8mm Forum: Curious if these are available

This is topic Curious if these are available in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by William Fleming (Member # 2632) on October 29, 2014, 03:02 PM:

Just some film i would like to know if they are available on 16mm if anyone could help thanks.I know some quite obscure but you dont know without asking [Smile]

1.The Year of living Dangerously
2.The Princess Bride
3.The Deadly Spawn
4.Critters
5.The Ghoulies
6.A Nightmare on Elm Street
7.Halloween III Season of the witch
8.Legend
9.Conan the Barbarian
10.Beast Master

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 29, 2014, 03:49 PM:

16mm features were never offered for sale as new prints, most seemed to enter the second-hand market via American TV stations disposing of their unwanted stock. When colour arrived, many black & white films appeared for sale as there was no further use for them.
Any recent titles may have dubious origins.

Posted by William Fleming (Member # 2632) on October 29, 2014, 03:55 PM:

Now im confused :/ so any recent titles i see out there are illegal?

Posted by Clyde Miles (Member # 4032) on October 29, 2014, 04:39 PM:

william, all those features you have listed will be on 16mm, just a question of waiting for them to appear for sale, or track down.

Posted by Mark Todd (Member # 96) on October 29, 2014, 06:53 PM:

Hi William you could subscribe to classic home cinema,s mag if you don`t already and put a wanted Ad. All those are about as Clyde says.

EU only I`d say as nuts post for a feature and crackers customs fees etc outside there are best avoided.

Best Mark.

Posted by Paul Mason (Member # 4015) on October 30, 2014, 03:18 AM:

William,
I think what Maurice is saying is that some 16mm colour prints may be poor quality dupes, copied without permission of the copyright holders. There are good "official" prints around but beware cheap films copied from official prints. Since 16mm is no longer used for exhibition of new films (as far as I know) collectors no longer worry about holding 16mm films from before 1990.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on October 30, 2014, 07:10 AM:

However their origins, it is a sad truth that a lot of 16mm colour prints have by now been subjected to colour fade. To avoid this make sure that any possible acquisition is on Technicolor, Kodachrome, Agfa or LPP stock, all other processes will have succumbed in one way or the other.

There is Ektachrome which keeps its good colour, but the markings are often difficult to be sure of.

When buying any colour film the only way of being sure is to examine it before committing to purchase, this is where Film Conventions are worth their weight in gold.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 1183) on October 31, 2014, 01:40 PM:

Any 16mm title of a film first released theatrically after the early to mid 2000's are almost certainly unauthorized reductions from a 35mm release print.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 01, 2014, 07:30 PM:

Maurice, I know that there have been much more tv channels in the US than in Europe, but were them numerous enough to be the main source of 16 mm features ? I thought that individuals (cine club, librairies or even normal cinémas were the main market for 16 mm films. I didn't know that 16 mm features had never been offered to individual customers.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on November 02, 2014, 02:52 AM:

Some years ago there was an American monthly publication called "The Big Reel", it was in the form of a newspaper. It contained dozens of advertisers who dealt with 16mm film sales. There was one in, I think, somewhere in Florida, who said he had several warehouses with thousands of films for sale.

I bought many features over a period of time and most had obviously been TV prints. Once I was in Hollywood and met a dealer who was very coy about his sources, anyway, I came back with a full length "Mary Poppins".

Some of my prints have leaders with a lending library info tag, I understand in the USA that many local book libraries also hired out 16mm films.

The trade in 16mm feature films has always been shrouded in some mystery.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on November 02, 2014, 04:33 AM:

Would that have been Ray & Sharon Courts? I bought quite a few films from him over the years.

I've still got some old issues of the Big Reel, it was amazing the amount of titles available in each issue. They also had film & video articles.

That ebay has a lot to answer for.

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