Discovering a super 8 film collection.

[Steve Lee]

Yesterday I went down to my local town as normal to get some shopping and decided to pop into our local junk shop, which comprises of three large barns.
I normally go in there once a week just on the off chance that there could be something worth picking up, as I am always on the lookout for anything dealing with film. I was about to leave missing out the last aisle, as I had lost interest at looking at junk, but I told myself don't be stupid as it will be sods law if you don't.
As I got to the end of the aisle on the floor before me was six large plastic bread crates filled with super 8 film cans also a stack of 1200' cans. I found the owner and asked how much for the lot, she replied 50€.
I didn't have enough cash on me, so I had to jump in the car to find a cash machine. When I got back and started to load the cans into the boot of my car,
I noticed that some of the reels had part 1 of 3 ect.
After getting them home and briefly looking through them, I have found 12 features. In total there are 36 x 1200' 25 x 800' 19 x 600' 42 x 400' 134 x 200'.
Apart from the commercially produced prints there are many home movies.
I have no idea who owned this collection or who made these movies, but they knew what they were doing, as they are beautiful shot and edited and have been recorded in stereo, there are even some that have been shot in scope. A true amateur filmmaker.
Due to all of the excitement of finding these, I am now kicking myself for not asking if there was a projector that came with these films. Narrowing it down to not even a handful of machines, as it would have needed to take a 1200' reel, have stereo sound and to be able to accept a scope lens.
I will be back there next week when they open to find out.

[Paul Adsett]

What a great find Steve! Good luck next week, I hope you strike out on a GS1200 or a Beaulieu going for 100e !

[Dominique De Bast]

Are those films in French?

[Douglas Meltzer]

Steve,

I believe that is a dream I've had for many, many years!

[Ed Gordon]

When I was a kid I found three 35mm reels of a John Wayne movie in the trash behind a film distribution office. I became a dumpster diver for a brief period of time after that. I found the National Screen Service office to be a treasure-trove of posters and stills. No, I did not save all that stuff, but I wish I had. Those posters I trashed would be worth a fortune today.

[Melvin England]

Surely this discovery / purchase must go down as the bargain of the decade...... and possibly this century so far...!!!???

Well done, Steve. My skin has turned green! Ha Ha !

[Ken Finch]

What a lucky find. A chance in a million.😊

[Paul Adsett]

All this has prompted me to check out my local Goodwill store today!😄

[Steve Lee]

I returned to the shop this morning. as I had a feeling that the films I had purchased last Saturday was only half of the collection. And I was right.
As far as I can work out, what I have is the leftovers from a house clearance. Dealers have been in there first.
In a way it's best not to know what was originally in this collection. I would spend every night lying awake thinking if only.
Just by going on this person's home movies, they clearly had money. As all of these are filmed at 24fps and some of their vacation movies are over one hour long, and look like professional travalogs.
In the past I have purchased boxes of home movies, and we all know what these look like without seeing them. Family members turning away not wanting to be seen, Grandma sitting in the garden looking terrified to move, all under and overexposed, shaky camera motion sickness you name it. It is not the case with this person's films, they look so professional and polished, and are a delight to watch.
Thinking about what I paid for this collection, the value in just the reels alone come to over 2,500€, let alone some of the prints that are on them.
It may sound crazy but I am going to give the couple who run this shop some more money for this collection, it just feels right to do so.
Can anyone tell me who produced these reels, as they are of very good quality, and I prefer them to Elmo 1200' reels.



Steve.

[Brian Fretwell]

Looks to me like a modifited NAB hub 1/4 in tape reel.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

And here's an even weirder story...


About 5-6 years ago a customer sent me a box full of Super8 films to get it transferred. All were home movies, but professionally shot, edited, completed with narrative & background music neatly mixed in. Most were travelogue through various countries around the world. Must be a wealthy traveler who could spend that amount of $$$ for this hobby - that's what I thought.

After it's all done I contacted him again, informing the total scanning cost plus shipping for all films and the USB drive containing all files.

"Don't send films back. Just gimme the USB drive and that's it."

Speechless I was of course. But since he insist on doing so, therefore I did that. After receiving the USB drive with no further feedback so I considered this job was completed & done. And that's how the story was supposed to end...

Well, not quite yet.

Fast forward to last year, this very same customer contacted me again asking whether I still have all films kept or not? Turns out that some files had eventually corrupted, and he had no backup of that. If I still have those selected reels he's willing to have them rescanned.

And you guessed it, I still have most of his films kept in my attic. Luckily they're all still in good shape - including certain reels that needed to be rescanned.

After finishing the job I ask him the very same question. Even though this could be considered "the second chance" for him to retrieve his valued work, but the answer remains unchanged - don't send them back, I now have what I need.

I probably won't be selling them away, and won't have enough guts to simply get rid of it. So yes, all films are still tucked in my attic. Just in case that he'd ever contact me again asking to have certain reels rescanned, for the third time...