Reflection's, the later years new release

[John Taylor]

Just a thought really, an idea for a new release,
With the popularity of the two refection's films which one of the dealers released all those years ago to celebrate 100 years of cinema, these were made around the early to mid 90s so I wondered how a new version in a similar style could be made to show the films of later years, it obviously wouldn't be full of the classics like the originals but there there have been some great films during the 90s and early 2000s.
It was only the later 2010 onwards when the quality of film making seemed to slid with just the occasional eye catching film appearing here and there.

[Mike Newell]

Highly unlikely but it would be a worthwhile project.

[John Taylor]

Your probably right Mike, however, there is a 30 minute one on the go right now on 1mm, it will unfortunately be a one off though and will take several months, a friend of mine is having one commissioned and it will take a few months, once done I'm sure there will be a review put up.

[Mike Newell]

Interesting look forward to seeing the results John.

[John Taylor]

Thanks Mike, I understand the one being ordered is a one off for the user only and will be in scope, it is going to look and sound fantastic. This is the item, not an official item but very well put together and needs to be up on a cope screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpYb...VintageTribute

[Mike Newell]

Great montage John . Worth exploring as a release.

[John Taylor]

Mike, i think this one knocks spots off reflections, if you view this with headphones and immerse Yoursellf in it, it really throws eveything at you with the music,the dialogue and the images.
as i understand it,my friend in Devon is only having one made for his own collection on 16mm, its going to be in scope so its going to look fantastic. It would be a superb opener or closer for the conventions but i dont think it will get that far from his collection. I'm hoping he will have two made so i can get a copy. As i understand it, it will run for 29 minutes as there will be a short section edited out which he isnt too fussed on. Hopefully he will review it when its done.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi John

Its well done but 30 minutes is to long for me, Reflections with a running time of about 7 minutes is about it even up to around 12 minutes could be OK, after that time frame I find watching extracts become a bit tiresome, sorry if that sounds a bit negative. With Reflections you had two releases one being the US the other the UK I liked the idea of splitting things up. Anyway I certainly wish him well with his project.

[John Taylor]

Graham, yes definatly each to their own, and I understand where your coming from with that. I just think with this one, (perhaps slightly edited) it all seems to work well. I do have the UK reflections but still to find the US one and also there is another, one but that title eludes me at the moment.
YouTube in particular is filled with these but I thought this one stood out more than the others.
It'l be interesting to see what my mate comes up with.

[Ed Gordon]

For me the best retrospective film remains Chuck Workman's Precious Images.

Precious Images was commissioned by the Directors Guild for its 50th anniversary. Workman had previously produced two documentaries, The Director and the Image (1984) and The Director and the Actor (1984), for the Guild. Editing took two or three months to complete.

Precious Images features half-second-long splices from approximately 470 American films. Chuck Workman described the film's editing structure as "a sprint. You take a breath and you go."

"Of course, I had so many movies I wanted to include that the time constraint forced me to compress the film more and more. The cutting got faster and faster, but I realized that the film was still working. And I was moving things around, and it was still working. I started finding these wonderful little combinations of shots, the kind of edits that I'd been doing for years in other things, but suddenly in this film I wasn't selling anything. It was a wonderful moment for me."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precious_Images

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi John

I just checked with my old Derann catalogue and this is where things get confusing "Reflections" was the British version, "Reflections USA" Quote..."is in the same vain as Reflections, but this time utilising classic American films".

Now the film listed as "Reflections USA" is in fact "Precious Images" as shown above, confused? I was at the time, not sure the reason for the name change to Reflection USA but there you have it. I have both on Super 8.

Another release that I thought was good and in fact its the only time I ever bought a new 16mm print later, after getting the Super 8 one is "Pieces Of Silver" I put that one on you-tube a while ago. Another little gem out there that Derann released, was "The Spirit Of America" which has a Mr Bean short added on the front, of what not to do when going to the cinema. Now with Mr Bean I removed it to place on the start of any Super 8 film show, which makes it a handy addition to have. I do use a Wurker tape splicer so you don't lose any frames, just peel the tape away for the next one.

Anyway its all great stuff, here is that you-tube video of the Super8 release of "Pieces Of Silver"

[Ed Gordon]

...
Another release that I thought was good and in fact its the only time I ever bought a new 16mm print later, after getting the Super 8 one is "Pieces Of Silver" I put that one on you-tube a while ago...

Chuck Workman made Pieces of Silver one year after he made Precious Images. Precious Images appears to be the most popular of all the retrospectives (it is with me). It is widely available in digital format, and highly coveted if you can find it on film.

[Brian Fretwell]

I would prefer onlyone clip from each film and more films in it if it had the same running time. That is just my personal opinion.

[Graham Ritchie]

Hi Ed

Although you have already posted Precious Images I thought I would show what the Super 8 version looks like up-loaded three years ago as well. All of the prints of those releases mentioned in this topic were printed on later film stock, so no problem with fade or anything like that. The quality of the sound though can vary, that may be down to the stripe or the high speed of the 8mm recordings. However I guess that the sound could be always re-recorded to improve it, providing that is the paste stripe is fine, so here it is again to give folks a rough idea of it on Super 8. Looking back to those days there were plenty of copies around both as new or on the second hand lists.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Interesting posts, however let's please stay on topic concerning this idea for a possible new release.