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Topic: Cine fans or not?

Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted July 21, 2013 09:08 AM

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I recently advertised a couple of 16mm shorts that I acquired as part of a package. I put them on a site where advertising is free, rather than Ebay. I had 2 enquiries, both asking the same question, 'What size is a 400ft reel'. Makes me wonder if these people own a projector or just looking for something for retail. I didn't get a response from the 1st one, I think he expected to get a full length feature for £8. Now just waiting to hear from the second one, who also wants to know if I have any spare 400ft reels. Seems like they don't have a take up reel.

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Allan Broadfield
Master Film Handler

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From: Bromley, Kent
Registered: Nov 2010

posted July 21, 2013 09:37 AM

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Let's face it, ours is an expensive hobby, but with projectors selling at sometimes very low prices, or being discovered in lofts, some people will be tempted in without any idea of what they're doing, until they look deeper and find the price of even the shortest subject is way beyond the pocket of someone who's used to paying pennies for their DVD's. As with some hobbies,you've got to be ever so slightly insane to indulge yourself, and our is a prime example.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

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From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted July 21, 2013 09:43 AM

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Most 16mm projectors probably wouldn't be happy having a 400' spool on their take-up.

--------------------
Maurice

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted July 21, 2013 12:24 PM

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I was quite shocked by the reply I had from the 2nd enquirer, especially as he appeared from his photo to be a senior citizen. I had told him where he could find some 400ft reels; he replied that I had done myself out of a sale as he only wanted the reel and would have destroyed the film.

I replied to him that had I known in advance what his intentions were I wouldn't sell the film to him.

Money isn't the beginning and end of everything.

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Vidar Olavesen
Film God

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From: Sarpsborg, Norway
Registered: Nov 2012

posted July 21, 2013 12:41 PM

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That should almost be made a law against that ... Destroy film makes my heart weep.

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted July 21, 2013 05:48 PM

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I's so strange the folks of today ...

Digital doesn't help any, as what most folks see in the movie theater may well look like film, may even have an "acceptable" amount of grain ect to the picture ....

But they are only paying top dollar in the movie theater to see a DVD on a big BIG screen and the funniest part of it, they are literally paying as much to go to the theater to watch that DVD (well, it's on a Hard Drive, but it's a DVD as far as I'm concerned), as they would pay for it actually on DVD, for sale in perhaps, oh, a few weeks to a few months?

Gimmie Cine any day of the week!!!!

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Paul Adsett
Film God

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From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 21, 2013 07:05 PM

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Osi, Digital projection with blu ray is now so good at home that it takes something exceptional for me to want to go out to the cinema. I was watching the blu ray of Cleopatra last week on my 10ft scope screen, and the quality was staggering - certainly up to anything I would see at a multiplex, and much better comfort and cinema ambience. I think many people, who watch, and judge, DVD's and Blu Rays on large flat panel TV'S are really missing out. IMO there is no comparison between digital projection on a large home screen in a dark room, and a large flat panel TV with room lights on. I think home blu ray projection is now up to 35mm standards without question.
None of which affects my love of the 'reel' film hobby.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 21, 2013 07:14 PM

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quote:
...he only wanted the reel and would have destroyed the film.

I think your "friend" was looking for decor for his home video theater.

-very common these days: atmospherics without substance!

I saw a TV show where an antique dealer snapped up a 16mm projector for this purpose: didn't even ask if it worked!

Anybody remember the one a few years ago where somebody stuck a fan grill on top of a projector and called it a fruit bowl?

Projector made "useful" once again!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Hugh Thompson Scott
Film God

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From: Gt. Clifton,Cumbria,England
Registered: Jan 2012

posted July 21, 2013 07:16 PM

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Robert, just shows that there is no such thing as "common sense",
Vidar, I share that opinion, as no doubt do many others, even if
a film is past it's best, it can still be used as leader or tail, but not
destroyed.
Osi, I agree there, in a previous thread we spoke of the "drive in
cinemas", which are a part of your culture, literally being systematically destroyed. I honestly believe that there ought
to be some sort of preservation order placed on these institutions.The industry that is pushing for digital, does owe
the hardworking folk that have put money in the Corporate pocket for decades., and should help pay for new screening equipment.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 21, 2013 07:44 PM

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The issue with Drive-In Theaters is they aren't in demand as much as they once were and they can't meet expenses on their income. Their business model is actually not to make money on admissions but on concession sales. This makes them not so much a movie theater but a really small restaurant with a really huge, elaborate parking lot. As a result of people turning to other entertainment they have been slowly dying off since about 1970. It's not so much the studios that killed them, it's the expense of holding large parcels of land vs. the lot of people who would rather stay home and watch the tube.

The fact that any normal adverse weather condition including good old daylight cancels the show is just icing on the cake. At least a hardtop theater can run 24/7/365 if there are butts to fill the seats.

I'm a huge fan of them, I go every time I get the chance, but I'd rather see them go under than live in a society where people are forced to keep them open when nobody in the neighborhood wants them anymore.

Times change. Everything is temporary including ourselves and no human pretense will ever change that.

-none of which has anything to do with Robert and his reels.

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted July 22, 2013 07:18 AM

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Steve, you could be right about home décor, Ihave seen 35mm reels turned into clocks. Unfortunately, you can't stop progress. At least we still have our equipment.

Hugh, I never waste film; when I was shooting super 8, even if the cartridge jammed, I saved the film and used it as leader, or more often on the tail, as some of those mountain prints weren't so generous at the end. I got a couple of 16mm features recently (B&W), in which the leader had been taken from a coloured print.

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Steve Klare
Film Guy

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From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted July 22, 2013 08:50 AM

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Do you think 20 years from now when people have their entire "film collections" stored on some sort of thumb drive they'll hang DVDs on the wall?

It's actually kind of funny that somebody who would sooner hug a leper than show a film on a reel has to have a projector or a reel on the shelf just to feel cinematic.

It's like somebody who "hunts" on X-box having a plastic deer head above their fireplace!

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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

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Pasquale DAlessio
Film God

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From: Bristol,RI, USA
Registered: May 2010

posted July 22, 2013 08:54 AM

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quote:
Money isn't the beginning and end of everything.

But it sure is a great start if you have it [Wink]

[Wink]

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted July 22, 2013 09:27 AM

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I was just surprised that a man of senior years would think nothing of destroying a film print from the 1950s so that that he can get a reel.

There are lots of people in the UK who mutilate antique books by removing the plates, framing them, and selling them at high prices.

Further to my other posting 'The Ultimate Survivor' about a private historic cinema in Oxford, they show classic films 2 days a week. I received an email from them to say that whenever possible they project film. I enquired about 'The River' (1951), starring Esmond Knight and Arthur Shields; I have never seen this film but it has good reviews on IMDB, mostly about the beautiful Technicolor photography. They informed me that this will be shown from a 35mm print, so this is a must see for me.

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Graham Ritchie
Film God

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From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted July 22, 2013 06:38 PM

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Robert
At last a 35mm presentation [Smile]

[Smile]

just hope the person projecting it is up to the task [Big Grin]

[Big Grin]

....you never know these days.

When we were closing down the cinema, the manager from "Kodak Express" in the mall asked if he could have some 35mm 2000ft reels and some film for display. I gave him the reels etc.

Later I went into his store to see what he had done with the stuff...nothing.. [Mad]

[Mad]

I asked why?...he replied not for the store "home instead", he seemed embarrassed at the thought of displaying any of it in the store, after all "Kodak Express" is into the digital world aint it..

I told him he should do a bit of research into "Kodak" itself before dismissing the idea of using film and reels as a display, anyway, I thought no way he was to get any more, instead I gave heaps away to the kids and parents during the last week.

I always remember the last full time manager the place had, when I was running film from a platter down the roof to cinema three. She looked at it in amazement then made the silly mistake to refer to it as "video tape" [Mad]

[Mad]

she got a full broadside from me over that one....she never did that again.....grumpy projectionist [Wink]

[Wink]

Graham.

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted July 23, 2013 02:53 AM

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Graham, a very sad day for you when the cinema closed down. Personally I think the rot set in when we went from a single screen to 3 in one and possibly more. I remember going to a cinema on holiday in 1983 and being told that if I wanted any sweets or refreshments to buy them now as they didn't have anyone coming round during the interval, and also you had to buy them before the lights went down as there was no usherette with a torch to show you to a seat.
As this presentation is going to be in 35mm I want to experience the real cinema, as I don't know how many more opportunities there will be. This cinema is still single screen. On my last couple of visits to a cinema that had become multiscreen, the room was very plain, and more like an oversized garage.

In NZ did you have the equivalent of the ABC Minors?. I only went the once, I don't remember the main feature, but prior to that they showed Buster Keaton in 'Paleface'.

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John Yapp
Expert Film Handler

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From: Telford England.
Registered: Dec 2011

posted July 23, 2013 06:04 AM

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Robert, (or anyone..)
I have an old Sherlock Holmes feature on 16mm that is missing the last 10 minutes or so, and has shrunk a little. It projects, but the fact that it's missing the ending makes it useless as a film to watch. It's ok as a test film, but just using 400ft of the film or so would achieve this so what to do with the rest of it? I find the suggestion of using film as leader a bit off-putting, as I'm sure it would detract from the actual film one was showing. If anyone wants it they are more than welcome to it for free.

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Robert Crewdson
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1031
From: UK
Registered: Jun 2013

posted July 23, 2013 06:43 AM

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John, I only used unexposed film as leader. A few minutes in Domestos Bleach would burn off the image. Getting 16mm leader is quite difficult, I only found 2 suppliers on Ebay, nothing shown on the websites of Widescreen Centre or Stanley Productions. The leaders available now are more like film, rather than the thicker Kodak white that we all remember. Shame about your film missing 10 mins.

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Vidar Olavesen
Film God

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From: Sarpsborg, Norway
Registered: Nov 2012

posted July 23, 2013 06:44 AM

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Someone might have an incomplete, so still okay for keeping as a help to others (space is a problem I guess) or as you kindly say, give it away for free.

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