was 1:30AM this time. (Frankly, I’m not very sure!)
Good Night!
NEXT: Our Exciting Conclusion!
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 08, 2019 04:40 PM
Sunday
The little plaque on the back of the room door says checkout is at 11:00AM. We are off-season, so nobody will kick down your (-well: their) door at 11:07, but it does give the morning a little urgency!
-there's all this stuff to do!
One of my must-do items is to check the outlets: the projector I travel with has an unusual power cord, and it took a while to get it back that time I left it up in my room! (It was the worst reason I’ve ever had for being down a projector!)
-and of course, staying in an “Efficiency Suite”, I have to wash my dishes! A couple of times I’ve learned the hard way not to do them ALL on Sunday! (“Can I do them at home and just mail them back?!!”)
A bunch of us went up town to breakfast at Samuel’s Pancake House:
CineSea has a little bit of that classic Birthday/Christmas/Thanksgiving style self-indulgence to it: we are in a good mood and eat well! (Maybe that’s why I bring a bike down: penance!)
Once we are cleared out of our rooms, the Hospitality Room still needs to be packed up. Before you know it, it’s just empty tables and the sound of the ocean winds, just like we found it a couple of days ago. Even as we say our goodbyes, we are already thinking about next time.
I’m very glad that when John Black and Shorty came up with this whole idea, they decided to make it twice a year. Personally, I wouldn’t have seen that being workable, but it’s turned out just about perfect. Annually would be too far in between. This way, it kind of brackets Winter, maybe reminds us that time is passing.
The days following CineSea are nice. I find the drive home kind of relaxing, and the good mood usually carries even into the next day at work…depending. Besides, it’s time to screen the films we buy: it feels kind of like the days after Christmas when we were little kids! Once a few years ago I bought two features: rather than screen one and have the other wait, I did a reel of both every night. It was a great week.
So, I promised you an Exciting Conclusion…
-OK, how about this: we’re doing it again next October!
Everything we do well, we will do again. Everything that we’ve learned needs improvement, we’ll do a little better!
-Are you in?
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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