What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Oliver Feld]

Not last night, but this afternoon and the room wasn’t completely dark, but it was STAR WARS, the one and only! I can only guess how often I watched this masterpiece since 1978 in the cinemas, on VHS, DVD or in TV, but nothing beats the Super-8-Scope presentation! Oh, how I miss Derann…

[Melvin England]

The last couple of weeks have been all singing.... all dancing.... in glorious colour in the Man Cave.

Tonight I continued the all singing... all dancing theme..... but this time in black and white. It ended up being an almost completely Busby Berkeley night.


1x 50' - Yankee Doodle Dandy - Trailer

2x 400' - 42nd Street

2x 400' - Footlight Parade

2x 400' - Gold Diggers of 1933

2x 400' - Gold Diggers of 1935

Most of them had almost the same team of stars in them, Namely Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Frank McHugh and others.

.

[Dominique De Bast]

The new Double Bill release from Ultra 8. I enjoyed both cartoons. Once again, fantastic to have them in French!

[Melvin England]

Continuing on my theme of all singing.... all dancing....all colour (although maybe not quite perfect colour this time), tonight's offering in the Man Cave was as follows......


The King and I - 1x 50' Trailer - Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner

Showboat - 1x 100' Trailer - Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson and Ava Gardner. Lovely colour.

An American in Paris - 1x 400' - Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in her first film. I still need to see my full length version of this with optical sound.... when I manage to repair the projector!!

Singin' in The Rain - 2x 400' - Mr. Kelly again, this time with Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. A bit faded but the colours are still there.

High Society - 2x 400' - Messrs. Sinatra and Crosby with a FEMALE Kelly this time! A very light shade of pink but still very watchable.

.

[Dominique De Bast]

Just watched La goutte d'eau (The Drop of Water). Good film for Halloween (obviousely). The sound is great (and what a pleasure to have a new release in French! ). I can hardly comment on the colours, as it's an indoors film, set in the night. The print is, however sharp. I hope the two other parts of the feature will be released, as well (but this is a complete story).

[Brian Fretwell]

Some scope trailers from around WWII, The Longest Day, A Bridge too Far, Bridge Over the River Kwai and The Sound of Music plus Moveitone News in scope 1.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Chip, I'll respect your wishes. Please be well.


What did I watch last night? Walton's Saturn 3 400' cutdown. Farrah Fawcett, Kirk Douglas, Harvey Keitel and a dangerous robot named Hector.

Definite purple cast from this Fuji print.

[Chip Gelmini]

After a hectic busy summer I am now starting to run films again. June had 6 shows, July and August had 1 each. I was devastated by the passing of my sister Melinda - so I am slowly getting back to normal. Healing as they say takes time. I'm doing OK.

Last night August 15 I screened STAGE DOOR with Katherine Hepburn. This is a powerful film. A boarding house filled with many beautiful young women all who dream of hitting the spotlight of the stage. A scene of Miss. Hepburn on the floor at a producer's apartment shows why she was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world.........

Two Disney cartoons and three trailers everything was super 8.

PLEASE: No comments about Melinda as it remains a difficult time with thanks in advance.

Edit:

2018 July 23^rd. Dad’s 90^th birthday. We say good bye to Mom at approximately 4:30 in the morning.

August 15^th three weeks later we say good bye to Dad caused by a cancer.

Jump forward to 2024:

On July 23^rd – we are shocked at the loss of Melinda at age 71 due to cardiac arrest. Six years to the day of losing Mom.

Let those numbers sink in and you understand my pain…….

Thank you.


CG

[Melvin England]

Tonight's feast was all singing, all dancing.......and ALL in glorious colour ! Yes, not a faded print amongst them! Boy! What it would have been like to have the super 8 collection I have now, but back in say 1975, when colour fade was a future worry.

Anyway.... to the feast !......


1x 50' - Diamond Horseshoe - Trailer - Betty Grable

1x 50' - When My Baby Smiles At Me - Trailer - Betty Grable again.

1x 100' - Easter Parade - Trailer - Fred Astaire and Judy Garland.
- Bitter Sweet - Trailer - Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy

6x 400' - Seven Brides For Seven Brothers - Howard Keel and Jane Powell. A flat "pan and scan" from the scope feature, but was hardly noticeable.

.

[David Kilderry]

I have been sorting through various double prints I have accumulated and trying to decide what to sell. Yesterday was the Empire Strikes Back. Part One and Two. The ones I'm selling are joined together on an 800ft reel. Unfortunately they all seem to have faded the same amount. Still great fun to watch.

[Melvin England]

Third week in a row the man cave has been occupied on a Saturday night with the sound of film moving through the projector. This evening, I used my Elmo ST600 which I have not used for probably a couple of years ( "Tut tut" I hear you say) but it ran like a dream as one would expect with an Elmo.

The menu looked like this......


Report From The Front 1x 100' - A Humphrey Bogart short promoting The Red Cross

Reflections USA 1x 150' - Very good compilation reel.

Mexican Hat Dance 1x 400' - Excellent colour on this one for a change for an older film.

True Grit 1x 400' - Uncle John winning his only Oscar.

Rooster Cogburn and The Lady 1x 400 - Basically a second helping of True Grit.

Raiders of The Lost Ark 1x 400' - Beautiful copy with excellent colour and no scratches.

The Fabulous Dorsey's 4x 400' - Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey starring in their own biographical film.

.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Three Disneyland attraction 50 footers with surprisingly good color.

[Lincoln Thorn]

Watched this digest print of PURPLE NOON starring the late great Alain Delon.

[Steve Klare]

I put my new mixer in place on Friday, and I did some testing yesterday. I have a hum rejection circuit between the mixer output and the amp, but if I crank the projector volumes up to levels that just might make the Cops show up if there was a real soundtrack in the speakers, I can hear some hum anyway. This is a useful test to make sure each channel is alive. That went fine.

I have this other test that tests the balance of the impedances in the output signal and return lines. I do this when I change some major part of the system, and at the projector end, the mixer is the BIG one. This is critical because I have a circuit that removes the ground-loop hum from the audio (-easily the nastiest audio hum on this, or maybe any planet!), and if those two lines aren't balanced, the rejection circuit doesn't work as well as it should. To do this test, I crank the amplifier volume up to absolutely Armageddon-level and listen for hum as I go. If I start to hear hum, there are two potentiometers (for right and left) in a box inserted in the line between the mixer and the ground loop circuit. I can "tune it out" by adjusting these. This went fine too. (I looked out the window before I started: A lightning strike with the volume turned all the way up to Warp Factor 9 could easily blow speakers!)

Since the new mixer could have a slightly different output impedance, the change could have left me with a little low level hum. Since I fixed this problem about ten years ago, this would massively stick in my craw! (-whatever a "craw" is!)

-but the rubber has to hit the road sooner or later. I had to show some films: use multiple mixer channels and check this thing out while I still have time to get a refund!

I needed an audio-expert! Who do I know that knows sound better than anybody? -of course! -Ludwig! Herr Beethoven has made some of the best sounds ever known to mankind (-with help, of course!). Reel #1 on channel #1 was Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony from Derann. I almost want to think the new mixer made the picture better! (Who knows? -maybe some placebo effect!)

-but this is a great reel: beautiful animation and music. I enjoyed it thoroughly but this was not all fun and games: I dialed in the equalizer levels while I was at it.

I often project this reel when there is something to celebrate. I guess a new mixer isn't a birthday, wedding or becoming un-unemployed (been there...), but then again it's good to find things to celebrate sometimes!

Next channel was 16mm: NFB of Canada's Paddle to the Sea. The channel worked just fine, and frankly I just felt like watching it! It's been a while.

Next was projected DVD: The Railrodder: also NFB of Canada. Audio was fine, and what a great, light-hearted little movie!

I still have mixer channel two to try, but the Elmo on there right now busted a belt last week. Maybe I'll go Eumig 800 series on that channel for a while!

[Melvin England]

Graham and John - Quite Frankly, and no disrespect to our friends on the other side of the pond, I think it knocks the spots off "Reflections USA" (which I might run next week). I find the clips in that one run far, far, far too fast to digest. Still worth having but not as good. "Cinema, Cinema" is pretty good too !