Life Trivia
As I said in my first blog post, I plan to just talk about the trivia in my life.
This blog is going to be about my new hobby, which is 16MM film collecting. This is an incredibly exciting hobby and, in my opinion, is one of the most fun things a person can be a collector of. I liken it to owning a work of art that, instead of hanging on a wall, allows you to create a social event out of sharing a piece of movie history.
I'll start by explaining how I fell into this hobby to begin with. Over the last couple of years there has been this guy here in Lake St. Louis who was showing movies off of his dock. He would set up a projection screen and a portable multimedia projector and show movies on DVD. Some people would just be sitting in his back yard on lawn chairs, others would float out in the water off of the dock, but the most fun was when you were just going along on your boat with friends and could pull right up to a 'float-in' theatre. Even though the sound was difficult to hear, the overall experience was a blast.
Earlier this summer our friend, Diane Brown, had her 40th birthday. She wanted to celebrate by spending the evening boating with friends. We dropped anchor to watch the movie, the second "Austin Powers" which was being shown on the same weekend the new one was being released. Diane's husband, Lenny, knew the guy who was showing the movie, so he jumped into the water and swam ashore to talk to him. It was then that we found out that the Lake St. Louis movie guy was going to be moving away.
After we finished watching the movie, and were just sitting around talking, we all thought it was a shame there weren't going to be movies on the lake anymore. At that moment, in a fit of drunken stupor, I decided that I was going to be the next movie guy of Lake St. Louis; and, not only was I going to show movies on the lake, I was going to show movies ON the lake, right off of my pontoon boat smack in the middle.
Well, going from concept to creation turned out to be an interesting task. First, I took a look at how much it would cost to get a portable DLP projector and immediately received sticker shock. Yikes! Two thousand dollars for the least expensive model you could get. But then I remembered, as a child, watching movies in the classroom. I was determined to see how much an old 16mm film projector cost on ebay. The next day, I checked and found out that a working 16mm movie projector only cost around $50 to $100! What a deal! Suddenly the idea of showing movies on the lake seemed quite possible.
Of course, you need more than a projector, you need a screen too; and the most challenging part was to get a power source on the boat. I had heard of something called a 'power inverter' before. This is a piece of electronic hardware that lets you convert 12 volt DC power from a car battery into usable 120 volt AC for portable appliances. Well, that certainly sounded like it could work. So, I set out to purchase the equipment necessary to fullfill my vision. First I bought a really nice Eiki SSL-0 16mm projector ($100 plus shipping.) Then I bought an ancient 40" tripod portable screen ($20 plus shipping). Next, I purchased a power inverter which cost about $40. For roughly $200 I had a complete portable projection system. Or...so I thought. I anxiously awaited the arrival of all of the components I needed. I had purchased a couple of inexpensive cartoon shorts to test the system out with. When I finally got all of the equipment set up it was a great deal of fun to see it all finally working. However, my dream of showing movies on the boat immediately started to resemble a nightmare.
When I plugged the projector into the power inverter, I was able to turn the projector on and rewind a film. However, when I flipped on the powerful light, the fuse immediately blew. An eternal optimist I went to Walmart and bought a more expensive power inverter from them and some extra fuses. The new power inverter held up well, and successfully powered the projector. However. it would only run for about 30 minutes on a fully charged marine battery; enough to show a cartoon short at least. That Friday I set it all up on the pontoon boat, took my kids and their friends out onto the lake, and showed cartoons on my boat for the first time. It was an awesome experience, almost surreal, to be sitting out at night, under the stars, floating gently and watching classic cartoons from the 1940's.
Needless to say by now, I was *HOOKED*!
My next challenge was to do things right, and show a full length feature movie on the lake for my friends.
Suddenly, reality hit. 16mm movies are *EXPENSIVE*. Very, very, very, expensive. While the entire projection setup could be had for under $200, a decent feature length movie costs anywhere from $250 to $500! Yikes!!
Nevertheless, I marched onward. The first thing that had to go was the dinky 40" projection screen. I needed something big. So, for $70 plus shipping, I got a 72" tripod screen. (Notice that I keep saying 'plus shipping' but don't quote the shipping amount? These are heavy items and the shipping costs sometimes are quite significant.) The next challenge I had was with the lens on my projector. The standard lens on my system is superb, however it requires the projector to be a great distance away to produce a decent sized image. Now, if you are trying to project an image 30 feet from halfway across your yard there isn't really a problem, but if you are trying to show a movie on a 72" screen from the end of a pontoon boat, you need a serious zoom lens. So....I bought a zoom lens. Ka-Ching, another $100. The zoom lens works fine, but seems to take away some of the overall brightness. However, it will zoom an image to fit a large screen with a very short throw distance.
Now that I had the equipment in hand it was time to find a movie. Finally an auction came up for a film that really interested me. A classic comedy called "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye (the Robin Williams of the 1950's). The movie is incredibly funny, silly, and perfect for kids of all ages. It was made just around the time that Hollywood was still experimenting with color, and the costumes are over the top, with vivid and outrageous colors across the entire spectrum. I remember the film fondly from my own childhood, and I was determined to win this auction!
Well, I was a bit of a beginner at bidding on Ebay auctions, and have since leaned many hard lessons. This was my first. I'm certain you already know this, but don't ever bid on an Ebay auction till the last 15 seconds. If you bid earlier, all you are doing is raising the price on yourself. Wait until the last 15 seconds, put in as high a bid as your pain threshold will allow, and hit the enter key. Don't get emotionally involved in the auction if you can help it at all. I got emotionally involved, and watched my film get bid up by almost $200 in the last 15 minutes.
Nevertheless, for the bargain basement price of only $416, I had my first 16mm feature film. I was still ahead of the game by now; under $1,000 for everything I needed to show films on my boat, still half the price of a portable digital projection system.
The night finally arrived. Towards the end of the summer Lake St. Louis was putting on a concert series. I decided to have my first movie showing after the concert was over, when there would be a lot of boats on the lake. For power I borrowed 4 batteries from my friend Marty Solomon but, apparently, there was a reason all of those batteries had been left in his garage. None of them would hold a charge. I scavenged the batteries from a couple of my vehicles and borrowed Lenny's boat battery. I hoped I had enough juice to get us through the night. I spent the afternoon getting everything set up. I used strong twine to tie the huge tripod screen to the front of my boat, it looked like a giant sail. I carried all of the batteries, projector, film and everything else I needed out to the boat and made sure everything worked.
During the concert we told a bunch of people we were planning to show the film. Once the concert ended, I went out to the middle of the lake, dropped anchor, and put up the projection screen. The whole experience was better than I had ever hoped for. The screen was just huge, and it was simply awesome to see a film projected like an old drive-in theatre, reflected across the water late at night. While we were showing the movie a number of people stopped by and watched at least some of the film, including the original Lake St. Louis 'movie guy'.. He thought the setup was simply awesome, and was thrilled that I was carrying on the tradition in his stead.
The batteries held out fine, and we got to see the entire film without any problems. Later, over the summer, we had several movie showings in our back yard around our swimming pool. I showed "The Court Jester" again for all of my children's friends, and at one point we had somewhere between 20 to 30 kids floating around in the swimming pool watching the movie. It was a really magical evening, one I will remember for years to come.
Like many people who suddenly get interested in a new hobby, I kind of got carried away. I started purchasing a number of films and, before long, I had far exceeded the original cost of a DLP projector.
The problems were caused when I would emotionally bid on a movie I just "had to have”. 16mm films are very rare, and extremely hard to get in good condition. So, I would bid on a film that was advertised in less than perfect condition and then end up being terribly disappointed in it. After this had happened a number of times, I made a decision.
I decided to sell all of the 16mm films I had purchased that were not in absolutely perfect condition. By this time I had convinced my wife that collecting 16mm films was no different than any other investment. It's not like the money was gone, and it was a lot more fun to own a classic film than intermediate treasury bonds.
I sold all of the 16mm films I had purchased that were not in perfect condition and kept only the best. Overall I lost about $120, all of which could be attributed to one bad film somebody had ripped me off on.
Once I sold the films, and I know you have seen this coming from a mile away, I went ahead and bought a $2,000 portable digital light projection system. Now, instead of feeling compelled by buy a less than perfect film on 16mm, I know I can just show it on DVD. Now, DVD is certainly not the same as film, not by a long shot. However, the sound is fantastic and it's an acceptable compromise considering the high cost and limited selection of 16mm films available. DLP projectors are a fascinating piece of technology and in years to come many people will own them.
I've settled down now and have slowed the pace of my 16mm film collecting. I am much more selective in the process; I know how to spot and jump on good buying opportunities. Next summer I plan to show films on a regular basis, both at the swimming pool as well as on the lake. For the back yard I hope to build a huge projection screen, on the order of 20 to 30 feet if possible.
The only outstanding items I need to buy to complete my setup is a deep cell battery (the kind they use to power appliances on an RV) and a solar panel. The solar panel will trickle charge the deep cell battery all week, supplying plenty of power for either projector on the weekend. This is only about another $200 investment and I'm going to wait until next summer to make that purchase.
Here are the current films I own:
"The Court Jester" Danny Kaye, EXCELLENT $416.00
"Empire Of The Sun" Steven Spielberg, MINT $500.00
"101 Dalmations" Disney, 1961, MINT $315.00
"Pinocchio" Disney, 1940, EXCELLENT $760.00
"Bringing Up Baby" Hepburn, Tracy, B&W VG $179.00
"The Golden Seal" Kids feature film. EXCELLEN $100.00
Here are the films I bought, and then sold because they were not in perfect condition:
"Harold and Maude" Paid: $180
"The King and I" Paid: $153
"Hot Blood" Paid: $20
"Operation Dames" Paid: $27
"Rescuers Down Under" Paid: $271
"The Black Stallion" Paid: $200
"Adventures in Babysitting" Paid: $200
"Some Like It Hot" Paid: $250
Here is my cartoon shorts collection.:
"Andy Panda : Mouse Trappers" Castle Films, sound Short $10.00
"Andy Panda : Mousie Comes Home" Castle Films, silent short $15.00
"Andy Panda : The Wacky Weed" Castle films, silent short $3.00
"Woody Woodpecker : Ski For Two" Castle filmes, 1944 short $13.00
"Tortoise and the Hare" Disney, 1935 sound/color short $39.00
"Mickey's Christmas Carol" Disney short $75.00
"The Sorcerers Apprentice Disney Short $75.00
"Mr. Mouse Takes A Trip" Disney, Mickey Mouse, short $35.00
"Micky Mouse and Santa" Disney, very old short $5.00
“The Cat Came Back” Academy Award Nominee $65.00
The next time I get a chance to blog I will post my top 10 movie wish list and hopefully hear from you as to your suggestions as well.
As I said in my first blog post, I plan to just talk about the trivia in my life.
This blog is going to be about my new hobby, which is 16MM film collecting. This is an incredibly exciting hobby and, in my opinion, is one of the most fun things a person can be a collector of. I liken it to owning a work of art that, instead of hanging on a wall, allows you to create a social event out of sharing a piece of movie history.
I'll start by explaining how I fell into this hobby to begin with. Over the last couple of years there has been this guy here in Lake St. Louis who was showing movies off of his dock. He would set up a projection screen and a portable multimedia projector and show movies on DVD. Some people would just be sitting in his back yard on lawn chairs, others would float out in the water off of the dock, but the most fun was when you were just going along on your boat with friends and could pull right up to a 'float-in' theatre. Even though the sound was difficult to hear, the overall experience was a blast.
Earlier this summer our friend, Diane Brown, had her 40th birthday. She wanted to celebrate by spending the evening boating with friends. We dropped anchor to watch the movie, the second "Austin Powers" which was being shown on the same weekend the new one was being released. Diane's husband, Lenny, knew the guy who was showing the movie, so he jumped into the water and swam ashore to talk to him. It was then that we found out that the Lake St. Louis movie guy was going to be moving away.
After we finished watching the movie, and were just sitting around talking, we all thought it was a shame there weren't going to be movies on the lake anymore. At that moment, in a fit of drunken stupor, I decided that I was going to be the next movie guy of Lake St. Louis; and, not only was I going to show movies on the lake, I was going to show movies ON the lake, right off of my pontoon boat smack in the middle.
Well, going from concept to creation turned out to be an interesting task. First, I took a look at how much it would cost to get a portable DLP projector and immediately received sticker shock. Yikes! Two thousand dollars for the least expensive model you could get. But then I remembered, as a child, watching movies in the classroom. I was determined to see how much an old 16mm film projector cost on ebay. The next day, I checked and found out that a working 16mm movie projector only cost around $50 to $100! What a deal! Suddenly the idea of showing movies on the lake seemed quite possible.
Of course, you need more than a projector, you need a screen too; and the most challenging part was to get a power source on the boat. I had heard of something called a 'power inverter' before. This is a piece of electronic hardware that lets you convert 12 volt DC power from a car battery into usable 120 volt AC for portable appliances. Well, that certainly sounded like it could work. So, I set out to purchase the equipment necessary to fullfill my vision. First I bought a really nice Eiki SSL-0 16mm projector ($100 plus shipping.) Then I bought an ancient 40" tripod portable screen ($20 plus shipping). Next, I purchased a power inverter which cost about $40. For roughly $200 I had a complete portable projection system. Or...so I thought. I anxiously awaited the arrival of all of the components I needed. I had purchased a couple of inexpensive cartoon shorts to test the system out with. When I finally got all of the equipment set up it was a great deal of fun to see it all finally working. However, my dream of showing movies on the boat immediately started to resemble a nightmare.
When I plugged the projector into the power inverter, I was able to turn the projector on and rewind a film. However, when I flipped on the powerful light, the fuse immediately blew. An eternal optimist I went to Walmart and bought a more expensive power inverter from them and some extra fuses. The new power inverter held up well, and successfully powered the projector. However. it would only run for about 30 minutes on a fully charged marine battery; enough to show a cartoon short at least. That Friday I set it all up on the pontoon boat, took my kids and their friends out onto the lake, and showed cartoons on my boat for the first time. It was an awesome experience, almost surreal, to be sitting out at night, under the stars, floating gently and watching classic cartoons from the 1940's.
Needless to say by now, I was *HOOKED*!
My next challenge was to do things right, and show a full length feature movie on the lake for my friends.
Suddenly, reality hit. 16mm movies are *EXPENSIVE*. Very, very, very, expensive. While the entire projection setup could be had for under $200, a decent feature length movie costs anywhere from $250 to $500! Yikes!!
Nevertheless, I marched onward. The first thing that had to go was the dinky 40" projection screen. I needed something big. So, for $70 plus shipping, I got a 72" tripod screen. (Notice that I keep saying 'plus shipping' but don't quote the shipping amount? These are heavy items and the shipping costs sometimes are quite significant.) The next challenge I had was with the lens on my projector. The standard lens on my system is superb, however it requires the projector to be a great distance away to produce a decent sized image. Now, if you are trying to project an image 30 feet from halfway across your yard there isn't really a problem, but if you are trying to show a movie on a 72" screen from the end of a pontoon boat, you need a serious zoom lens. So....I bought a zoom lens. Ka-Ching, another $100. The zoom lens works fine, but seems to take away some of the overall brightness. However, it will zoom an image to fit a large screen with a very short throw distance.
Now that I had the equipment in hand it was time to find a movie. Finally an auction came up for a film that really interested me. A classic comedy called "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye (the Robin Williams of the 1950's). The movie is incredibly funny, silly, and perfect for kids of all ages. It was made just around the time that Hollywood was still experimenting with color, and the costumes are over the top, with vivid and outrageous colors across the entire spectrum. I remember the film fondly from my own childhood, and I was determined to win this auction!
Well, I was a bit of a beginner at bidding on Ebay auctions, and have since leaned many hard lessons. This was my first. I'm certain you already know this, but don't ever bid on an Ebay auction till the last 15 seconds. If you bid earlier, all you are doing is raising the price on yourself. Wait until the last 15 seconds, put in as high a bid as your pain threshold will allow, and hit the enter key. Don't get emotionally involved in the auction if you can help it at all. I got emotionally involved, and watched my film get bid up by almost $200 in the last 15 minutes.
Nevertheless, for the bargain basement price of only $416, I had my first 16mm feature film. I was still ahead of the game by now; under $1,000 for everything I needed to show films on my boat, still half the price of a portable digital projection system.
The night finally arrived. Towards the end of the summer Lake St. Louis was putting on a concert series. I decided to have my first movie showing after the concert was over, when there would be a lot of boats on the lake. For power I borrowed 4 batteries from my friend Marty Solomon but, apparently, there was a reason all of those batteries had been left in his garage. None of them would hold a charge. I scavenged the batteries from a couple of my vehicles and borrowed Lenny's boat battery. I hoped I had enough juice to get us through the night. I spent the afternoon getting everything set up. I used strong twine to tie the huge tripod screen to the front of my boat, it looked like a giant sail. I carried all of the batteries, projector, film and everything else I needed out to the boat and made sure everything worked.
During the concert we told a bunch of people we were planning to show the film. Once the concert ended, I went out to the middle of the lake, dropped anchor, and put up the projection screen. The whole experience was better than I had ever hoped for. The screen was just huge, and it was simply awesome to see a film projected like an old drive-in theatre, reflected across the water late at night. While we were showing the movie a number of people stopped by and watched at least some of the film, including the original Lake St. Louis 'movie guy'.. He thought the setup was simply awesome, and was thrilled that I was carrying on the tradition in his stead.
The batteries held out fine, and we got to see the entire film without any problems. Later, over the summer, we had several movie showings in our back yard around our swimming pool. I showed "The Court Jester" again for all of my children's friends, and at one point we had somewhere between 20 to 30 kids floating around in the swimming pool watching the movie. It was a really magical evening, one I will remember for years to come.
Like many people who suddenly get interested in a new hobby, I kind of got carried away. I started purchasing a number of films and, before long, I had far exceeded the original cost of a DLP projector.
The problems were caused when I would emotionally bid on a movie I just "had to have”. 16mm films are very rare, and extremely hard to get in good condition. So, I would bid on a film that was advertised in less than perfect condition and then end up being terribly disappointed in it. After this had happened a number of times, I made a decision.
I decided to sell all of the 16mm films I had purchased that were not in absolutely perfect condition. By this time I had convinced my wife that collecting 16mm films was no different than any other investment. It's not like the money was gone, and it was a lot more fun to own a classic film than intermediate treasury bonds.
I sold all of the 16mm films I had purchased that were not in perfect condition and kept only the best. Overall I lost about $120, all of which could be attributed to one bad film somebody had ripped me off on.
Once I sold the films, and I know you have seen this coming from a mile away, I went ahead and bought a $2,000 portable digital light projection system. Now, instead of feeling compelled by buy a less than perfect film on 16mm, I know I can just show it on DVD. Now, DVD is certainly not the same as film, not by a long shot. However, the sound is fantastic and it's an acceptable compromise considering the high cost and limited selection of 16mm films available. DLP projectors are a fascinating piece of technology and in years to come many people will own them.
I've settled down now and have slowed the pace of my 16mm film collecting. I am much more selective in the process; I know how to spot and jump on good buying opportunities. Next summer I plan to show films on a regular basis, both at the swimming pool as well as on the lake. For the back yard I hope to build a huge projection screen, on the order of 20 to 30 feet if possible.
The only outstanding items I need to buy to complete my setup is a deep cell battery (the kind they use to power appliances on an RV) and a solar panel. The solar panel will trickle charge the deep cell battery all week, supplying plenty of power for either projector on the weekend. This is only about another $200 investment and I'm going to wait until next summer to make that purchase.
Here are the current films I own:
"The Court Jester" Danny Kaye, EXCELLENT $416.00
"Empire Of The Sun" Steven Spielberg, MINT $500.00
"101 Dalmations" Disney, 1961, MINT $315.00
"Pinocchio" Disney, 1940, EXCELLENT $760.00
"Bringing Up Baby" Hepburn, Tracy, B&W VG $179.00
"The Golden Seal" Kids feature film. EXCELLEN $100.00
Here are the films I bought, and then sold because they were not in perfect condition:
"Harold and Maude" Paid: $180
"The King and I" Paid: $153
"Hot Blood" Paid: $20
"Operation Dames" Paid: $27
"Rescuers Down Under" Paid: $271
"The Black Stallion" Paid: $200
"Adventures in Babysitting" Paid: $200
"Some Like It Hot" Paid: $250
Here is my cartoon shorts collection.:
"Andy Panda : Mouse Trappers" Castle Films, sound Short $10.00
"Andy Panda : Mousie Comes Home" Castle Films, silent short $15.00
"Andy Panda : The Wacky Weed" Castle films, silent short $3.00
"Woody Woodpecker : Ski For Two" Castle filmes, 1944 short $13.00
"Tortoise and the Hare" Disney, 1935 sound/color short $39.00
"Mickey's Christmas Carol" Disney short $75.00
"The Sorcerers Apprentice Disney Short $75.00
"Mr. Mouse Takes A Trip" Disney, Mickey Mouse, short $35.00
"Micky Mouse and Santa" Disney, very old short $5.00
“The Cat Came Back” Academy Award Nominee $65.00
The next time I get a chance to blog I will post my top 10 movie wish list and hopefully hear from you as to your suggestions as well.
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