A Good Read whilest in Lockdown.

[Ken Finch]

Whilst like so many of us oldies who are currently in "lockdown" I have been re visiting the following books which other fellow film collecting fanatics may be interested in.
1.A Light Affliction by Michael Binder. This is a history of film preservation and restoration. Very well researched It also deals with the problems associated with digital conversion and long term storage.

2. In Search of Lost Films, by Phil Hall.

3. A Thousand Cuts, by Dennis Bartok & Jeff Joseph. The bizarre underworld of collectors and dealers who saved the films. Some very interesting characters and the lengths some would go to acquire their films!!

4. How films were made and shown. by David Cleveland and Brian Pritchard. A technical history of films. Rather expensive but a must for the ardent film collector. Ken Finch.

[Paul Adsett]

And lets not forget:

Film Collecting by Gerald McKee
Classic Home Movie Projectors by Gerald McKee
Castle Films a Hobbyist Guide by Scott MacGillivray

All great reads!

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

While autobiographies are not really my thing, I thoroughly enjoyed Woody Allen's autobiography Apropos Of Nothing. It is at times humorous, at other times serious. Not much detail or behind the scenes drama regarding specific films, but a lot about the people he worked with over the years. In the book he makes clear that in his younger days he was a talented but rather immature person regarding his relationships. His issues with Mia Farrow are a relatively small part of the book, but he does document his side of the story to the extent that I now have no doubt that the charges against him are false. I can see why she did not want the book published or his response told.

As a result of reading the book I watched his latest film A Rainy Day In New York via an imported Bluray. Like most of his recent films, it is a light, sentimental comedy/drama and probably the best film he has done in years. I would say more, but I tend not to like plot spoilers. I give it 4 out of 5 stars and hope it eventually gets released here.

[Steve Klare]

The Super-8 Book, by Lenny Lipton.

He wrote about Super-8 filming in a more prosperous time, when sound film was available and second system sound and post-striping did the job in cases where they weren't. There are descriptions of all sorts of obsoleted film types including speeds up to 400ASA. It has a chapter on projectors and he reviews ones we talk about here quite often. What's interesting is this book was written Pre-GS, and the brightest star in the Super-8 sky (at least according to Lenny Lipton) was the Elmo ST-1200HD.

Lenny Lipton is still active in motion pictures and is recognized for his work in 3D technology. What's sad is among the many books he lists that he wrote, the one he omitted is The Super-8 Book.

(Here's hoping we aren't cooped up at home long enough for everybody to find a copy on E-bay!)

[Lee Mannering]

Nice to bring up these books. Used to fairly regularly chat to Gerald on the tellingbone mainly about 9-5 sound films good times. The castle films book I knew nothing about so thanks for that Paul.