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Topic: A Return To My First Love - Super 8mm!
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Ali Hipperson
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 106
From: London, England
Registered: Oct 2016
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posted November 01, 2016 06:02 AM
Good morning and a further thanks to Janice, Dominique and Adrian for their warm welcome. I take your point Adrian and certainly won't look on it as a chore, rather a very pleasant new way of conversing with other like-minded people about my 'first love'! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Well it all began back in December 1978 when just before my 16th birthday (and having saved and scraped together all my pennies over the previous two years and asked my parents for money rather than a birthday and Christmas present that year) I set-off up town to the Photo-Value store on Tottenham Court Road - chaperoned by my dad, as I was carrying the huge sum of £130 on me!
Having previously been deeply disappointed on my first attempt to buy a projector (but that's another story!) this time I had done my research and made sure that this time my mission would succeed.
The projector I had painstakingly selected for purchase was a Voigtlander Dynalux Super 8mm. It was duly purchased by me from the store (under the watchful eye of my father!) and we then returned home to east London in my father's car - just as well as trying to carry a rather large and heavy box on the subway might have proved problematic.
Now with my pride and joy back safe and sound at home (but not to be used until my birthday - a week before Christmas) the next thing to sort out was the purchasing of some films in time for the festive season, only one problem - I was now completely broke with not a penny to my name ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
'Sometimes it's good to come from a large family!' - indeed, I have four siblings and each Christmas we would be expected to buy each other a present to the value of £5. Therefore, my next plan was simply to ask them all for their 'fivers' and I told them that I would save them a great deal of time searching and travelling to the shops and instead would buy my own presents to me on their behalf - simple!
Solvent again (and as soon as the school term finished) I once again headed, this time alone, up town in the week leading up to Christmas Day. This time I was headed towards 55 Shaftesbury Avenue and the home of 'Portland Films'
I had been preparing for this day for the previous two years when I suddenly realised (another story!)that my heart belonged to all things Cine and Super8mm related. for those past two years all I could afford was to buy (religiously) the Movie-Maker and Film-Making magazines every month together with sending-off for the various distributor's 'film-lists'.
Indeed, the 'Mailmaster/Portland list/catalogue was the one I had been going through cover to cover in the weeks leading up to the purchase of my projector.
So with the princely sum of £20 in my pocket I was able to purchase the following films:
Chaplin's 'Easy Street' - 400' - £5
Marx Bros 'A Night in Casablanca' - 400' sound - £10
Laurel & Hardy 'Flying Deuces' - 200' sound - £5
Needless to say I was delighted with my first trip to a REAL home-movie store and even more pleased with my first ever purchases - which were exactly the ones that I wanted to buy on the day!
The wait over the next 2/3 days for Christmas Day to come seemed like a lifetime - but, as always, Christmas comes to all good boys who are patient and as soon as the family had gone through the ritual opening of presents early Christmas morning, I was straight back up to my bedroom for my first projection session where I ran all three films one after the other. I was still in my 'PJ's' and had to be dragged out of my room for our family late mourning breakfast!
Thereafter and in the following years my collecting really took-off, especially as I started my first job in the summer of '79 and then had a source of a regular income to fund my beloved hobby
As always, there's more if anyone is interested - but I think you all deserve a rest for now!! ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Many thanks for allowing me to express this most wonderful of experiences here on this forum.
Two of the most enjoyable threads that I have discovered on here are the 'show us your home cinema' and 'what films did you run last night'. If I may be so bold and unless it has already been covered, maybe a thread where people might want to share with other interested members, how they first discovered/got into this most wonderful of pastimes might be of interest?? Just a thought ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Anyway, and in anticipation, many thanks for those of you who read the above.
Ali.
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We're going to need a bigger shelf!
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Andrew Woodcock
Film God
Posts: 7477
From: Manchester Uk
Registered: Aug 2012
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posted November 01, 2016 06:29 AM
Here is one of the "said" stories...
I've had 3 stints at this hobby in my lifetime although two contain blurred lines.
By the time I was 7 in 1973, I had my first projector, before that, I had a fascination with those toy slide projectors that had strips of cartoon slides on them to push and pull through the lamphouse.
As I've said before, I got for Christmas that year a Casdon Standard 8mm silent toy projector with no rewind facility and a 6v motorcycle bulb to illuminate the screen.
No shutter was fitted to this projector either.
By 10years of age I had my first dual gauge silent grown up projector.
By 11 years. of age I got my first Super 8mm sound projector and sound films for yet another Christmas present .
I then after a few years drifted away from the hobby with my attentions and other interests began to take precedence over my love for film and film projectors.
Namely Football, Music and DJ Gear and girls!..
Not always necessarily in that order either!
Quite a few years of this lifestyle ensued before one day well into my early 20's but not yet married, I suddenly got the urge to look up my old hobby once again.
By this time it was towards the late 80's.
Jubilee Film library where I'd previously always visited as a youngster had moved across the road in A.U.L. to a much bigger shop than I had memories of and Cyril the owner told me the only Super 8mm film he still had left (new) was Disney's 400ft extract of The Black Hole.
He was clearing his old stock so I got it for £5.
By this time Cyril of Jubillee Films was solely a VHS video cassette dealer.
Feeling somewhat disheartened yet still very much riddled with nostalgia, I asked Cyril if there were any dealers still left selling cine film?
He told me of a company in the Midlands that were still dealing in film called Derann!
He gave me their address and phone number. (No internet back then let's not forget!)
As soon as I was home I phoned the number and spoke to a very polite voice on the other end of the phone that suddenly began to make me realize that chasing this childhood nostalgic interest further, was not a complete waste of time as I first thought.
Within a few weeks I had catalogues and pamphlets galore all over the bedroom just full of ideas of what I could still buy on Super 8mm both new and used.
It was just so exciting!!
Let's not forget, we hadn't even begun to hit the Derann heydays by this stage!
From these exciting new revelations, I drove in a heartbeat down to Dudley in my car and purchased quite a few of the brand new Universal double digests they had on their shelves that day.
I bought 1200ft reels, lamps, card boxes, splices, cine film, film cleaner and just about anything else I thought would be useful to me in the future within the restraints of the money I had on me on that day.
That was it! I was smitten!!
From then on it was one film after another, one ST 1200 after another and the dream of one day finally owning a GS 1200 with f1.0 lens.
In those days Derann got their hands on hundreds of different projectors each year, but each time, all the very best went usually before their 2nd hand list dropped through your letterbox!
Before this ever materialized and in the early 90's life had moved on for me. I was
A house owner, a new husband and in the not too distant future, a new Dad.
I wanted by 98, the best digital av equipment I could afford.
Given the above, I was left with no choice than to sell it all back to Derann if I wanted to continue to enjoy the big screen adding more and more fresh titles.
DVD and their players was now a realistic and viable alternative, or so I thought, and that was therefore the avenue I pursued.
This continued right up until the closure of Derann ironically.
Then I was at an even more different stage of life and there were many many unfilled ambitions upon hearing this very sad news regarding Derann.
By now my kids were all but adults within their own rights and I went for it, while I still had one last ounce of a chance of finding all I had previously drooled over but never had the opportunity to own.
That was some six years ago now and I'm still at it, loving every minute of my on going daily searches.
So all in all, since the very humble beginnings all those years ago looking at my mum's Kay's catalogue at the images of that toy projector, 45 years have passed.
My interest today, is stronger than ever and this hobby, no matter how many times you may turn your back on it, or take knock backs from it, it simply gets in your blood for a lifetime! ...enjoy the journey!!
And here is another extract i've just found, this time speaking solely about the Casdon silent projector memories as a child....
Del had the very same one I had first in early 70's!! Amazing!!! Ha ha ha.
Somewhere on here I posted I photo of it. No rewind facility, you had to turn the reels around.
6v motorcycle bulb and the equivalent brightness to a torch.....I loved it!!! Ha ha ha.
Mine came from Kay's catalogue for a Xmas pressie from mum and dad and initially I had 2 x 50ft silent shorts to go with it Woodpecker from Mars and Do You Like Snow, both b/ w.
In the box the projector came with was a 30ft short of Tweetie Pie in colour!!!!!, WOW! Ha ha ha.
I wish my dad had worked for Casdon instead of being a printer in the days Sogat had clout. Ha ha ha.
Anyhow Casdon should have been paid a kings ransom by the likes of Elmo and Derann.
Here we still are, Del and I, buying cine gear to this day, still keen as ever!
Incidentally, it was noisier than the Beaulieu, the Casdon could handle 200ft of film, the Beaulieu 2200ft! ..go figure??
It was my Dads brother, my uncle Fred that pointed it out to me in the catalogue. Before that I was showing him one of those kids slide projectors with cartoons on a strip of card.
"Here you go r Andrew," he said. "This is what you want, a cinematograph!" He termed it as.
And the rest as they say, is now history. I do hope somehow he's watching down on me now with the films, he'd have loved to have seen a few I'm certain.
My Dad told me of the time my Uncle Fred had brought a top title home from the cinema where he had been working! Ha ha ha. He took it back the next day somehow without anyone realizing what he'd done but apparently he showed that film somehow in my Gran and Grandads house to my Dad, his other brothers and a few of his mates! A rum old bugger was my Uncle Fred!
Ah happy days eh.
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"C'mon Baggy..Get with the beat"
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