CineSea 26 in Pictures

[Steve Klare]

On Thursday, April 20^th we gathered once again for CineSea, this time the 26^th edition. Some came a few days earlier, and why not? Wildwood is a nice place to be, and a laid-back, relaxing one at the extreme ends of the season that we are there.

Personally, I was prepared to take the crack-of-dawn, Friday option: save a day’s vacation time and a night’s rent of a hotel room, be in the car at 4:30AM (sharp!) Friday morning and join the group for breakfast. There’s no worry about traffic at that hour anymore: the milkmen and newspaper delivery guys disappeared years ago!

-but Fate intervened: It turned out the Thursday Night Theme was “Animation”, and this was an offer I just couldn’t refuse!

-and so we begin!

Thursday

As I said, I found out we were doing Animation Thursday night, and immediately extended my stay and took another day off from work. (It was well worth it!)

“The Theme” is a lot like another revered CineSea tradition: Saturday Night Show, the similarity is all short films, the difference is they fit together according to some pre-defined theme. The first one happened Halloween Week, so that one was Spooky. The second one was Crime and Mystery films and Movies about Movies showed at CineSea 25. This one could be my favorite so far! (Someday…”Music”!)

What’s neat about events like this one, is in a room with several dozen film collectors, there is also access to several dozen film libraries with literally thousands of films among them, flavored by the personalities and tastes of the various collectors. I have never had all the films I’ve brought wind up on screen, and I understand that: they always have more than they need! (This makes for a great show.)
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Dinner is done, the audience is filling in and we are rigged for 8 and 16mm (35mm is still on the way!)

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The screen is ready to go, too!

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There are many kinds of animation! Here is a stop motion with actual actors: “Vicious Cycles”.
-a Motorcycle Movie without any motorcycles!
Special thanks to Greg Perry for sharing it with us even though he couldn’t attend this time!

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The Beatles were there! (-at least in animated spirit!)

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CGI got its moment (several times). Here is “Partly Cloudy”.

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There was an interesting Disney film that discussed the multi-plane camera and demonstrated how useful it is for drawn animation.

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Of course animated film is often used for practical things like industrial and educational films. Here is a driver education film.
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.-with Goofy! (-what ever could go wrong?)

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Stop-Motion made it on screen several times. You can’t really talk too much about stop-motion without Ray Harryhausen getting his due!

We went on this way for hours! There were still plenty of leftovers when we called it quits, which is OK: they got a second chance Saturday night!


NEXT: Friday and its Features!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Nicely done, Steve. I’m glad you didn’t take the Friday option!

I arrived on Wednesday and was happy to find that a good number of early birds had beaten me there. Some came as early as Monday, enjoying the beach, the boardwalk and the surprisingly nice weather. This meant that there were plenty of people to help set up the screen and get the space ready for the official start on Thursday.

The first film shown on Animation Thursday was the scope trailer for the 2nd Pink Panther film A Shot in the Dark. A cartoon bullet tells us how he and Inspector Jacques Clouseau must solve a murder. This very funny trailer led into Derann's 2003 scope/stereo release of Final Flight of the Osiris. I hadn't screened this for well over a decade.



The animation theme included "Supermarionation", so a 16mm print (courtesy of Stu Finkelstein) of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's Fireball XL5 was next. This was the episode "Space City Special" where the puppets perform the show's theme song!



Then came Steve Klare's scope Super 8mm print of Bearly Asleep.



Shorty Caruso brought one of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons, along with the Derann Disney short about animation, The Tricks of the Trade.



There were Smurfs and also La Linea (The Line), a Saturn films Super 8mm release from an Italian animated series.



The weirdest film of the night was from Gary Crawford (who often brings the weirdest film of the night).
This was the 1930 short It's A Bird. In it, Charles Bowers goes to Africa on a search for a rare metal eating bird. It's on YouTube. Check it out!

[Graham Ritchie]

Great stuff, is that the Super 8 print of Goofy in "Motor Mania"? I like Steve Scope of "Bearly Asleep" that was another Derann gem

[Steve Klare]

Hi Graham,

Yes, I have two 'scope Donald Duck cartoons: Bearly Asleep and Gone Huntin'. These are both from the last few years before Derann stopped printing Super-8. They are both great cartoons, but as prints go, Bearly Asleep has the edge: Gone Huntin's colors aren't as saturated. It's nice to watch, but the bears just look even better up on screen.

[Steve Klare]

Friday: A Day of Features

As always in recent years, people going to CineSea got to elect feature length films for Friday. These generate a lot of enthusiasm: often at least ten nominees and usually a runoff among close contenders at the very end. The first-place film gets to be Friday Night Feature, but all is not lost for everybody else. The first runner up gets to be Friday Matinee.

The Pink Panther: our Friday Matinee

Todd Tuckey’s 16mm Pink Panther has been in the polls at least four times. Its time came at long last at CineSea 26. I’m sure Todd was mightily pleased, but I may be a close second here! Peter Seller’s Clouseau is kind of an icon in this house. It’s not unusual for one of us to say “Doze your doge bite” and the other to reply “Zat ist naught my dog!”

Life makes fools of us all here and there, so given enough time, Clouseau becomes almost a hero of foolish perseverance! Come that day when you lock your keys in the car with the engine running (been there...years ago), it's just natural to ask "What would Clouseau do?". He might utterly destroy the car, but he'd get those keys back!

I saw this feature fail to get elected several times and implored the owner on Forum (whom I did not know at the time) not to give up. Wishes sometimes do come true!

(-and for this I voted against my own film, too!)
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Given Peter Sellers’ comedy, It’s so easy to forget how beautifully photographed these movies are. The Alpine scenery in the ski-resort scenes is wonderful. I’m sure the filmmakers had nothing of the kind in mind back then, but these last few decades films like this have started to feel nostalgic in an early 1960s way with the clothing, the cars, the music and so many great actors that we’ve lost throughout the decades since.

It is a rare treat to see it up on a large screen after a lifetime of TV broadcasts.
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-but in any case, please don’t forget to get a laysonz for your minky!

New Life

We’ve had time for a number of our children to grow up at CineSea. I know this because my son is among them. For the first time, we anticipate a new birth in our group and took a moment to celebrate with Sarah and Lou! I’m not entirely sure, but I’d say a baby shower at a film collectors' convention is…fairly unique!

Intermission Dinner!

There is a very nice sun-deck at the Shalimar, and weather permitting we gather for Pizza. This is a great time to talk: we’re mostly standing, so it’s easy to move around and mix in with others. It's not a no-choice scenario though, many others took to the restaurants.

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Friday Feature

The big winner among the feature was Greg May’s 16mm Night Shift. This was a new one for me, and a surprise. It’s a fairly early Ron Howard directed film, and his old co-star Henry Winkler is the male lead (sans motorcycle and leather jacket). With Shelly Long there too it tips its hat to 1970s and 1980s television. This movie also has Michael Keaton in what is considered to be his breakout role.

What’s surprising is the story itself: enterprising employees of a New York City morgue make it the call-center of a delivery-based brothel! What’s even more surprising is this is at least loosely based on a true story! It's kind of a finding-oneself romantic comedy, so we shouldn't expect it's exactly ripped from the headlines!
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Next: Saturday before the Sunset!

[Douglas Meltzer]

After the features we ran a few shorts, including the Little Rascals' Big Ears and an episode of the 1965 (U.S. dubbed version) series Tobor, The 8th Man. It's always fascinating to see what collectors have in their vaults!

[Steve Klare]

Saturday, before Sunset!

Saturday is kind of a split-personality day: half film sales, half film show, yet all social! All the daylight hours, there are tables set up with films for sale, often equipment too. There is also a great deal of kibitzing to do as well! Many tables have a small screen (because the room lights are up) with a projector aimed at it, and little groups up people take chairs and sit, watch and discuss.
Well: we’ve had breakfast and the door is open.

-come on in: enjoy!
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Later on that afternoon, the room emptied and doors closed so we could go to Little Italy for dinner. After dinner it was Showtime!

Next: Saturday Night Show!

[Steve Klare]

Saturday Night Show!

-so it finally came to THIS! (-just as usual!)

Back in the day when CineSea was just Saturday and Sunday, Saturday Night Show was kind of the middle of weekend. With Friday and now Thursday added on, it’s getting to be almost a closing act, especially as it’s getting late that night.

This show is basically anything goes (-nothing nasty…we’re kind of a family event.). Everything needs to be 20 minutes or less, and that’s basically it as far as the rules go. We’ve gotten cartoons, educational films, trailers and curiosities like the Elmo sound test film I once brought.
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There is kind of an opening ceremony: Shorty, Doug and Lou talk about the weekend, the event in general and thank people for their help and contributions.

Roll-Em!

(This is just a small sample of what we had on screen that night: let’s face it, I’m there to enjoy the show too!)
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There are always things like trailers and newsreels near the start: here Hollywood Stars play baseball.
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This was a really good film about a team of stunt drivers (-or maybe the single worst Driver Education film ever made!)
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Mr. Loaf himself joined us to sing “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”: a great song but perhaps the least romantic love song ever written!

(Do you think anybody’s EVER played it at their wedding reception?)

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Mike Lattavo always brings some Bollywood. In this one there are really bad guys in town, and the good guy basically demolishes them all with a big stick! (-and a great deal of self confidence!)
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STOOGES, you gotta have STOOGES!
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-but were Stan and Ollie there? You’re darn Tootin they were!
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Not only do they Like to Be in America, it turns out they like to be in ‘scope on a big screen with a bright lamp, too!
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We went until about midnight and decided it to call it a night. Here and there we’ve gone past 1AM and felt glad we didn’t need to drive home.

NEXT: Sunday Finale!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Steve, that's an excellent line about Paradise by the Dashboard Light!

These are some of the films I recall seeing/showing:



We started the evening off with Lee Mannering's recent Reel Collector Favourites. This got a lot of applause, as the audience really enjoyed the many movie sequences.

There was a great looking 35mm print of the 1932 short Minnie the Moocher, courtesy of Jerry Boss.

Mail Call, a 1944 short with Dorothy Lamour singing and Abbott & Costello doing "Who's On First". This was from Shorty Caruso.

Since we showed the Pink Panther feature on Friday, we screened a Walton print of the Panther's Pinkadilly Circus.



The 1955 Joe McDoakes short So You Want a Model Railroad.



I Love to Singa, the 1936 Merrie Melodies cartoon and a big favorite of mine (courtesy of Stuart Finkelstein).

Clay or the Origin of the Species, a 1965 spectacular claymation film directed by Eliot Noyes (thanks to Geoffrey Curtis).

I normally bring a silent Super 8mm release that I've added sound to. This time it was Ken Films' Dinosaurus.

An episode of the Saturday morning animated series Return to the Planet of the Apes, from Joe Copsetta.

A German trailer for Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack.

The Derann 200' Look at Life newsreel Sounds of a City, which visits the music scene in Liverpool in the early 1960s, from Steve Klare.

Shorty also brought a reel of Buster Keaton's Simon Pure Beer commercials. I've never seen these before.




The Reel Image's Steve Osborne sent over a scope trailer for Close Encounters plus a great Intermission reel.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

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The screen is ready to go, too!

I want to know the size of this screen. By using the number of tiles for the length of width, it is around 3.5 meter ( or 11.50').. is it correct? I am guessing that is a 50x50cm tile.

[Steve Klare]

Your estimate is good, Winbert! The width of the screen is 12 Feet (or 3.66 Meters). Did you account for the sliver of screen on either side covered by the masking? That might give you back your missing 150mm! (0.5 feet, 6 inches!)

The height is another matter: the screen fabric allows for a picture 9 feet tall (2.75M), which was usable at the Ocean Holiday (our home until 2019). The Shalimar is almost luxurious compared to the Ocean Holiday, but the ceilings are 8 Feet (2.35M) so the frame had to be cut down and the bottom of the screen folded under.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

The height is another matter: the screen fabric allows for a picture 9 feet tall (2.75M), which was usable at the Ocean Holiday (our home until 2019). The Shalimar is almost luxurious compared to the Ocean Holiday, but the ceilings are 8 Feet (2.35M) so the frame had to be cut down and the bottom of the screen folded under.

Thanks Steve for confirming this.

As for the height, I can find it by using the math equation i.e 4/3 for the flat ( = 2.75m), 16/9 for widescreen ( = 2.05m) and 2/1 for scope ( = 1.83m). I am good in maths 😆

There is one picture above shows a very full screen projection frome edge to edge. Is this 8mm or 16mm projection?




as for the motorcyle movie, that is 8mm... I can see from the film grain.

For both projections what is the throwing distance respectively?

Cheers,

[Joe Caruso]

20' or so, unless an anamorphic is used

[Steve Klare]

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe Vicious Cycles was 16mm. I was up front shooting screenshots at the time.

It's Intermission Time is Super-8: I can be sure of this one because I own a print!

I'd estimate the throw for all the gauges to be something around 30 feet (9 Meters). The machines are all lined up along the front wall of the room at showtime.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Both Vicious Cycles and It's Intermission Time are Super 8mm.