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I find I'm enjoying Castle 16mm shorts a lot lately. The ones I know are all 400 feet and sound, and black and white. They often involve some kind of sporting event from many decades ago.
I got into these in kind of an odd way: my son has a dual-gauge 8mm machine, so when I found out about Three Bruins in a Canoe in R8 silent, I bought it for him, since we canoe quite often. Lo and Behold I saw it after that in 16mm with sound right around the time I got a 16mm machine, and after that the chase was on!
Some I've snagged in the meantime are Ski-Mania, Calgary Stampede, Daredevils on Ice, Hawaii World Parade and most of the Bruins series.
These seem to be profoundly under-represented on Super-8. One I do have is "Sky Diving" which is sound and black and white. (I'll have to say: even as a pretty big fan of black and white, I wish this particular reel was color!) To my knowledge, the Bruins never made in onto S8 sound: kind of a pity.
Maybe this is some personal interest. My Mom had a job on Park Avenue at the Universal Studios Building where she worked IBM keypunch shipping consignments of Castle films to retailers. Maybe 8 years ago she visited and I showed her a Castle short. She said "That's great! I've never seen one before!". (You would think they'd show a few and keep the Troops enthusiastic, but...)
She left that job when I was born. (Let's hope that this remains the most damaging thing I ever do to small-gauge film!)😊
These films are just neat little shorts that you use like you would a cartoon: just something entertaining to wake the audience up before the feature! These days with that sharp black and white image and vintage ambience, they have a nostalgic look that just feels right.
-any other enthusiasts?
I got into these in kind of an odd way: my son has a dual-gauge 8mm machine, so when I found out about Three Bruins in a Canoe in R8 silent, I bought it for him, since we canoe quite often. Lo and Behold I saw it after that in 16mm with sound right around the time I got a 16mm machine, and after that the chase was on!
Some I've snagged in the meantime are Ski-Mania, Calgary Stampede, Daredevils on Ice, Hawaii World Parade and most of the Bruins series.
These seem to be profoundly under-represented on Super-8. One I do have is "Sky Diving" which is sound and black and white. (I'll have to say: even as a pretty big fan of black and white, I wish this particular reel was color!) To my knowledge, the Bruins never made in onto S8 sound: kind of a pity.
Maybe this is some personal interest. My Mom had a job on Park Avenue at the Universal Studios Building where she worked IBM keypunch shipping consignments of Castle films to retailers. Maybe 8 years ago she visited and I showed her a Castle short. She said "That's great! I've never seen one before!". (You would think they'd show a few and keep the Troops enthusiastic, but...)
She left that job when I was born. (Let's hope that this remains the most damaging thing I ever do to small-gauge film!)😊
These films are just neat little shorts that you use like you would a cartoon: just something entertaining to wake the audience up before the feature! These days with that sharp black and white image and vintage ambience, they have a nostalgic look that just feels right.
-any other enthusiasts?
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