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Topic: Silvoscreen
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted August 28, 2008 04:51 PM
Mark Sylvester and his family visited me at my home here in Florida a couple of years ago. A very nice chap, and what a great young family he has! We had a very good visit and I showed him my film gear and Panny 700.
I thought 'Silvo Screen' started out as an excellent forum, with a good balance between film and DVD. Mark put an awful lot of work into it, and he posted a lot of really interesting stuff. Unfortunatly there were one or two forum members who delighted in bashing film collectors. They were obviously ex-film collectors themselves, and probably having sold off all their gear and films to jump onto projected DVD, they ridiculed anybody who was still in the film camp. They started to dominate the forum, and possibly that may be part of the reason Mark decided to shut it down.
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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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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted September 03, 2008 06:02 AM
I was a member there for quite a while, and I think I gained some 'grudging respect' from the anti-film faction, because I continues to post polite pro-film messages despite the tirade of derision and cynicism that such messages brought.
I must respectfully say that some of the above posts take a rather 'rose tinted' view, as the forum became incredibly hostile towards film collecting, the BFCC organisers and some members here. This forum had no significant involvement in starting this, although some posts here that had nothing to do with Silvoscreen were used to start insulting threads there.
There were at least 3 extremely anti-film persons at the forefront there; someone from Northern Ireland (can't recall his name, many people used nicknames) who posted very surreal messages and particularly disliked Derann and GSs; a bitter guy (also can't recall his name) who used to do the sound recording on some early Classic HC releases on his GS (he made the sarcastic Wallace and Grommit reference mentioned); and Mark himself, who seemed to become very negative partly due to being ripped off in a 16mm transaction. He used to rant about people involved in 8mm that he considered a sort of attention-seeking Mafia, drawing a distinction between himself and people that were not around in "the early days" of film collecting. His more extreme posts even accused collectors of being decadent people spending fortunes instead of "putting food on the table" for their families! Although I acknowledge that he brought Adrian Simmonds on board, no doubt to further Mark's agenda of promoting electronic projection, he previously aggravated Derann staff by making references to what he claimed to have heard from a "little bird", which he never substantiated, but one such reference falsley predicted that Derann was about to pull out of 8mm.
But some of the anti-film derision was relatively innocent posts along the lines of "you're stuck in the past while were embracing all that modern technology has to offer"
I don't think anyone who remembers Silvoscreen in some detail would question the accuracy of the above, and I'm sure Mark would confirm this to anyone that's still in touch with him!
[ September 03, 2008, 10:47 PM: Message edited by: Adrian Winchester ]
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Adrian Winchester
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Mike Peckham
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1461
From: West Sussex, UK.
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted September 03, 2008 09:49 AM
Adrian, I think you have summed the forum up very succinctly. I was one of those people who received more than one personal attack through the postings on the Silvo Screen, and whilst I was a member in the early days, I dropped out of it when the strange cleekyness and hostility began to set in.
It seemed to attract angry people, most of whom had an axe to grind, unfortunately the voices of the decent few like Mal, Paul and yourself were rather lost amongst the vitriol of the majority.
Like you, I think that Paul and Mal are being characteristically generous in their comments.
I was certainly not sorry to hear that it had closed.
As an aside, I think one of the things that makes this forum stand out from the rest is the use of real names – it seems to encourage people to act more decently towards each other. I for one find it difficult to have a frank and honest discussion with someone calling themselves Boxfish, Sunflower or BJ!
Mike
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Auntie Em must have stopped wondering where I am by now...
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