Going to the Movies

Yesterday Chris was looking a little ‘lost’ so I asked if we could look at his Dad’s movies.

When Jack my father in law died ten years ago we brought home his movies collection but have never got around to looking at them.

There are 7 or 8 small reels of Super 8 movies he took about 55 years ago.

Luckily Chris still has a projector capable of showing these films [ he never throws anything away!]. The films themselves are very fragile and we no longer have a screen. With some gentle persuasion and a piece of white cloth pinned to the wallpaper we managed to watch two of the films.

Will it work after so many years !

 

A tiny picture appears on the white fabric from my stash and looks to be a holiday in Cornwall from the 1960s.

We sit through two more of these tiny reels and decide it is taking too much strain on both the reels and our eyes.

A search of my Dad’s movie equipment produces a long forgotten Splicer, so Chris splices 3 or 4 reels together and we decide to wait until its dark to watch them.

My Happy Room means we can set up a longer view, so I clear off my tables and pin the same white fabric to my design wall.

6.30pm its dark enough to have a ‘date night’ at the movies ! We are now seeing the films the full size of my fabric.

Half way through the first reel ‘boo hiss’ [remember doing this in the ABC cinema when I was young and the projectionist was not happy having to mend a film with a cinema full of children!] the reel has jammed and a number of pieces broken off the very fragile film.

An intermission while Chris fixes the projector, splices the film back together and we are good to go again.

It was great seeing Chris age about 15 sailing boats and amphibian cars on a boating lake, The whole family enjoying the seaside and trips to Scotland and Wales.

The plan now is to transfer the fragile films to a DVD so we can share with his sister and the grandchildren.

Do you have forgotten films from long ago? Time to get them put on DVDs to save them from disintegrating.