8mm Forum: Who designed Derann's covers ?

This is topic Who designed Derann's covers ? in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=010109

Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on July 25, 2015, 04:15 PM:

Always been curious about this. Im thinking mainly of the glossy printed covers of the 80's. Titles like 633 squadron, Never Say Never Again, Neverending story, The Wild Geese, The Snowman, Star Wars etc.

Were these designed "In house" by the Derann staff at the time or did they get designed elsewhere. Im also assuming they were printed outside as I dont think Derann would have had facilities for colour printing back then.

Also did the Derann Disney deal include artwork for the boxes by Disney themselves or was it left to Derann.

Graham S

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 25, 2015, 05:00 PM:

Graham, I cannot begin to answer for all releases by any means but I know the Derann Disney artwork that turned into their covers were produced as a collaboration between the two companies and Disney were very strict regarding their wishes on which cover art had to be used for each print.

This is purely based on what i have read and hopefully someone from the Derann team will, in the near future give us all more detailed information as an insight to the every day inner workings of the Derann film dept in it's heyday.

I know our good friend Rob Young has spoken about this in the past, and I feel the time is right now, for a company who is steeped in history, for one of their ambassadors on here to enlighten the many people who are extremely interested in their products and their history.

It has to be said that much of the feature artwork from WB, Fox etc was merely stenciled B/W art placed onto coloured plain backgrounds and really wasn't anything to write home about.
These features deserve much better artwork I feel and I do my best to provide them with such.

Here's hoping for more information in the future Graham.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on July 25, 2015, 05:58 PM:

Ged Jones has put the name of the artist who did the 4 colour (not half-toned IIRC) pictures on his facebook page, but I can't find it at the moment. Those were printed in-house with a machine that did one colour per run, so sometimes registration of colours was not so good. It was the same printing machine used for newsletters and Film for the Collector, but when the metal printing plates it used became unavailable they had to use an outside printer.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 25, 2015, 06:07 PM:

Thanks for that Brian & indeed Ged!
That is a start at least and lets hope Ged will post on the dedicated forum for film users more in the future as well as the extremely intrusive FB website.

At least then we don't have to find out who is having a jacket potato with cheese for their lunch whilst discussing the far more interesting things of life!

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on July 26, 2015, 04:40 AM:

I so wish Ged would join us here; I've said it before and I'll say it again...he would be such a great and interesting source of information.

Posted by Steve Carter (Member # 4821) on July 26, 2015, 04:50 AM:

The registration of colour on a single colour machine should not be a problem the guillotine op would have cut a nice edge, and as long as you mark the lay edge and knock the paper up to that same edge, and adjustment of plates etc, registration should be perfect,always print extra sheets for reg and having washed the blankets, sleeves/stockings etc, between colours. Unless of course it was untrained staff running the machine...

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 26, 2015, 04:57 AM:

Now there are the words of an expert printer! [Wink]

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on July 26, 2015, 09:26 AM:

I've found Ged's post the relevant part is:- "It was at this point that we decided that we needed better packaging and started using the moulded plastic cases and improved artwork designed by Marianne Frost for the labels for all our future releases."
It seems Ged did the printing himself on a chain feed Gestetner offset machine and complained about the registration in the early days working it. Later they had an AB. Dick printer that improved things.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 26, 2015, 09:28 AM:

Very interesting Brian. Thanks for sharing that with us all!
Most appreciated. [Smile]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on July 26, 2015, 12:02 PM:

Andrew, your packaging and artwork looks stunning. Definitely worthy of the exceptional items they contain. [Smile]

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 26, 2015, 02:30 PM:

Thank you Paul for those very kind comments, I do my best [Wink]

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on July 26, 2015, 03:39 PM:

Andrew. Curious as to the box & reel sizes. They do look good.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 26, 2015, 03:41 PM:

1200ft David.

I have all the templates stored if anyone could ever use some of them if they have the same titles I have.
They are done using Microsoft Publisher.

I also have plenty of spare 1200ft card boxes.

I just use double sided tape to bond the two together for the full features, though decent paper glue will suffice I reckon.

I have Lee Mannering to thank for providing me with one of the original artworks pictured here. [Smile]

Posted by Graham Sinden (Member # 431) on July 26, 2015, 07:27 PM:

Thanks for your answers so far.

Andrew, excellent boxes as many have said. look very professional.

Thanks Brian for that info. Very interesting as we would all like to know more about the day to day running of Derann.

I do feel the 1980's is where Derann produced their best covers before they moved to a more generic label in the 90's (apart from the Disneys) and eventually just a small sticker on plain white boxes.

Graham S

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on July 26, 2015, 08:27 PM:

Andrew's boxes and artwork perfectly illustrate the kind of creative involvement and satisfaction that one gets from all aspects of film collecting, which simply is not offered by collecting the digital media.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on July 27, 2015, 03:44 PM:

To find out more about the day to day running at Derann yo will have to join the BFCC Facebook page mentioned in another post as Ged at least will not post here due to some of the responses to other posts in the past. I can understand them not wanting the hassle and preferring a place where they can choose who they post to.

Posted by Andrew Woodcock (Member # 3260) on July 27, 2015, 03:57 PM:

Thanks for the advice Brian and your explanation does of course make perfect sense.
The new FB group is really interesting already and it is only in it's infancy.
Who knows what we can all learn from it the more it continues from Ged and others on there?

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on July 28, 2015, 07:47 AM:

Regards that, who were the technicians on the older 8mm boxes? CORONET, ATLAS, CARNIVAL, CASTLE, KEN, MOUNTAIN and others - Shorty

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2