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For many years now, I have been a big fan of Car Boot sales (as we call them in the UK) and, of course, charity shops in the hope of finding that "special" item worth a fortune. I have had some pretty good finds. Mostly, though, I am on the lookout for vinyl, cd's and dvd's but always keep my eyes open for any movie film on offer, which is as rare as hens teeth.
Anyway, last weekend my chicken grew a set of teeth and, hey presto! I found 4x 200' spools of someone's home movies from the 1970's. Being film, I could not refuse the price if £1 per reel, hoping the footage might be of interest if it was filmed in a town somewhere, similar to a lot that are shown on The Footage Detectives on TPTV in the UK.
Alas, no. Possibly a few shots of some horse trials that might just have been shot at Burghley which I shall have to investigate.
The rest was a holiday in Ibiza, Scotland (in the highlands) and various other stuff.
Basically, it was junk. Filmed by someone who had absolutely not the first clue on how to use a cine camera. 360 degree sweeps.... and back again. Jump cuts, unsteady camera (I know it is difficult holding a camera steady without a tripod, but we don't have force 8 earthquakes in this part of the world), filming a subject for two seconds then sweeping the camera somewhere else to find if anything else is going on........ oh,no there wasn't, so back to the original action......nice long shots of inanimate objects.......... and the biggest crime of all......Hey! My camera has got a ZOOM lens !
I'm sure the above brings back many dark memories of having to sit and watch your neighbours' holiday home movies 'coz they know you are into cine. Indeed, the above description could have described ones you have watched!!
This got me wondering. These 1970's snapshot brigade/baby on the lawn people had been brought up watching both quality films and, particularly television which in those days had more static and far less panning shots than the sophisticated techniques of today. So what possessed them, camera in hand, to then go ahead and make such bloody awful movies with these fundamental flaws ? Did they not pick up or learn ANYTHING from the moving pictures that had been thrust upon them?
Ladies and Gentlemen......... the floor is yours!
Anyway, last weekend my chicken grew a set of teeth and, hey presto! I found 4x 200' spools of someone's home movies from the 1970's. Being film, I could not refuse the price if £1 per reel, hoping the footage might be of interest if it was filmed in a town somewhere, similar to a lot that are shown on The Footage Detectives on TPTV in the UK.
Alas, no. Possibly a few shots of some horse trials that might just have been shot at Burghley which I shall have to investigate.
The rest was a holiday in Ibiza, Scotland (in the highlands) and various other stuff.
Basically, it was junk. Filmed by someone who had absolutely not the first clue on how to use a cine camera. 360 degree sweeps.... and back again. Jump cuts, unsteady camera (I know it is difficult holding a camera steady without a tripod, but we don't have force 8 earthquakes in this part of the world), filming a subject for two seconds then sweeping the camera somewhere else to find if anything else is going on........ oh,no there wasn't, so back to the original action......nice long shots of inanimate objects.......... and the biggest crime of all......Hey! My camera has got a ZOOM lens !
I'm sure the above brings back many dark memories of having to sit and watch your neighbours' holiday home movies 'coz they know you are into cine. Indeed, the above description could have described ones you have watched!!
This got me wondering. These 1970's snapshot brigade/baby on the lawn people had been brought up watching both quality films and, particularly television which in those days had more static and far less panning shots than the sophisticated techniques of today. So what possessed them, camera in hand, to then go ahead and make such bloody awful movies with these fundamental flaws ? Did they not pick up or learn ANYTHING from the moving pictures that had been thrust upon them?
Ladies and Gentlemen......... the floor is yours!
, well I have seen some pretty bad video tapes. One comes to mind, and that was the school camp the kids went on. The teacher shot some video, when they got back I asked could I see it?. Well my better half had already seen the tape and told me its pretty bad, I replied it cant be that bad? I was wrong. The teacher had used the camera to pan from one tent to the other stopping at each tent for only a couple of seconds before wizzing of to the next one. I had to stop watching this video as I was getting dizzy. Oh has anyone here watched the "Blair Witch Project" we ran a 35mm print of that one, talk about shaky camera work you really need to take motion sickness tablets to watch that one, its really bad.
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