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Topic: Bad news regarding UK 16mm library
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted September 21, 2011 07:54 PM
Clive - that's an astonishing story, probably the only time I've heard of someone being able to negotiate the purchase of a 16mm library print. Owning the film must seem miraculous if you think that if 4 prints of a title was typical, the other 3 and around 20,000 other features were destroyed about 3 years later! I wondered how much they charged you for it, and was the document you signed something they produced specially, or did they already have one for such situations? It goes to show how even in recent years, people make a special case for 16mm, as it would make more sense to ask everyone buying a DVD to sign such a document, considering how much easier a DVD would be to copy.
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Adrian Winchester
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Clive Carmock
Film Handler
Posts: 69
From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted September 23, 2011 05:13 PM
Hi Adrian. I was surprised I have to say. The lady I spoke to at Filmbank was very apologetic about their inability to sell to me. She even checked that the last time a Bless This House 16mm print had been rented from them was 'several' years earlier according to their database, but she explained they didn't actually own the prints. They were the property of the various distributors. She told me that the ex-Rank library was owned by Granada International but there was no point in contacting them as she had never known them to sell a print.
Not daunted I decided to set about finding out who to talk to and emailed their regional sales director appealing to their better judgement. Explaining that the prints had been sitting with Filmbank, unused for years, that this was an old title. Copies on Video/DVD were easily bought but it would make the day for this one film collector to have a 16mm copy, that has earned them nothing over the past few years.
A few days later I had an email back from their film Services manager telling me they had already recalled a 16mm print of the film from Filmbank, that they hadn't checked it so if I wanted it it would be in an 'unchecked' state. They would need to draw up a contract which they posted to me for signature, basically I had to agree not to use the print for any commercial gain, not attempt to copy the picture or soundtrack, and not to sell the print. The contract was not a standard document - appeared to be prepared for this one occasion.
If I agreed to that the print was mine for £50.
I duly sent them a cheque and the signed contract and a few days later a good quality print of the film arrived. Few slices in the first reel, but colour was great and all in all in very good condition.
It was a one off of course but nevertheless I managed to get 16mm copy to go alongside my (now fading) Powell 4x400ft Super 8mm copy.
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