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Author
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Topic: My First Projector
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 11, 2008 07:54 PM
Graham Ritchie's thread on the Bell and Howell projectors in schools got me all nostalgic, and I started to think about how I originally got hooked on cine. I think I was probably about 10 years old when I came across an old 35mm toy projector which a friend had swapped with me. It was a very basic machine, just a Maltese Cross mechanism, no shutter, a feed reel, and no take up at all, the film spilled on the floor. The lamp was a standard 100 watt household bulb, and the condenser lens was so poor that picture size had to be limited to about 6 ins wide. I managed to get some 35 mm off- cuts from the local cinema and ran them through the projector. The picture was dim, and with no shutter there was severe ghosting, but it moved and I was at the same time fascinated by the toy machine but yearned for something better.
Sometime later, a group of us 11 year old boys were at this house and one of the boys said he was going to put on a film show using a projector his dad had just given him as a birthday present. Curtains were drawn, lights dimmed, and a little hand cranked projector was ceremoniously placed on the table. A reel of film was threaded through this intriguing looking machine and suddenly, on the wall, was a bright crystal clear moving image of Mickey Mouse! This was quickly followed by a film which had Bing Crosby being chased by a gorilla, and another one about mounted police in a great western shootout! This was what I was looking for, a true miniature cinema projector that could show real films with astonishing clarity. After the show everyone poured around the little projector and I could see that it used a tiny strip of film with holes punched down the middle. I was informed that the film was something called “9.5mm” and the projector was made by some company called Pathescope, and it was called an ‘ ACE’.
I knew I had to get an Ace, so I saved up all my pocket money for months on end and eventually got one , along with a 60ft reel called ‘Northwest Justice’. This started me renting 9.5mm films from the local camera shop, and I quickly set up shows for the local kids in the shed in our garden, charging them sixpence each to pay for the rentals. On that little screen, in flickering yellow images, were shown such great films as ‘The Informer’, ‘ Blackmail’ , ‘Metropolis’, ‘Q- Ships’, along with Charlie Chaplin’s, Popeye’s, and Disney shorts.
At this stage of the game, while still enthralled with the little ACE, I really wanted a more professional projector, one with a motor and sprockets, and bigger reels. A friend of mine had a Dekko 9.5mm machine which seemed to be what I was looking for. I swapped him my ACE, but it was a bad move. Despite the joy of a motorized machine I quickly found out that the picture quality from the Dekko was nowhere near what I had got on the little ACE.
At about this time I purchased a 9.5mm ‘PAT’ camera and took my very first dip into cinematography. My first 30ft reel of the local park was ok, but another friend had me over to his house one day to show me some of his 8mm films. I was blown away at the quality of his 8mm pics projected on a Specto 500, and in glorious color too! It made my 9.5mm black and white efforts look primitive, and I was immediately and totally sold on 8mm. Quickly followed a Eumig P8 projector and C8 camera.
The rest, as they say, is history! But even though I now have picture and sound quality undreamed of back then, I still cherish the memory of that little Ace, and how much enjoyment it brought me then (and still does), and how it stimulated a life long joy of cine.
[ May 09, 2008, 03:50 PM: Message edited by: Paul Adsett ]
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The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 11, 2008 08:14 PM
Excellent Paul!,
My first machine isn't so exotic. When I was 17 my parents bought me the little appreciated Kodak Moviedeck for Christmas. It's actually a neat little machine: gentle on film and with an autothread mechanism that is extremely reliable.
When I went into sound, this one got pushed to the side, what with the mighty 50W lamp, 400 foot capacity, 18 FPS only and of course silent.
It's kind of a piece of editing equipment now. Whenever I get a 50 footer back from the lab and I want to see it before dark I put in on this machine and pull out the built in screen and I'm in business. Lacking reel arms and with the takeup reel built in, it's basically set up as soon as you plug it in.
Can't be too nostalgic about it: it's still here and it still works!
My first exposure to Cine was the lady across the street and her home movies. They were really awful, but I loved the experience of watching them. I remember looking in the Sears catalog at "Sears' Best Super-8 Movie Outfit" ($199 in 1970 or so) and dreaming what I could do if I got my 7 year old hands on "one of those".
When I got my first part time job, I got a camera. The projector followed a few months later. I guess even a 17 year old can fulfill a life-long dream.
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Hugh McCullough
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 156
From: Old Coulsdon. Surrey. UK
Registered: Oct 2006
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posted March 12, 2008 08:15 AM
My introduction to projection was as a seven year old in 1948.
I was invited to a school, friend's birthday party, and instead of having party games we played with this nifty little projector, a Pathescope Ace, that belonged to his father.
This was the first time I had seen a projector, and I was fascinated by it.
Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Donald Duck, The Trooping of the Colour (in B & W), and a very short film about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, were all projected on the screen at various speeds. We had a great time speeding up, and slowing down, the hand crank rate.
I had to have a machine, but as I was too young to have a paper round, no way could I afford a projector.
This all changed when I attained the age of thirteen. I could now legally have a paper round, and saved up to by a projector.
Can't remember what it was, but I obtained it from a local junk shop for ten shillings. It used 16mm film, and illumination was from a 100w household bulb.
Short 16mm films could be purchased from some toy shops for about 5 shillings. These I remember were mostly off cuts from British Movietone News reels.
Over the next three years I had many other machines, all brought from second hand shops, but when attaining the age of 16, I became a beneficiary from a relative who left me £100 in their will.
With this I was able to buy, for £65, a GBL516, and screen, both brand new, from the Admiralty who were selling off war surplus.
I then compounded this madness for film projectors by becoming a professional projectionist at the age of 18, a job that I am still doing.
Funny thing is that I have never had any interest in cine photography, but still photography is my other hobby.
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EIKI Ex 6100 xenon machine.
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David Pannell
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1072
From: Horsham, West Sussex, UK
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted March 12, 2008 10:53 AM
Knocks my experiences with a Eumig P8 into a 'cocked hat'!
I guess I must have been unlucky.
Though I inherited it from my father - it always seemed to work OK while he had it - but when it came to me, I had nothing but trouble with it. The speed control slider knob fell off, the black plastic sprocket covers fell off, and it became very noisy.
Not knowing any better, I chucked it! Then I bought another Eumig, an S614D, which chewed films like nobody's business. This model only had a selector switch to change from standard 8 to super 8, not like the later ones with different sprockets and gates.
I then bought another dual gauge Eumig, the S810D, which I have just sold. This was an infinitely better machine with no trouble at all. However, having been bitten by dual gauge systems, I decided to risk it no longer, and that's when I became an Elmo fan.
I began with my beautiful E-80 and then acquired Kevin's mint ST1200HD.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
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Dave.
Valves and celluloid - a great combination!
Early technology rules OK!
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Graham Ritchie
Film God
Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted March 12, 2008 02:17 PM
Paul
Excellent article, I never came across anything to do with home movies until the mid 70s where at that time I worked for the local aero club. The chief engineer sold me his Bolex SM8 projector soon a movie camera was to follow and that was the start of my interest in Super8 film. later when our children were born I used Super8 to send 200ft of film to my parents in the UK about every 6 months. I persuaded them to buy a projector and for many years Super8 was the only way to visually keep in touch of their grandchildren growing up I understand they watched them a lot, we did manage three trips back to the UK the last in 94 when Steven was just over 7 years old and came along with me, and for the few weeks we were there we had a great time sadly it was to be our last, a few years after the 94 trip and out of the blue a box arrived with all those films my parents were concerned that if anything was to happen to them the films could be lost, although we seldom watch them they are the ones we treasure the most.
Graham.
PS. Well its been a sad week the person I referred to as the one who got me involved in Super8 passed away, and today I went to his funeral many of the people in attendance I have not seen in over 20 years he had a vast collection of films and well over 60 projectors and during his retirement spent many hours restoring them to working condition, if the part was not available he would make one. I worked for the aero club from 1975 to 1986 with a total staff of 4 we maintained a fleet of 19 aircraft. I still have quite a bit of Super8 taken from those long ago days, one short film of me doing a pre-flight at 9fps we did some silly things in those days, I did not realize at that time how much of an impact Super8 was later to become on our lives.
[ March 13, 2008, 01:39 AM: Message edited by: Graham Ritchie ]
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted March 15, 2008 11:46 AM
Wow, nolstalgia!
When I was in high school (82-84) we had a "media" class, and our teacher was hooked up with the local movie theater, and he got loaded up with a truly MASSIVE bunch of 16MM trailers, (boy, I wish I still had all those trailers, some really rare ones there), as well as a full sized poster for "The Land That Time Forgot", (miss that too)
Well, he let me have any trailers I wanted, and I learned how to splice with the cement at that time too ...
Well ...
About that time, I was in a Salvation Army store, and I saw a 16MM projector, single sprocket, but it was VERY ancient. It didn't have a back to it, and the wire belts would often fall off of it, but I could project the 16MM trailers on it, (without sound). It was some form of "Keystone" projector. Heavy bastard it was.
I still have the lense to it!
(Strange that I never got into 16MM)
I think it had some form of "Lantern" in the title of the projector. If I saw a picture of it, I would remember it.
The first projector I ever saw was my dads Eumig P8! Wow, what sexy little number that was, with those cool fold out handles, and even the option of rewinding yourself! My favorite little film that we watched on there was a silent film called "Cinderellas Cinders", which had a funny chase scene with all these women chasing each other, (with a fat one always taking up the "rear" hah!)
Memories!!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
.I started with a Bing 35mm handcranker which cost me half-a-crown.Then I had a flirtation with a Dux Cine that showed a limited animation film in a horizontal mode!Finally I got an ACE-which I motorised.![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
.Footage that is quite embarressing nowdays!
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