Loft clearout brings nostalgia

With a move in the offing, I thought it was time to sort out the loft. Outside it was a foul day with gusty wind and rain. Shouldn’t take too long to see what’s in there, and get rid of stuff that’s not needed. When I crawled in, the word ‘labyrinth!’ came to mind, for I could hardly move in there. This is going to take me sometime to sort through, I thought, why does my wife fill the loft with all her junk?

I set eyes on all the old cine equipment that at one time was so treasured. It brought back memories. I spotted the Bingascope that I had as a child. That wonderful Christmas present. I had to take it out of the loft and look at this small mechanism, which was a toy that had been such a childhood joy. A box contained a number of small cassettes that ran 30 feet of 9.5 mm film. I tried it out to see if it would still work. Amazing! The lamp came on. I found a film called “Big Game” and projected it onto a white wall. As I cranked, the memories came back, of laying in bed at night with my brother and the picture projected onto the ceiling. It was Big Game hunting in the jungle. As a lion came towards the camera, getting closer and closer, I thought of how we used to crank the Bingascope very slowly to make the film last longer. There were cartoons and even Westerns, complete 1 1/4 minute films. They somehow didn’t seem so short in those days. Can’t throw that away, I thought, it’s a memento!

Back in the labyrinth, I found 9.5mm clockwork cameras that used cassettes that cost ten shillings. Ten minutes of silent film for £4, process paid. But I used to buy tins of film and load my own cassettes, which worked out cheaper, especially when I used to have fun doing my own processing. I couldn’t throw out those cameras, they were museum pieces.

As I continued my nostalgic search through the Aladdin’s cave, I was aware that it was no longer treasure, even though mostly all in perfect working order. As I came out of my dreams, I had to decide what to do with such a collection. The equipment ranged through 9.5mm, Standard and Super 8mm, 16mm cameras and projectors, and many large cans of film to sort through. There was even a large tank for processing 100 foot lengths of 16mm film and drying racks, and my old reel to reel tape recorder for sound. Then I came across my first camcorder. The dawn of video. I thought of how sceptical I was in the early days. Even now, there are some

remaining regrets, with the change over from a purely mechanical mechanism to a mainly electrical system with cassettes measured in hours rather than minutes. But I was not impressed by the quality compared with film. We’ve come a long way since those days of scepticism as the technology has progressed and the digital camcorders are so small, you can put one in your pocket. A complete film crew lingers there with picture and sound. I sometimes wonder if perhaps it’s too easy now. In the old days you had to take great care over every foot of film you shot, you couldn’t afford to do otherwise. In many ways it was more fun, holding those precious shots up to the light. Now one has to take care not to shoot too much and make editing more difficult.

In the days before video, fewer people had a movie camera and the technology had reached a peak. So the equipment just didn’t get out of date like video that is being changed mouth by month. I wonder now if there will ever be a time when the technology can’t go any further. Well, I tend to think that will never happen now.

The future holds great possibilities. Tape is already becoming outdated, so we will probably have camcorders that contain a mini disk or memory card like a digital still camera. Then there is solid state technology and who knows what lies beyond. With the rapid advances, it is more difficult to know what equipment to invest in, for investment is hardly the word to use, as new ideas spring up it costs a lot of spare cash to keep up to date. So this is a double edged sword in a way, as there is the choice between choosing the latest equipment, or just carry on using the same old out dated stuff. In spite of all this advancement, film is still used by the profession. Can it be that Panavision film plus Dolby sound is still the best in quality and more reliable. Of course, video is used now, especially with special effects and also to see the results of each shot and say “print,” if the take is OK. Future camcorders may also have the choice of format, 4x3, 16x9 or wider.

So that still leaves the question. What to do with all this old stuff in the loft? Then again, it’s all in working order, but too expensive to use and very much out of date. Being sentimental an idea has come into mind.

Why not open a museum?