posted June 29, 2009 06:47 PM                   

Guys...

It is an interesting experience when you know a local magazine put an article focusing on 8mm films, especially if you are in there .

Although, Indonesia is not known to have 8mm collectors but I always try to (re-)introduce it to people there regarding this nice format.

I have once succeeded and a Male Magazine "Male Emporium" put 4 pages article about me and 8mm films. The pages scan can be found here.

But I am still unsatisfied because that magazine is focusing the reader on male things (similar to Penthouse but much softer) so perhaps it doesn't really touch the audience I expected.

Luckily I involved in Audiophile community and one of the members introduce me to the owner of "Audio Video" Magazine (i.e a sort of local "What Hi-Fi ?"). The owner was so amazed with my collection and sent one reporter to cover my collection.

And below is what appears on this month (June 2009) edition.

(I try to put a free translation for you to understand the article)

Page 1

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The Excitement of an old-fashioned Home Theatre

Do you remember their funny action of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, where the two comedians can make us laugh hardly although usually it is fewer dialog used or perhaps, a musical drama such as The Sound of Music (1965) with a legend actress Julia Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as Captain Von Trapp?

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If the answer is “Yes”, you are lucky enough to see those movies that have given such influence to the today’s movie worlds. However, if you answer it “No”, it is not impossible to get them on DVD, nowadays.

For Winbert Hutahaean, a movie lover, the enjoyment of seeing those movies is more tastefully not to play them on DVD, but on 8mm celluloid, a standard format for domestic use. For your info, it is similar to 35mm that you find on Cinema but only smaller, while 16mm is also exist for non-cinema purposes such as School or open air Cinema. Of course, Winbert does not only own the two titles above but there are more titles from various genres. There are, at least, 500 titles he has collected and the numbers keep growing as long as he can find. Those 8mm films are now stored inside his designated home theatre at one of the rooms in his house in Bintaro.

In a room with a dimension (length x width x height) 5.5 meter x 4m x 3.5m (18 feet x 13f x 11.4f), Winbert and his family spend their time enjoying 8mm films on a big screen measuring 4m x 3m (13 feet x 9.8 feet) with masking on left and right side. For sound system he equips with old gears are as follows:

Projector 8mm films: Elmo ST-1200HD (2 projectors)
Amplifier: Denon PMN-360
Speaker: Technics

These equipments can create stereo sound amplification.

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During our visit to his resident, we (AVI, the magazine) can feel the old-fashioned ambience especially when Elmo ST-1200 HD is playing an old movie at 18 fps (frame per second) and showing a 10 minutes trailer in mono sound. According to Winbert, he has two identical projectors in aim to keep the continuation of a full feature movie because for 2 hours movie it is divided into 5 to 6 reels. “One reel is about 400 feet which is around 20 minutes. So for 120 minutes movies, there are 5-6 reels used”. Therefore every 20 minutes, every projector can play the reel in sequence uninterruptedly.

Winbert explains that although the home theatre does seem oldies but is not limited to play only old movies, because, he adds, “in overseas some new titles such as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) is also available in 8mm” says Winbert which is also a diplomat on his daily profession and is preparing his new assignment to Canada soon. “I buy many films from Ebay.com”, he explains more.

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Beside is being used for playing those pre-packed movies, his home theatre sometimes is also used for watching his own family documentation taken with an 8mm camera he owns, that is similar to what we have with Video Camcorder. The difference is on format i.e. using celluloid too.

His “camcorder” is Magsound SD 817M. He has two cameras and they are working well.

It is true that the enjoyment does not always come from today’s technology at least that what Winbert has told us. Winbert says that the 8mm projector is seen too complicated but that is the enjoyment side. No wonder that besides his old-fashioned home theatre, Winbert also provides his entertainment lounge with a turntable and a huge vinyl collection.

END **** END

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More pictures in the magazine



www.winbert.co.cc

cheers....

[ July 30, 2009, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: Winbert Hutahaean ]

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Winbert

posted December 07, 2012 08:31 AM                   

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Why did I think all this time you were a Canadian ? You look part Asian and I'm glad you are into ELMO projectors!

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Sorry to miss this question since two postings about article in magazine were resurrected at the same time.

Lakshmi, I am in Canada because the nature of my work which some of you might have known. If you back to my first postings in 2004/2005 you would see that most of them were about Fiji. Then between 2006-2009 were about Indonesia and now I am in Canada.

I will be in another country next time but I am not Canadian, far from that.

Yes, I am Asian, but most people in the world use the word "Asian' for people coming from oriental countries, but no I am Indonesian. Here in Canada I sometime was mistakenly was thought as a First nation (= native American)

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Winbert