CineSea 24 in Pictures

[Steve Klare]

CineSea arrived in what felt more like the end of winter than the beginning of Spring. The pool was empty, there was a chill in the air and the famed steel palms of Wildwood hadn’t begun to “blossom”! It didn’t matter: after being cooped up for four months (-or was it really two years.), we were ready for the first mask-optional CineSea since 2019!

CineSea continues to grow. Ten years ago, the Official Event was just Saturday. Gradually it leaked into Sunday breakfast and then expanded backwards into Friday Night Feature and then Friday Afternoon Matinee. #23 saw the first time for Thursday Night Theme.

The Theme is a little like Saturday Night Show, just not so random. Every film is a short, no more than 20 minutes in length. The difference is that it should fit the theme chosen for that night. At CineSea 23 the theme was “Spooky”, just perfect as close to Halloween as it was.
This session’s theme was “crime & mystery films”. Of course, in this crowd that didn’t stay as serous as this sounds. There were more than a few cartoons and other comedies in there to go with all that noir!

NEW for #24: Masking on the big screen!!
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(It’s coytins for you, Mugsy!)

Next: Thursday Night Theme

[Osi Osgood]

I only hope that once I am free to actually attend these fine events, they will still exist!

[Dominique De Bast]

So, three cine events happend at the same time : one in the US, one in Germany and one un Spain

[Steve Klare]

It would be great to have Zoom conference set up among the three: just a screen set up on a table so people could walk up and interact.

[Steve Klare]

Thursday Night Theme

Daaahh-da-DA-dah!

This is the City: Wildwood New Jersey…
-We were working the evening shift and since the Theme was Crime and Mystery, we were expecting a tough night. We saw our share of murder, mayhem and vice, and the suspects were a pretty rough crowd, but with Ace Detectives like Bogey, Lee Marvin and Daffy Duck on the job, we were pretty sure everything would turn out all right.
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“The Maltese Falcon” digest

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“M-Squad”
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“Deduce, You Say!”

We were a little surprised seeing so much hard-boiled a week AFTER Easter!

-and of course, our FAVORITE crime-solving team was there!
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“Who Done It”

-When you need a job done right, call the Professionals!

Maybe the biggest mystery of the night was how Joe Friday could actually look so young!
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-but the fact that it was Dragnet Episode #1 from 71 years ago might just explain a few things.

-Stay Tuned! There’s a LOT more yet to come!

Next: Friday (-all day…)!

Daaahh-da-DA-dah-Daaaaaah!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Nicely written, Steve!

We expanded our time limit a small amount so that a few TV episodes (without commercials) could be screened. Some of the other films were:

Scooby Doo in To Switch A Witch (16mm)



Chandu the Magician (Super 8mm digest)

Bugsy Malone (Super 8mm digest)



The Man on the Eiffel Tower (Super 8mm Digest)



Madigan (Super 8mm digest)

[Greg Perry]

Steve, this is great! It is almost like an old-time serial...."Cinesea Adventures"...Chapter 2....
What a great "film smorgasbord"!

[Steve Klare]

Hi Greg,

Yes, I like the Theme. It encourages people to use their imaginations a little to find films that fit the theme, and gives the projectionists a bunch of pieces to build a puzzle from.

The Hotel must love it: I'm sure it filled a couple of extra rooms that night!
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[Steve Klare]

Friday (-all day…)

Friday breakfast is a pretty big deal at CineSea: really the first group sit-down of the weekend. It’s also at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House in Cape May, a good 20 minute drive away, just to show the lengths (literally) we’ll go to for this one. I’ve left the house at 4:30 AM to drive there, and stayed Thursday night at the hotel too: it’s just that good!
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Then the low-level CineSea began. Not everybody is there just yet (Someone has to work on Friday!) and people are still setting up and unloading.

-but the proceedings have now begun to begin!
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Friday was another show day. We keep running into this thing with Friday Night Feature: that there all these really good choices, yet almost all of ‘em have to “lose”.

(Personal Note to whoever owns that 16mm Pink Panther: Please don’t give up! I’m really rooting for you!).

-Now we have Friday Matinee for the winner among runners-up.

For CineSea 24, the winner of the coveted Friday Matinee was Geoff C’s 35mm Batman Forever.
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(-and YES: He IS Batman!)

Later on, we enjoyed Danny M’s 16mm print of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes: the winning Friday Night Feature!
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One of the things I love about the Friday features is the chances I’ve been given to see real classic features on film on the big screen that I missed seeing growing up. (Examples among many: Psycho, The Blob, King Kong and whatever else I may have forgotten) Having movies like these exist as nothing but TV shows prevents experiencing them as they were meant to be! I’ve never seen either of these except on the small screen: we have now fixed that! (Thanks!)

Next: Saturday (-while the Sun is still up.)

[Graham Ritchie]

Looks good Steve

[Douglas Meltzer]

Batman Forever's visuals really popped in the 35mm print. Joel Schumacher's film has stunning art direction and cinematography.



I forgot how much of Planet of the Apes takes place (30 minutes) before the first appearance of the apes on horseback. I found the scenes on the spacecraft and the conversation while exploring the "unknown" planet really interesting since I mostly remember the other stuff. Like Steve wrote, it's a different experience to watch these films again on a big screen with an audience.

[Steve Klare]

Saturday (-while the Sun is still up.)

Breakfast again: Marvis Diner

Saturday is the Big Day, and like any Big Day it’s important to get up and get going. We usually gather 8AM-ish and carpool over to some nice place which is quite local. It’s often the Marvis Diner: good food, nice atmosphere and friendly staff!
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-and as is often the case, we went there Sunday as well. There are many great places to eat in Wildwood, but because we show up at the thin ends of the Season, maybe even a majority are closed. We learn the ones that are both good and open and they get our business.

Later on, CineSea got down to business.

There were many tables of film for sale, and at the same time Saturday Night Show was being prepared. All of this went on against good old film-talk. Let’s face facts here: the majority of the time It’s hard to have good film talk (-it’s why this forum has been here in various incarnations 20 years now.). At a convention at least we can talk about this stuff without people’s eyes glazing over!
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Saturday Dinner was at Carini’s in South Wildwood...
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-a nice dinner, started early to make way for Saturday Night Show!

Next: Saturday Night Show!

[Patrick Walsh]

Great pics Steve, ill get there one of these days!

[Steve Klare]

Thanks Patrick!

This is becoming quite an event: many things going on and a lot to look forward to. At the same time, it's really just a small group of friendly people getting together for a long weekend and it's very welcoming. If you show up with a couple of prints for Saturday Night Show, you can sit down among us, enjoy them on screen and just maybe feel like you've always been there!

(We take many film gauges, but for air travel from New Zealand I recommend 8mm, maybe 16mm!)😊

[Steve Klare]

Saturday Night Show!

OK, so now we come to what to me is the highlight of the weekend: Saturday Night Show. This is the most cooperative part of the whole weekend: some people bring audio and projection equipment and bring, assemble and stow that huge screen. Many more bring films. Everybody gets to be the audience!

Maybe it isn’t this everywhere, every day, but in those hours and certainly in this place and on this Continent, this the center of gravity of small-gauge film! You have good quality projectors in multiple gauges, you have a pretty potent audio system and you even have an audience basically made to order to see this show! This is a crowd almost entirely made of film collectors. I’ve shown prints there with the people I bought them from sitting in the seats. I’ve seen other people’s prints and said to myself “I WANT one of these!”. You might not even love everything you see, but you can still learn something. You won’t find a more appreciative audience in a great many other places!

So, we’ve had a good dinner now and we’re in comfortable clothing. I bring a nice folding chair I often use for camping (this is optional, of course!) Let’s get some snacks and drinks, settle in and see what’s on screen at CineSea 24!

It always starts the way a movie show should: trailers and cartoons, and often newsreels. This last year I compiled a 16mm trailer reel with drive-in theater day sets, and Saturday night I got to share it with the crowd.

Here’s some of what we enjoyed:
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We had Reel 1 of the Man with the Golden Gun.

-then a smooth segue from Bond to Bugs!
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This is a late Derann Knightly Knight Bugs
(You’d hope Yosemite Sam would learn sooner or later! Even Elmer eventually gave up!)

Once again, the Stooges were there! This time as window cleaners suddenly and expectantly turned dentists!

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I mean: C’mon! What could ever go wrong?!

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-and there was a really intriguing, and tuneful look at the production of blown glass.

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Snub Pollard provided his informative documentary on alternative energy

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-and Count Hamilton stopped in for a bite

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Here and there the projectionists (-and maybe the rest of the audience) indulge me with just one railroad film: big screen, big sound. This was my own Norfolk and Western moment!

Now, anyone out there saying “Wait! -you forgot some!”: I bet you’re right! There are just so many films Saturday night you really can’t remember 'em all! (Which is kind of odd for such a memorable evening!)

This went on until just after midnight this time: a little early. We’ll be kind and say we wanted to save a few for next time and not admit we were just tired from a long day!

Next: Sunday and Beyond
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