16mm in cinemas

[Dave Groves]

I remember some years ago reading about some cinemas in the U.K. that experimented with 16mm. and have often wondered what took place. I assume it was to save money. Do any members of the forum have any info on this? What size were the screens? We're the prints one offs and were they only mono? Were projectors adapted specially and what problems were encountered. Anyone have any pictures?

[Daniel Macarone]

I would be very interested to hear about it, myself and I wish it were happening in the U.S. I'd much rather see 16mm prints than DCP in the cinema.

[Maurice Leakey]

I ran a 16mm mini cinema in the seventies in Taunton, Somerset. I was working at the Classic cinema in the early 70s which had been bought by the Laurie Marsh Group from the Rank Organisation as it had been an Odeon. Mr. Marsh's son-in-law appeared to run the Tatler cinemas and was interested in converting unused parts of the cinemas for 16mm projection.

We had an old restaurant which hadn't been used for years and this became Classic 2 with an Eiki EX 1500 xenon with long-play 6000ft arms, the take-up having its own motor. Tatler clubs were members only as the film hadn't been to the British censor, they were European with magnetic sound tracks. They arrived on 6000ft spools in specially made wooden containers. They were shown Monday to Wednesday to sell out admissions. For shows on Thursday to the next Sunday we had films from the major 16mm renters which arrived as all 16mm do and had to be made up. The films were mainly fairly new releases which had not had a general 35mm release.

The cinema held about 90 patrons and with a throw of 35 feet we had a screen about 7 feet wide. As the main projection room was on a higher floor with change-overs and carbon arcs Screen 2 was left to run by itself, however, an usherette was always on a seat adjacent to a bell push which could send an alarm to the projectionist on duty.

Unfortunately the "mainstream" shows were badly attended and finally Classic called it a day after a few years and Classic 2 converted to a new Westrex 35mm with a rotating tower.

https://www.van-eck.net/img/itable/i...1486033088.JPG

[Dominique De Bast]

Maurice, do you know who released 16 mm prints with magnetic soundtrack ?

[Leonard Goss]

Great post Maurice. My late brother-in-law Stanley Margolis was working with the Laurie Marsh Group back in the 70's and I recall that a part of the group was Tigon Films, which made the film "Neither the sea nor the sand" in 1972 with screenplay by the TV newsreader Gordon Honeycombe.

[Maurice Leakey]

Dominique
Sorry, I cannot help. As I said, the Tatler films arrived on 6000ft spools in their own wooden containers. No labels or any distinguishing details.

Maurice

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

Here in the US.of.A, AMC theatres experimented back in the 1980's, in a few locations, with running first run features in 16mm complete with Dolby Stereo sound. Both Elmo (LX-2200) and Eiki made Xenon projectors with stereo photo cells for the project, and most of the studios struck actual Dolby Stereo 16mm prints. Ultimately, AMC decided that quality was not up to their expectations, and discontinued the experiment. As far as I know, non of these stereo 16mm prints escaped into the wild.

[Dominique De Bast]

Thanks for your answer, Maurice. At least, we know now that such films exist. I have never come across any but you never know...

[Ed Gordon]

The list includes exhibitors who show a mix of film and digital and exhibitors who only occasionally show film, as well as exhibitors who show 16mm or other small gauge film but not 35mm. The list excludes exhibitors who show film only because they have been unable to convert, or venues that have underused or decommissioned equipment.

https://www.sprocketschool.org/wiki/...ilm_exhibitors

[Maurice Leakey]

Dominique
My 16mm copy of "Goldfinger" is magnetic.

Maurice

[Dominique De Bast]

Waw, nice, Maurice. The only magnetic copies I have in 16 mm are scopitones or amateur films. I was aware that some educational shorts had also a magnetic stripe but I didn't know about features.

[Michael O’Regan]

Here in the US.of.A, AMC theatres experimented back in the 1980's, in a few locations, with running first run features in 16mm complete with Dolby Stereo sound. Both Elmo (LX-2200) and Eiki made Xenon projectors with stereo photo cells for the project, and most of the studios struck actual Dolby Stereo 16mm prints. Ultimately, AMC decided that quality was not up to their expectations, and discontinued the experiment. As far as I know, non of these stereo 16mm prints escaped into the wild.

Wow! This is the first I’ve heard of 16mm prints with Dolby Stereo. How interesting. I wonder if any did actually find their way into collectors hands.

[Dave Groves]

Thanks for the info. Maurice, a 7ft or so screen seems rather small for a public cinema. I use a screen 16ft wide for 'scope! Was the picture quality in any way comparable with 35mm? Mitchell, did you observe any of the experiments and if so what was the size of the screen and picture quality. As far as magnetic tracks are concerned on 16mm, I never came across any feature films. The old U.K. publication 'Amateur Cine World' used to produce a yearly supplement of free films on loan from various companies like British Gas, Ford and the Post Office. They often listed prints with magnetic tracks.

[Maurice Leakey]

Dave
It was a rather small public cinema. The picture quality was as good as 16mm could do.

Maurice

[Mark Silvester]

Hi, all

interesting thread.

When I was collecting 16mm about 10 years ago among one of the many titles that came my way was a copy of "Elvis On Tour"...now this had an optical soundtrack and also a magnetic one. Regrettably, I never got the opportunity to hear the magnetic track - the optical was in English.

Best

Mark