2009 Film Diary

PAUL’S FILM DIARY 2009

By Paul Schilling

January---I wrote and sent five articles on film collecting to “Reel Deals” magazine for publication. “Reel Deals” is a film collector magazine out of Australia that is published four times a year.

January 31---I usually spend January watching movies on film and working on my films I took over the past year. This January was no different. I took 4 or 5 days (scattered through the month) and watched old super-8 movies, both home movies and Hollywood films. I pulled the shades to darken the room and watched films all day long. What a way to spend a cold winter day, relaxing and watching movies the way they are supposed to be watched, with a projector and screen.

I also spliced the films together that I took over the past year and put titles etc. on them.

I went together with my son, Chris and we purchased a Telecine machine to transfer 8mm films to DVD’s or any other format. He has wanted to get set up to do this for some time now. More on this later.

February 28---On February 9^th the Avon Community Church burned. It is half a mile east of our house. The next morning Helen and I drove down to look at it. Of course I took my trusty Super-8 camera along to film what was left. I will put this footage on my documentary reel that I have been working on for the last ten years or so about our local area. It was sad to see the rubble that was left. Helen and I were married there in October of 1963.

I spent several more days watching S-8 films in February.

On February 18, I dug out all of the old newspaper clippings that I had saved from when I was a kid about the Milwaukee Braves baseball team. I used my Minolta S-8 camera with macro focusing and filmed all of the old headlines. (1954 through 1957) It all turned out pretty good. I used Kodak Tri-X film.

On the 28^th Helen and I went to the Lena, Ill model railroad show as we do every year.

March---I read about an amplified, wireless speaker that Sears had for sale. It is supposed to sound great. I decided I needed one for my S-8 sound projector. We went to the Janesville Sears store and they had them on sale for $69 or $79. They regularly sold for $150. I bought one, brought it home and hooked it up. Boy, it sounds great. I had been using an old 16mm projector speaker which sounded pretty good, but this new one plays circles around the one I had been using.

Spring work has started. I’ve been clearing and piling brush in the Christmas trees on nice days so I don’t have a lot of time to watch films now.

I wrote two articles and sent them to “The Reel Image” film collector magazine for publication. “The Reel Image” is published three times a year by Steve Osborne of Kettering, Ohio. He has used several of my articles in the past.

I also ordered the feature film “Tickle Me” with Elvis from a dealer in Australia on Super-8. I saw his ad in “Reel Deals” magazine. I had never ordered anything from Australia before and didn’t know how it would work out. The difference in the US dollar and the Australian dollar is very much in our favor so I thought I would give it a try. I used my credit card and the credit card company automatically converts the AUS dollars to US dollars for a small fee. It only took a week or so to come and the prices were great on the film and the shipping charges.

April---I subscribe to “Reminisce” magazine and they have a page they call “Can you give me a hand”, where people write in a small request for information or something they have been looking for. So on the 14^th I sent them a request that I have been looking for a Minolta XL601 or XL401 Super 8 movie camera and a Fujica Single 8 camera. Of course you never know if or when they might print it and it’s free.

April 23---I saw listed in an ad in “Shutterbug” magazine a power winder that would work with my Minolta X700 35mm SLR film camera for a good price, so I ordered one. I had always wanted one but never got around to getting one and hadn’t seen any advertised for several years, so I thought they were no longer available. I don’t use my 35mm equipment a lot any more, but still do now and then. I now have a power winder if I need it.

August---On the 19^th we went over to Janesville to Rotary Gardens. We try to go over there several times during the summer. They always have something different blooming every time you go. I took one of my S-8 cameras loaded with Ektachrome 100D and got some beautiful footage. For most of my filming I have been using Ektachrome 64T, but for the flowers I decided to use the finer grain 100D. Last year I used a couple of rolls of Velvia 50 with its more saturated colors to film flowers at Rotary Gardens and Helens flower beds. Both films turned out great. I buy these films from Spectra Film & Video in North Hollywood, CA. They also did the processing. Dwayne’s in Parsons, KS processes my 64T.

September—On the 3^rd we took a drive to Union, Ill to the Illinois Railway Museum for a days outing. It’s one of the largest RR museums in the US if not the largest. They have a Burlington Zepher there, steam engines and anything related to the railroad. A lot of their displays are indoors so I couldn’t use my Super 8 camera inside easily with the low light, but I did take a couple of rolls of film outside. We did get some good snapshots inside.

On the 28^th we drove around Avon Township and took pictures of the old one room country schools or what was left of them. Most are now being used as homes. I used Kodak Plus-X B & W film. This footage will be added to my “Avon on the Sugar” documentary that I have been working on for the past 10 years or so.

October---On October 4^th we drove into Brodhead and filmed different points of interest around town, including the old Texaco station where my dad worked in the 1930’s and the house I was born in. I used Ektachrome 64T film.

On the 5^th and 6^th we went over to Dyersville, Iowa. We went to the National Farm Toy Museum and the “Field of Dreams” movie site. There wasn’t a lot to film, but we did get pictures of the ball field used in the film “Field of Dreams.” I did pick up a nice Nikon Super-8 camera at an antique store.

I have been also filming family birthday parties and get-togethers throughout the year.

November---“Reminisce” ran my request for Super 8 cameras in the Oct/Nov issue. Emails started coming almost immediately. It has been about six weeks now since it came out and I have had almost 50 answers to my request. They weren’t necessarily for the cameras I requested but movie cameras that people had and wanted to sell. However I did get a Minolta XL401 for $20 plus shipping and a Fujica Single 8 camera for free (just the postage). All total I purchased 6 nice Super 8 cameras that will work with the current films that are available, an old Bell & Howell Filmo 70 16mm camera from back in the 1930’s, 2 regular 8 projectors and one regular 8 camera for my collection. I paid anywhere from “free” (just the postage”), up to $50. The request resulted in more than I ever expected.

We opened to sell Christmas trees on November 21. On the 18^th “Alice in Dairyland” came and cut the state of Wisconsin’s first official Christmas tree of the season. This was quite an honor to have our tree farm chosen for this event this year. There are about 1400 Christmas tree growers in the state of Wisconsin and “Alice” goes to a different farm each year for the event. There were probably over 100 people here that afternoon including the 4^th grade class from Brodhead Elementary school, lots of local news media and the general public. It was a busy hectic day but I did manage to run off about a roll of film.

Our son, Chris has been getting quite a few films in to transfer to DVD’s. It took him several months to get the Telecine machine set up and operating the way it is supposed to. While learning, he used our family films to practice on. This is the first he has ever worked with films himself, of course he grew up with me and my movie cameras. He kind of wants to get all of our old family films transferred so future generations will have the pictures if all of the old projectors give out. We are working together on the project. I have the cleaning and splicing equipment and he has the Telecine machine hooked up to his computer at his house. I clean and lube the films and repair splices and he does the actual transferring. It’s all working out great.