CineSea 29 in Pictures!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Before we pack up I'll just add a few more titles. Things kicked off in Super 8mm with Dorun Films' Muppets Musical Moments (The audience loved it!). There was a beautiful 35mm sequence from a Bollywood action film and Bela Lugosi's 1953 appearance on You Asked For It.

Elvis sang in Ken Films' digest of Blue Hawaii, we took the studio tour in Pinewood Open Day and Peter Pan dropped by.

There was some Hocus Pocus going on and also a few fun musical clips from The Mickey Mouse Club.

I believe we wrapped up close to 1 AM.

[Steve Klare]

Sunday: Back to the Present!

Bright and early that Sunday (-especially for people who were up until after midnight watching short films), we walked a couple of blocks up the beach and had a nice group breakfast at a pleasant café up there.

The local restaurants really appreciate our large group showing up in mid-October: in a couple of days they will shut down for the Winter and they need to empty their pantries as much as possible. (We do what we can for them!)

So, it was time to pack up and go home. It’s not that we’d reached some kind of saturation, it’s just that we have jobs and families and homes to take care of and we shouldn’t stay in Film-Land forever! (Besides: the stairwells at the Shalimar were starting to accumulate popcorn!)

-but you know: we had fun! (Even grown-ups need that, and within certain bounds it’s just plain healthy!)
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It was time for the screen to head to winter quarters, too.
Note the group effort: that’s what it takes to make all this work!

The CineSea 29 Group Photo
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I like CineSea’s bi-annual format: it’s not that long until we get together again: a couple of months of Fall and Christmas and Winter, maybe shoveling some snow!

Something extra-special often happens at CineSeas numbered multiples of five or ten. It so happens that next time is both! What will that triple “X” bring? The best way to find out is to be there in person! (By the time this report shows up, it's history!)
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........

Later on that day through a front door far, far away:
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Home at Last!

“We’ll take the bikes off the car after dinner, and cut the lawn...tomorrow!”

[Eivind Mork]

That's funny to suddenly see myself at CineSea :-) Great to see the connection to the other side of the Atlantic too!

I can mention that when I shot that scene in the picture, I was recording in a long hallway that was partly dark. I had gone a long way in there to record without disturbing audio and people around me. I then met two people from the hotel that asked if I was searching for paranormal activity as they saw my DJI Omso Pocket and didn't realize it was a camera. The funny thing was that I got the exact same question the night before from a passing person on the street that saw the same equipment. I wonder if ghost hunting is another regular event at the hotel :-)

[Steve Klare]

We enjoyed your video, Eivind!

News of the British conventions is what inspired people here to revive our own. Having discussion forums certainly is a benefit, but there are steps beyond that make a big difference.

(15 years later, a little inspiration still helps!)

[Melvin England]

Steve - If you could ever make it, it would be great to see you over here on our turf at Blackpool, as would Doug and any other Cinesea supporter. I am sure Shorty will have filled you in on the event many times! You would not regret it.

[Steve Klare]

Thanks, Melvin!

I've admired the British conventions for a long time!

We look forward to the day when someone from the UK arrives in Wildwood, too!

[Melvin England]

One day, Steve. One day...........

[Brian Harrington]

We had what should be called a “moment” part way through the night. Them Thar Hills is very high on the Laurel and Hardy hit-parade in our house. You see, my family has been RV camping since the summer before I went to kindergarten. For Steven, it’s been since he was about 11 Months old. Naturally, when “Steven’s Dad” (...me!) got a Blackhawk print of his two favorite golden-era comedy stars going camping, it zoomed to the top of his personal list and is no worse than second or maybe third on mine! I brought my own print to CineSea, hoping to give him something special on screen!

-but that Saturday Night, the screen lit up with Them Thar Hills in 35mm! My own S8 print had been preempted! (-and that’s OK!)
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Ollie is suffering from gout and his doctor recommends he “go up into the High Mountains and get away from it all!”. In the next scene, Stan and Ollie are now motoring along a country road pulling a camping trailer with their Model T Ford: a car barely capable of pulling itself. In a series of Laurel and Hardian mishaps, they accidentally get blind-stinking drunk (-exactly the wrong therapy for gout!) and get innocent passerby Mrs. Hall Blind-Stinking drunk too.

Blind-Stinking Sober Mr. Hall on the other hand takes this very, very personally, so.....Let the Games Begin!

(Let’s just say I doubt either Laurel or Hardy got their security deposit back from the place that rented them that camper!)
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As they are making dinner:

Slightly drunk Ollie begins to sing:
“La da dahhhh deee dah-dahhhh dah dah ya-daaa“

Slightly Drunk Stan replies:
“Pom-Pommm!!!“ -and Steven, several others and I joined in too!

-by the end of “The Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor”, all of Saturday Night Show was singing! (It was great!)

(So whoever brought that 35mm print: Thanks! -We had a blast!)
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Yup, THEM THAR HILLS is one of their best! Too bad they didn't follow it up by screening TIT FOR TAT -- or maybe they did?

I have both a Super 8 and 16mm copy of THEM THAR HILLS, both from Blackhawk, though the 16mm one actually has Film Classics titles.

I'm curious if the one you saw was a Film Classics print? L&H are very rare in 35mm. I don't suppose you know its pedigree -- like when it was printed, and on what film stock? I'm a nerd for those details!

I've only seen the boys once in 35mm! So that must have been a treat.

[Steve Klare]

The 35mm Them Thar Hills was a complete surprise to me! All I can say with certainty about it is it was a wonderful print and looked very low mileage.

As the opening titles rolled, I thought "Could it be?...Could it...beeee???", and then "YES!!!".

What was intriguing that my son and I both noticed is right around the time where Stan gives Ollie the eggbeater (-as a "can opener"), there was a second missing, no more than two right after. Instead of Ollie throwing it over his shoulder it just seemed to disappear. I'd say for people who haven's seen it a couple of dozen times like we have the jump wouldn't be very obvious. (For us it was like a favorite song that's missing a few notes!)

-but later that night I said to him "Did you see that missing footage?" and he said "You mean with the egg-beater?", so yeah, I didn't imagine it. (At this point in life that's actually kind of a relief!)

We have both Them Thar Hills and Tit for Tat as S8 sound Blackhawks and have shown them in sequence a few times. This just wasn't meant to be that night at CineSea, though!

Interesting detail: a few years ago I showed their camper to a guy who collects and restores classic RVs: he said he'd never seen a camper like that and he thought the studio cobbled it together. To me the architecture of it looks inspired by a streetcar: maybe they went with what they knew!

[Brian Harrington]

-but later that night I said to him "Did you see that missing footage?" and he said "You mean with the egg-beater?", so yeah, I didn't imagine it. (At this point in life that's actually kind of a relief!)

It if was missing, then how did you "see" it?

That's why I'm a nitpicker with prints I buy, especially L&H -- I know them by heart! So I'll complain and return a print that's missing too much. The sellers must think I'm crazy!

If that's all that's missing, then that's pretty good for a 35mm L&H print. I've heard that they actually printed up some in 35mm for projecting for the latest restorations a few years ago. I'd guess the one you saw was probably from the original 40s Film Classics re-issue. THEM THAR HILLS was one of the L&H shorts where Film Classics only replaced the "L&H" card, then went on to the original main titles. If the "L&H" was the familiar FC "plaque", then it was a FC print.

I've seen L&H prints in 16mm on fairly large screens (bigger than what I have) and they looked fantastic! The one time I saw them in 35mm, the screen wasn't that big. My 16mm L&H is growing steadily -- only been at it 25 years! I used to sell my Super 8 copies when I got them in 16mm -- but lately I've been buying back the Super 8 versions! The prices have gone done so much, so I said "why not?"

[Steve Klare]

It was simply after watching something many times and then expecting it to go exactly the same as it always has, but all of a sudden there was something missing!

It's a little like just one time hearing Rhett Butler say "Frankly Scarlet, damn!"

-your entire soul asks "WHAT??!!!".

(Other than that and the tiltling, it went exactly as the Blackhawk prints do.)

What a hoot, though! Saturday Night Show has always been fun, but this was really special for us! If I could have asked for it, it wouldn't have been any nicer.