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Topic: BFCC Ruislip
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 28, 2011 07:59 AM
Well I am now back in Florida after my two week trip to the UK and my vist to the 60th BFCC in Ruislip.
So here are some of my thoughts on this years BFCC..........
First, the venue. I thought the Winston Churchill Hall was an excellent replacement for the Ealing Town Hall. I was delighted to be greeted by the ever cheerful John Bird as I drove into the main entrance to the beautiful grounds.The theaters stadium seating was of course ideal, ensuring everyone a great unobstructed view of the screen, and the seats were very comfortable. If there was a downside, it was that the projection equipment had to be crammed into a small railed off area at the top rear of the theater, giving Keith and John much less space to spread out, and no doubt making operation of the equipment a little more difficult. In the main building, there was one dealers hall, and the space was perhaps a little cramped compared to that at Ealing, but there were two additional rooms in an annex building, where 'second tier' dealers were positioned. I really liked the park-like setting, where you could take a break and go outside on the picnic tables, and the refreshment facilities were far superior to Ealing, being manned by a great staff serving up fresh sandwiches, cooked breakfasts, and hot meals - a HUGE improvement over the food facilities at Ealing.
I did not get to see all the shows, as I was spending a lot of time scanning the dealers displays and picking up a few short films to take home. (Features were out for me, not because of cost, there were many bargains, but because of weight and bulk for flying). I picked up a few great items - a reel of Bette Davis trailers, a brand new print of a Look at Life about British holiday camps in the 1950's, a rare 400 foot Castle Film of Benny Goodman in Concert in color, an as new print of WDHM The Dwarfs Dilemma, and a 300ft 9.5mm film about King George VI.
I did get to see Saturday morning super 8 show, and the new Classic Home Cinema releases. As usual John Clancy's HTI GS1200 threw a beautiful bright image on that huge screen. I particularly liked the inclusion of a short promotional reel for Walt Disney Home Movies which I had never seen before.
Of the new release from Classic, I liked the animated cartoons, but did not like the psycedelic Autobahn which seemed to me like an LSD trip! Keith and John clearly were wrestling with some technical issues during some of the shows, including some occasional unsteady 16mm projection, acoustic hum, and the coup de gras the shearing of the shutter pin of the Sprockethole's 35 mm projector!! This happened just as Mal Brake and I had settled down to wave the Welsh flag during the 35mm showing of Zulu! Anyone who has ever had to phase a shutter on a movie projector knows that it is not a 5 minute job, and a dismayed Keith had to unfortunately cancel the last show of the day. But, I did not meet one collector who was griping about this, we all know that these things happen whenever you run 'reel' films, and in a way it was all part of the fun.
For me, the best part of the day was having a chance to say hello to all the forum members, such as Keith Ashfield, Colin Hunt, Graham Sinden, Kev, Tiv in 'real D 3D', and of course fellow Glamorganite Mal Brake, and big Lee Mannering. Also had a great lunchtime conversation with Ken Locke, who turned out to be a treasure trove of information on all the various film color systems.
So for me, it was a great and memorable day, well worth the trip over, and I would urge more US collectors to attend next year.
As for the future of the BFCC, I now read that the BFCC did not recoup all their costs. This being the case I see no reason that the admission fee next year should not be raised to 15 or twenty pounds. I dont think collectors would object to this at all - where else can you get such a great day out these days for that price? The main thing is to keep the BFCC going as long as Keith and Company are still willing to do it.
Well done Keith and John!
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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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