CineSea 27 in Pictures

[Steve Klare]

Thursday (….and earlier)

CineSea 27 began once again in its classic hometown: Wildwood New Jersey! It’s interesting that very early on, people often wished the meetup was someplace else, but in the years since, we’ve grown attached to the place and CineSea just wouldn’t feel right anywhere else!
Thursday is the official opening day, but many who can come days earlier. (I’d like to do the same myself someday.) My situation here was kind of unique: for very good reasons, which we will talk about later, I couldn’t come until Friday morning, so we will depend on the reporting of others to share in that day.

Before we start in: I have a LOT of pictures to draw on this time and I’d like to thank these able photographers for sharing:
Doug Meltzer
Todd Tuckey
Greg Perry

So We Begin
As soon as the room became available, the group took possession. The CineSea venue has been from the start kind of a blank canvas: it’s up to us to adapt the geography of the room to the best locations for dealer tables, projection equipment, film-handling equipment, sound equipment, The Big Screen and later a small theater-full of chairs for our audience (that being US, of course!). The room in the Ocean Holiday, while our adopted (and beloved) home had kind of a...rustic charm, had certain cave-like qualities that made it easier to darken for film presentation (One wall of cloudy windows that faced north out under an overhang into a valley between hotels.) The “new” place is on the third floor and has south facing windows(-where the Sun is a lot of the time!): some serious window-shading is in order.
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.Wednesday: First Build up the Frame...

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Then mount the screen fabric...

-and so, it all comes together: willing hands assemble and raise the screen, strong (…hopefully) backs carry hundreds of pounds of films and equipment from the cars and into and out of the elevator and into the room. (-and in just a few days back again!). Machines are placed, plugs are plugged, tables are loaded.

Thursday Breakfast
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Thursday morning Greg texted me this picture of the crowd enjoying breakfast at the Marvis Diner, a group favorite. (The situation being what it was, I had the usual microwaved oatmeal before I went to work! -Obviously, I need to improve on this in the future!)
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Gradually the crowd began to arrive and get comfortable.

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We have a new place in town for dinner: The MudHen Brewing Company. It’s a craft brewery up on Rio Grande Avenue with really good beer and what I would call “comfort food”. Even though I missed this time, I’ve eaten there a few times on my own and enjoyed it.

Stay Tuned! Thursday isn’t done just yet!

Next: Thursday Night Theme!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Steve,

A perfect start! We were very lucky that there were so many early birds this time around. The screen was assembled in record time and no adjustments were necessary once we stood it up. It's about time we got it right on the first attempt!

[Eivind Mork]

Thanks for sharing these pictures! It is fun to read and see from over the pond and get a feeling of CineSea! Looks like you all had a great time!

[Chip Gelmini]

I'll get back there one of these days. My first time there was pure delight. Nice touch using the movie screen for the opening title image!

[Steve Klare]

Thanks, Chip

-but it wasn't my best idea!

(-took HOURS to scrub off all that magic marker! 😉)

[Steve Klare]

Thursday Night Theme

Thursday Night Theme is an act of group-creativity. The Powers that Be throw out a theme and we out in the audience gets to respond with films from our collection that fit it. Sometimes the Theme is pretty sharply defined, for example at 26, when it was Animation. For #27 it was much more open-ended: “Adventure”. For some, this may be looking up at the peak of Mount Everest, standing prepared with climbing gear, for others it might be a shopping mall and a charge card with a huge credit line, but that’s the thing here: the films on-screen very often reflect the personalities of the people that brought them, so “Adventure” proved to be quite an open-ended proposition! (Had I been in the seats, “Adventure” might just have included camping or canoeing: for better or worse, the crowd “missed out”!)

Doug sent me an (at-least) partial list of the films that night.

• Raiders of the Lost Ark (Super-8mm Marketing Digest, nice color)
• Duck Dodgers in the 24-1/2th Century (16mm)
• An excerpt from When Comedy Was King, featuring Monty Banks in the 1927 silent film Play Safe. Some of the most amazing stunts ever done! (Super-8mm)
• The Adventures of Superman TV Series “The Phony Alibi” - 16mm
• T3 Crane Chase Sequence Super-8mm
• Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle 16mm
• Castle Films Newsreel 1938 Super-8mm
• Wallace & Gromit A Grand Day Out Super-8mm
• Derann digest of Dodge City with Errol Flynn Super-8mm
• Chimp the Cowboy (Shorty the chimp foils a robbery at the ranch) Castle Films 16mm
• Not Magoo meets Frankenstein, but Magoo is Frankenstein…Dr. Frankenstein. From “The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo”.

Some Screenshots:
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I don’t know how late this one ran: It’s no surprise when people go back to their rooms more than ready for a good night’s sleep after a long day. Personally, I’m pretty sure I was already asleep by then, still at home and almost 200 Road-Miles from the Shalimar.

-I had to be: “Tomorrow” was going to be an obscenely early day, and an Adventure unto itself!

Next: Friday!

[Douglas Meltzer]

It was really nice to see the Wallace & Gromit short, as I hadn't screened that one in a long time. The T3 excerpt (brought by Greg Perry) looked great and the Monty Banks sequence (courtesy of Shorty Caruso) had the audience astonished by the stunts & gags.

[Steve Klare]

Friday (…..just barely!)

We were up at 4AM, stuffed a couple of last things in the car and backed out the driveway by 5. Had a cup of coffee for extra consciousness, since I was about to launch a hurtling pile of steel 200 miles to Southern New Jersey. The World is a strange place at that hour: our homeland is a land of Traffic, the further west you go, the worse it becomes, but at that hour you can have as many lanes as you want! It’s just you, the Highway Patrol, coupl’a fisherman, maybe a few really advanced-level drunks.

-but we got our 5AM departure and enjoyed a Brooklyn sunrise, all for the simple joy of…

Friday Breakfast!

There was a time, just a few years ago, when Friday breakfast was kind of a CineSea opening ceremony, but Thursday is a thing now. Still the same, Friday Breakfast is often a point where the Crowd grows a few more: it’s just this time that growth included us!
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Breakfast at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House

We use a number of restaurants for Friday breakfast, but Uncle Bill’s Pancake House is my own favorite. The food is great and the atmosphere is pretty lighthearted. Besides that, it’s a chance to travel down to Cape May: a pretty village down on the beach.
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What was very special for me was this guy being there! This is my son Steven, who has been away to college in Indiana for three years. Despite the many times he came to CineSea with me as a pre-teen and teenager, he’s been missing out for a long time. A thought that occurred to all of us (each on our own) when he changed schools to something close to home was that he could come to CineSea again, and we kept it a secret until that moment outside Uncle Bill’s to enjoy the group’s surprise! It was a tough secret to keep: I had to use the pronoun "I" a lot when I wanted to say "We"! (-glad that's over with!)

He had class Thursday afternoon, so that’s the reason we had to hold off our epic journey.
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By the way, the Klares are not in the least the only family to make CineSea an inter-generational thing. These are Luca and Lou: we celebrated a baby shower pre-Luca the last time, and this is his first CineSea. (Lou is the one with the hat...) Grandpa-Lou Sr. was also there and also Luca's mom Sarah.

-but that was just breakfast! (It IS the most important meal of the day, after all!) Stay with us and we’ll take you to the business end of Friday!
(Editor's Note: I had planned on making Friday one huge post, but it's such a big day it had to be busted up!)

Next: The Friday Shows

[Graham Sinden]

Lovely report Steve. Look forward to the rest.

[Steve Klare]

The Friday Shows

Friday at CineSea is very theatrical: features shown large-screen on-film and on a big screen.
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Dave is an able Poster-Maker, and we always have some nice ones. (He also brings the Popcorn, even when he can’t stay to enjoy it!) Here we had some help feeling anticipation for the Friday Matinee and Friday Night Feature.

The Friday Matinee was Todd's 35mm Scope IB Tech print of Son of Sinbad. It was a beautiful print and a great story too, a lot in the way old-Hollywood often made a story that was at the same time visually stunning and a lot of fun too.

BTW: The Matinee is in broad-daylight hours, and the blackout curtains and Xenon illumination have their job cut out for them.
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Here, Todd makes his intro. His basic message for the Group was that there are still bargains out there to be had: he got this print on E-Bay for the proverbial song: it seems the seller didn’t really understand what he was selling and neither did the other potential bidders.
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Since 'Sinbad is 35mm, Geoff and his Portacine did the Honors..

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You really can't go very wrong with Vincent Price in your movie!

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-and exactly WHAT are YOU smiling at?
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Oh!...OK! (-understood!)

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The Friday Night Feature was Lou's 16mm LPP print of James and the Giant Peach. Here Lou and Luca make their own introduction. (Lou is the one wearing Nike slippers...)

It’s like other Roald Dahl stories: a basically good-natured child finds himself in poor circumstances, yet finds his way to happiness. (In this case by sailing a Peach to New York City!)
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One of the things I’ve always liked about the Friday Shows is the chance see a movie that’s very familiar for the first time on film on the big screen. This is the other side of the coin: a chance to see two movies I have been aware of, but never had seen before.

Next: The After-Party

[Steve Klare]

The After-Party

We like to see new people join in! It means we are still growing. This time we were pleased to welcome for the first time Greg's wife Rochelle and we hope she and Greg both enjoyed their time with us.

They were kind enough to open their suite to us for an after-party, and we thank them: many of us went upstairs and the discussions continued.
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Photo: Steven G. Klare.
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Enjoying a Local Brew!
(It's what happens when you send them to college!)

The suites are very nice: two floors with a connecting staircase and a balcony. The view out any front window at the Shalimar is nice, but here it's high enough to see a lot more sky over other people's rooves.
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-but remember, by Founding Standards, CineSea hasn't even started yet. (My first time or two, I may not even have left home yet.)

Stay tuned for the Big Day!

Next: Saturday, Daylight!

[Osi Osgood]

Someday ... SOMEDAY I will be able to make it to the Cinesea, I only hope that you'll still have it when I have the extra money! ( On the plus side, in Oklahoma instead of Idaho, I am least closer! )

[Steve Klare]

Saturday, Daylight!

-And Now, the Weather!

This was one of our more liquid CineSeas (-as I remember it: #19 was pretty much all Animals to the Ark!). It’s been a rainy Fall here in the Northeast U.S., and that weekend was just more of the same. Steven and I had planned on bringing bikes down and riding the Wildwood Boardwalk after breakfast Friday, but sadly realized all we were going to get for our trouble was rusty sprockets and chains! -so they stayed home. (There will be other times.)

It's not the worst thing that could happen: nothing wrong with staying inside and watching some films on a rainy weekend! If this was camping, a parade or softball, there would have been a rain-date for sure!

Saturday
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As always, CineSea went into maximum operations mode on Saturday. Tables with films for sale were set up and opened for business and projectors and screens were set up and operating.
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All around the room there were people enjoying each other’s company while watching (and talking about) film.
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We had a special guest this time (-in a virtual sense). Janice Glesser has been a friend to CineSea from its very beginning. The continent in-between has kept her from joining in. Doug and Shorty decided they would do what they could to bring her there, and through Cellular Technology took her on a virtual tour. I joined in myself: I’ve written back and forth to Janice many times, but this was the first time we had an actual, verbal conversation. She met my son, and I met her grandson!
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At 4:30 PM, CineSea closed up for dinner time, and for a sudden, yet not unexpected change. The entire center floor space needed to be converted from table-space to theater-seating for the event of the weekend!

NEXT: Saturday Night Show!

[Janice Glesser]

I want to thank Doug and Shorty for making it possible for me to virtually attend Cinesea. It was so nice to have them take time out of their busy schedule to give me a glimpse in realtime of this really fun event. My grandson was very impressed that I knew people attending and they knew me. I loved talking to people I have only corresponded via Forum threads, emails, and PMs. It was nice to hear that I was able to help some people over the past few years and finally get to meet them in person. Thanks again guys It meant a lot to me.

[Steve Klare]

Janice,

Your grandson really should be impressed!

-he's got a cool Grandma!

All I ever saw on-screen when I stayed with my own Grandma was Lawrence Welk on a console TV!
They said it was..."a-wunnerful"!