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Author
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Topic: Blackpool 2019 a Retrospective.
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David Watson
Film Handler
Posts: 93
From: United Kinddom
Registered: Mar 2013
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posted November 23, 2019 03:48 PM
Hi Forum Members. it's now a week ago since the Blackpool dinner and Convention took place.
FRIDAY NIGHT FILM SHOW..... this was held in a reception room on the ground floor near the rear of the hotel, the film show was run by Jim Cecil and Nigel Lister using Nigels excellent Siemens 16mm projector.
Nigel had brought two feature films for the collectors to choose from
namely 'Two mules for sister Sarah' and 'El dorado' and they chose 'El dorado'.The print despite a few scratches was very good with great colour and sharp resolution, the audience of over 40 people including David Guest wife Elaine a John Wayne fan really enjoyed it.
SATURDAY,ALL DAY SHOW, 10AM-4.30PM.... The all day Saturday shows was first introduced last year and was so popular that it was decided to do it again this year. Again Jim Cecil and Nigel Lister ran all the films, both super 8 and 16mm using Jim's 16mm Bell & Howell specialist machine with a xenon lamp and Nigel's super 8 Fumeo 9119 projector, which boasted a 150w HID lamp conversion along with several other clever upgrades. Collectors brought plenty of films both super 8 and 16mm to be shown ranging from 7mins-30mins in length. There was a good number of collectors at the shows coming and going as and when they pleased,some staying all day.
CONVENTION DINNER.... A small team of four of us spent a good part of Saturday afternoon getting the dining room ready for the famous Convention dinner. Two projection screens were put up along with Mark Norton's 16mm projector and Simon Mcconway's slide projector. Mark Norton had kindly volunteered to compile and present this years after dinner film, a new and novel item this year was Simon's slide projector which he used to present a slide show that ran during the dinner showing slides of photographs simon had taken at previous dinners and conventions this proved successful and popular with the diners.Preparations also included putting out answer sheets and pens for the quiz and diners name cards at each table place.
We also set up two long tables onto which we placed the raffle prizes
about 30 prizes in total,prizes included super 8 films,16mm films DVD box sets, CD's,collectors plate (John Wayne),film wall clock, film books,film splicer, film cleaner and numerous other film related prizes.
Raffle prizes were donated by..Bob Nichols, Phil Sheard,Dominique Debaste,Adrian Winchester and myself.
We also placed at the head of the dining room as a tribute to the late DAVID GUEST a photo frame with numerous photo's of David at previous Blackpool dinners and conventions, this photo frame was at the Sunday Convention gifted to David's widow Elaine, who along with her family are bravely carrying on with the Conventions as per David's wishes.
At about 7.15pm diner's began arriving over 70 of them for pre dinner drinks from our private bar in the dining room,general chit chat and buying raffle tickets,we sold on the night a little over 500 tickets,the raffle money raised helps pay for the dinner and the dining room.
At 8pm Adrian Winchester chief organizer of the convention dinners welcomed the diner's with a special mention to our oversea's friends the six guy's from Norway,Dominique from Belgium,Joe(shorty) from the USA and Oliver our newest friend from Germany. The meal got under way.
The 3 course meal itself (see photo on the menu here on the forum) was excellent,one of the best we've had over the years diner's were full of praise for it. In between courses Adrian held the film quiz,
15 questions,diners writing the answers on their answer sheet, this year there was a four way tie for first place, so all four diner's namely Peter Wilson,Phil Sheard,Joe Caruso and Brian Fretwell were lined up at the head of the dining room (see photo on the forum) and asked a final question, first with the correct answer was Peter Wilson winning the prize (not for the first time).
Dinner and quiz over we held the raffle, Oliver our new friend from Germany was asked to draw the first ticket from the tombola,
The first winning ticket held by Melvin England chose as his raffle prize from the table the super 8 feature 'Rocky', Jan one of the Norwegian guy's chose as his raffle prize the 16mm feature 'Annie',
and so the raffle went on each prize winner drawing the next ticket from the tombola, Joe (shorty) won 3 or 4 prizes and Oliver went on to win the film wall clock depicting Audrey Hepburn from the film,
'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.
And so to the final item of this great night the film show,presented on 16mm by Mark Norton the show lasted approx 1 hour the diner's clapping at the end to show their appreciation of Mark's excellent compilation.And so too quickly ended the 2019 convention dinner, which gets more popular each year with more diner's than before and overall it
just gets better and better,mostly due to the hard and dedicated work of the chief convention dinner organizer ADRIAN WINCHESTER well done!
and thanks Adrian from everyone there.
NEVER BEEN BEFORE, DON'T MISS OUT NEXT YEAR THE 35th BOOK IT!
SUNDAY CONVENTION...Sunday dawned,and well before the Convention doors opened a very long 3 deep queue formed right across the hotel foyer. 10am. and the doors opened and the rush by collectors to the dealers stalls was on,there was plenty of dealers in attendance selling 8mm, super 8, 9.5mm,16mm 35mm,DVD's projectors all gauges,
accessories,film books,posters etc.etc. including of course the bring and buy table which seemed busy most of the day.
In a separate room, the cinema, Bob Nichols put on two super 8 film shows, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, using his projector an Elmo GS1200 xenon along with a SRS sound processor and amplifier for the sound.
Sunday afternoon saw the auction held in the cinema, selling super 8
16mm film and accessories etc.the auctioneer being Nigel Parkinson who is a natural at the task (Nigel runs the FARNWORTH film fair in
February, and it is well worth a visit,see elsewhere on this forum for details).
During the day two 'BLASTS FROM THE PAST' turned up at the convention firstly Ged Jones formerly of Derann Film Services he was very involved in running the Blackpool conventions and dinners in the Derann days and is well known to almost all the film collectors at the convention, he spent a long time chatting to many many people.
Secondly,a real surprise visitor Bill Davison, older collectors will well remember Bill's super 8 film review column in the 'Movie Maker'magazine which he wrote for a good number of years. Bill was also involved in running the Blackpool Convention during it's first few years before Derann took it over, so Bill is a real important part of the Blackpool Film Convention history.
In the afternoon in the cinema before the film show Bill gave a little talk about years gone by and then did a question and answer session, it was good to meet him again after all these years.
Hopefully he may return next year.
In the middle of the afternoon in the dealers room there was held a minutes silence in remembrance and Tribute to the late DAVID GUEST the organizer and rejuvenator of the Blackpool Convention since 2011.
Overall the day was a success,there seemed to be plenty of collectors there and plenty of films etc. being bought and sold.
Elaine Guest and her family were pleased with how the day went and did say that the convention would continue next year 2020 Hurray!
Dates to be announced later.
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted November 24, 2019 12:41 PM
Thanks to David for his summary and kind words about the dinner, although I should add that he has not given himself the full credit he deserves in relation to his major part in this! And thanks also to everyone who has taken and posted the excellent photos which help bring back memories of a great weekend.
I think the most important thing this year was to make it an event worthy of the legacy that David Guest has left us. Over eight years, he revived a convention that could easily have come to an end, and it was extraordinary that when announcing the 'bombshell' regarding his health last year, he also wanted everyone to know that the hotel was already booked for this year, and the event would proceed. I'm sure that everyone hoped for an outcome that would represent a worthy tribute to all he achieved, and the impressive attendance was hopefully an encouraging factor in Elaine deciding that she's happy to continue.
Great credit is due to all the collectors David mentioned who played a significant part in organising various elements of the weekend, and to these I must add Paul Barker, who I believe plays a major part 'behind the scenes' in addition to his work on the day of the Film Fair. These gentlemen don't just put in a lot of work; they undertake tasks with impressive professionalism, when it comes to (e.g.) aligning a projector and screen, or taping down cables, and this attention to detail all contributes to the overall impact.
I'd also like to express appreciation to all of our 11 friends from overseas, as their enthusiasm is inspirational, and I'm sure this reinforces the sense that Blackpool has become a very special 'institution' that needs to be cherished for the benefit of everyone.
Finally, thanks to all who attended the dinner and contributed to the post-Derann record attendance of 71. It was great to see several first-time attendees, some of which were considerably younger than most of us! I appreciate the very positive feedback and I agree with a gentleman who wrote to me and referred to the "wonderful camaraderie" in the room. I personally felt it was the best of the dinners at the Hilton/Grand, and the exceptional raffle ticket sales should mean that we can dispense with the £3 supplement (for Grand residents) next year! The 16mm film show from Mark Norton was a lot of fun, and unique in the sense that some of the content is available brand new from http://16mmdrive-infilms.com/ I'll be ordering a couple of my favourite items soon!
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Adrian Winchester
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