8mm Forum: Yet another optical super 8 thread

This is topic Yet another optical super 8 thread in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Kenneth DePriest Jr (Member # 3212) on February 18, 2015, 10:20 AM:

I am about to get my ST1200hd back from getting TLC. I was wondering, I have heard those films are originally on cores in the original state, was it one long film? wor were they broken down into a certain footage on said cores? any one know the make and model of the optical projectors they would have shown these films on? I'd like to see a photo of one as I have never seen one.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on February 18, 2015, 10:51 AM:

Sounds like they were for aircraft in-flight projectors with would take the whole film in one length I don't think I've seen any pictures of these,but there must be some out there.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 18, 2015, 12:55 PM:

Yep, they were either in one or two forms ...

In separate "Technicolor" cassettes, which would hold approximately 25 minutes of optical sound film (these were for the libraries that allowed you to rent a feature. South Africa had this kind of thing) or ...

in very large cassettes, which were used for the inflight movies, from 1967 to 1988, (depending on the country, as I understand that Japan and a few other countries actually continued on with optical super 8 prints until approximately 1990.

When they were stored, they were wound onto somewhat large (depending on the feature) cores ... little yellow cores with a terrible very sticky tape that was a reel pain in the arse to remove. It left a lot of residue that took quite awhile to get rid of.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 18, 2015, 01:46 PM:

Anyone have a photo of the projectors used?

Posted by Vincent Zabbia (Member # 2453) on February 18, 2015, 03:09 PM:

From Wikipedia: Starting in 1971[13] In-flight movies (previously 16 mm) were shown in Super 8 format until video distribution became the norm. The films were printed with an optical sound track (amateur films use magnetic sound), and spooled into proprietary cassettes that often held a whole 2-hour movie.

From Super 8 Database:

"The inflight entertainment industry was about to be "scooped". Several entrepreneurs in California decided not to be intimidated by Mr. Flexer in New York. He had done an admirable job of introducing inflight movies onboard airplanes, but those cumbersome, large reels of 16mm film were a constant problem. Enter the much smaller format of Super 8mm ilm. A system of loading more compact 8mm film into a cassette was developed. Using it was easy and not too far removed from the ease of placing a VHS cassette into a slot and having a VCR play it. It was no longer necessary for aircraft mechanics or film technicians to come onboard an airplane at the conclusion of every flight and change those large film reels. The new California company worked out a much smaller projection system, and the simple, selffeeding, endless loop type cartridge revolutionized the industry. That company... known as Trans Com ... expanded greatly as a result of their innovative 8mm system introduced in 1971. With their 8mm system and, later, video systems, Trans Com became the largest suppliers of inflight entertainment hardware and programming to the world's airlines. In the early days of this company, Sundstrand Corporation had a major investment in Trans Com and, to protect that investment, they assigned one of their young bright corporate stars to lead that new enterprise. Enter onto the scene, a man who soon to become an icon in the young industry … John Landstrom. One of the earliest and most astute things that Landstrom did was to lure Bob Kitson from Bell & Howell to Trans Com. The Landstrom/Kitson team were soon to create a major change in the business." (Extratcs from A History of Inflight Entertainment, by John Norman White, 1994).

The manufacturers of inflight movies projectors were Bell & Howell, Fairchild, General Audio-Visual (GAVI), Inflight Motion Pictures and Trans Com.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on February 18, 2015, 03:18 PM:

Not a photo, but a very interesting article.
http://www.super8data.com/database/projectors_list/projectors_transcom/transcom_mark_iv.htm

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on February 18, 2015, 04:26 PM:

Thank You Vincent & Maurice, really interesting!

Would love to see a photo of the projectors used though if there are any out there. I've never seen one I must admit, despite trawling the web for one a few years back.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on February 19, 2015, 11:36 AM:

It still seems that optical sound super 8 was an in flight film thing before 1972. Maybe that companies projector was manufactured as of that time. Either that, or every film on super 8 optical sound was only a library print, but it doesn't seem to make sense. There are a number of film titles that were released, during the year of their original theatrical release that would seem to have been put out there for in-flight and wouldn't make sense otherwise.

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