BLOG #2 ---- 8mm. Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm, & 70mm film ----- From Home to the Cinema!
I've loved film since I was a kid in the 60's. In school, I was the film projector geek. Now people think highly about geeks in general, thanks to computers. It's cool to be a geek. But back then, I knew I was slightly off center, because I loved to run movies for a class, or even better, in the auditoroium.

Ask any Baby Boomer about school films, and you will hear about the corny Science films, Sex-ed films about puberty (damn, no nudity), Sports films, then by high school the really graphic Driver's Ed films with plenty of gore. Plenty of dead bodies & blood thanks to the Ohio State Police. I didn't care what they were as long as I could work the projector. Two types are pictured below. The Bell & Howell 185, and the Kalart Victor. Love the darkened room, and the light of projected film since I was a kid. By high school, we had some great feature films shown. Classics, like To Kill a Mockingbird, and European films from Fellini to Goddard.
Now in our overly safe world, a kid couldn't work a projector in fear of getting burned on a hot projection lamp, or even losing a finger from reels spinning at high speed. Ooops, no more index finger. Sorry, projectionist humor. I hung out in projection booths in local theaters, then working in 2, at 15 & 16. Loved the huge projectors in theaters, similar to the ones pictured below.
Remember back then there were no Netfix's, or On Demands, or DVD's. So I was really ahead of the times when I started to buy films as a teenager. I started with one minute trailers, to TV shows, cartoons, then moved up to feature films over time. With collecting 16mm film for 45 years, I had over 4100 features & TV shows. Literally thousands of reels of film. It was a hell of a hobby, or actually a great addiction. In later blogs, I will talk about collecting through the years. Now I'm just starting with an overview.
Now a quick run of proper terminology --- 8mm film was used for home movies. Proud Moms & Dads would shoot little Junior or Princess with a camera that would shoot 3 minutes of silent movies, B&W or Color reel. 16mm film was used in schools, military, TV stations, rental companies, and Airlines (Yes, there were projectors & screens on jets showing feature films). 35mm films used in Movie Theaters. And 70mm films for huge theater screens.
I've loved film since I was a kid in the 60's. In school, I was the film projector geek. Now people think highly about geeks in general, thanks to computers. It's cool to be a geek. But back then, I knew I was slightly off center, because I loved to run movies for a class, or even better, in the auditoroium.

Ask any Baby Boomer about school films, and you will hear about the corny Science films, Sex-ed films about puberty (damn, no nudity), Sports films, then by high school the really graphic Driver's Ed films with plenty of gore. Plenty of dead bodies & blood thanks to the Ohio State Police. I didn't care what they were as long as I could work the projector. Two types are pictured below. The Bell & Howell 185, and the Kalart Victor. Love the darkened room, and the light of projected film since I was a kid. By high school, we had some great feature films shown. Classics, like To Kill a Mockingbird, and European films from Fellini to Goddard.
Now in our overly safe world, a kid couldn't work a projector in fear of getting burned on a hot projection lamp, or even losing a finger from reels spinning at high speed. Ooops, no more index finger. Sorry, projectionist humor. I hung out in projection booths in local theaters, then working in 2, at 15 & 16. Loved the huge projectors in theaters, similar to the ones pictured below.
Remember back then there were no Netfix's, or On Demands, or DVD's. So I was really ahead of the times when I started to buy films as a teenager. I started with one minute trailers, to TV shows, cartoons, then moved up to feature films over time. With collecting 16mm film for 45 years, I had over 4100 features & TV shows. Literally thousands of reels of film. It was a hell of a hobby, or actually a great addiction. In later blogs, I will talk about collecting through the years. Now I'm just starting with an overview.
Now a quick run of proper terminology --- 8mm film was used for home movies. Proud Moms & Dads would shoot little Junior or Princess with a camera that would shoot 3 minutes of silent movies, B&W or Color reel. 16mm film was used in schools, military, TV stations, rental companies, and Airlines (Yes, there were projectors & screens on jets showing feature films). 35mm films used in Movie Theaters. And 70mm films for huge theater screens.
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Projection Booth with two 35mm projectors. Reels were originally 10 minutes long, changing over between 2 projectors. A 2 hour film would have 12 reels. |
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My favorite modern projector for 16mm. The Eiki 3585, since 1989. |
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Large 16mm professional mchines. Feature films on one reel. |
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35mm theater machine, showing the image through a portal going to the screen. |
CHECK OUT MY OTHER BLOG ENTRY---- WATCHING 16MM FILMS -- AMAZING!
As I write through my blogs about movies of the 60's and 70's, you'll see that I not only love them from a perspective of my youth, but also as a long time collector. Many of the titles I will write about, I have had on film in my film collection over the years.
Hope you enjoy my recalling great memories and trivia.
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for comments, compliments, insults, profanities, questions, or what evers.
REMEMBER, KEEP AN "EYE" OUT!
THERE'S MORE TO COME.
.