Huge Collection of Film on the ABC News

[Rodney Bourke]

Huge collection of vintage Australian cinema equipment comes to life in a country shed, interesting Story and Photos see link.


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-...life/100100116

[Dave Groves]

Now there's an interesting man for any film collector. Only hope he's made arrangements to keep his collection intact for when he passes. Bet his cinemas worth seeing. Any chance of obtaining views of the auditorium? Thanks for posting Rodney. Now Mrs. G.....about that holiday in Australia!!

[Paul Adsett]

Yes Dave, my dream vacation is a trip down under to see this place and then to pop over to NZ and see Graham's incredible home cinema.

[Ed Gordon]

Here is a link to the his Plaza Theatre website's Photograph Gallery. The theater reflects his passion for cinema.

https://www.plazatheatre.com.au/about-us/photo-gallery/

[Dave Groves]

Thanks for the link Ed. I see the theatre is advertising 'CinemaScope'. Is this simply a throwback to the 50's or does he actually run old 'Scope films in the proper ratio? It's not an old picture as it mentions 'Downton Abbey'.

[Ed Gordon]

Dave, It's complicated. A good place to learn more than you may want to know is at the Widescreen Museum website:

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingcs1.htm

[Ken Finch]

I hope none of the old films are on nitrate stock on those racks of film reels!!! Ken Finch.

[Lindsay Morris]

Have visited the Plaza at Lauriienton a few years ago (prior to digital cinema) and spent 2 or 3 hours with David touring his "picture palace". You have to see it to believe it and only one word can describe..... Brilliant.

I doubt that David would keep any Nitrate stuff unless he had a suitable spot to safely store it.
When he was running film he was setup or Academy, Widescreen (1.85 : 1) and Scope and correct masking or all 3 ratios. Was then a very good setup and I would imagine that now having converted to digital he has maintained that same ethos.(Must ask a mutual friend what he did for digital conversion)
His presentations put a few nearby complexes to shame with just a screen and nought else.

I have a 35mm machine squeezed in under my house with a 6m x 4m auditorium with 20 seats with a 3.3m wide scope screen and motorised curtains that double as side masking with suitable stops setup on the track for scope, W/S and 16mm which also double as a 8mm screen.
The 35mm projector is an Aust made Super Standard, an ex drive in machine which has a water cooled gate and twin contra rotating shutters. It sits on a RCA 9050 rotary stabiliser sound head modified for stereo and the lamphouse is another Aussie made bit of gear being a Calder 10" Carbon Arc lamphouse which to make the setup fit the space available I removed the Neg carbon drive assembly and fitted a 120V 660W halogen bulb in place of where the arc tips would normally be and attached to the old Pos carbon holder. Reasonable light...maybe a tad yellow-ish but nobody complains.
Sound is into a JSD UltraStereo 1000A processor feeding a pair of ex 100W per chan Cinema amps for C, L, R & Surr sound. 100W is gross overkill but was looking for a good home so I grabbed them.
16mm is via another Aussie made projector being a Harmour & Heath which used to have a 1000W lamp but now has a 200W car headlight xenon in its place which gives better light than the old 1000 w "radiator" lamp. The Harmour & Heath is unusual in that it has a Maltese cross intermittent so is very gentle on film.

Must dig out some pics and post.

[Paul Adsett]

Sound great Lindsay, I would really like to seem you post some pics on the Screening Room section of this forum.

[Graham Ritchie]

You would be more than welcome Paul.

Sounds great Lindsay and as Paul says above, some pictures would be great .