Dialog: The last Super-8-Shops - Cleethorpes, England #super8 (part 3 of 3)

You said that you're also presenting new titles, or new films, in the magazine,. And you also produce new titles on Super 8. When did you start doing that? In 1988. First thing I did when I decided to open the business: I went to see Derek Simmons at Derann. Told him what I was going to do. And he was very helpful to me and taking me under his wing to do trips to the labs and meet various people. He took me to see them and helped me get my first prints done. And for a while I used to have all my

prints done via Derann. they would have them produced, record the sound. and so on. Obviously that altered a little bit when Derann closed. Or shortly before, when Derek was poorly. So I had to go to a different labs but it was always an interesting trip. Whenever I went to see him. How many titles did you release? From 1996 or 1997, we released more films per year than Derann did. Because they started to produce less when Derek was ill. And so I started to produce more at that time, only becau

se they were unable to work on the soundtracks as easily. Because Derek used to do those personally. So I had to go elsewhere to have my soundtracks made, in Germany, for instance. And that resulted in more titles coming from me than being produced in the UK. It was so much easier for me, later, to also provide the sound for European releases. Or should I say: the British English sound to existing European releases, to get them out in the UK. Because EU law said: if it was available in Germany o

r wherever, I could sell it in England quite lawfully. So we were able to alter the sound by redubbing and so on and produce even more products. Did you have a special label for your products? No, no. Because I never heard of a huge number of titles from “Classic Home Cinema”; in special... Well, we started anyway having a sticker on label, which you print a poster of a relevant film on that label. So we still use those to this day, but generally speaking, the box was quiet plane, with just a po

ster on it. And what kind of titles? Were these digests, or full features? I did serveral.. The first full feature I did, I seem to recall, was Dracula (1931). And then since that time we released the MGM musical called “Broadway Melody of 1940” and other features exclusive to us. And with the rereleases of some of the German titles in English, we got quite a decent market going for them. I've always released a lot of trailers. But you can always tell if a trailer is mine. Because if I released

a trailer, it always had “Coming soon” or “Coming next week” at the beginning. Not just the bare trailer. Then we do lots of cartoons as well. Mostly public domain cartoons because of my love for vintage cartoons. But we did a lot of those. And then we have done two real digests of a few top films and four or five other two-reelers. In fact, this week we just released another two-reeler to the market. And that's being premiered this weekend. What title? Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. So it's a diges

t? Yeah. And you cut it, or...? No, by someone for me. Okay. I do have a 35mm here in the basement, and we do 35mm prints here.. But it's a long process. And where do you have the new products produced, then? In Germany for the lab. Italy for the stripe and the sound. And we share with an American distributor the rights to certain films. Because my experience with the labs has been shared by me with him. And he's able to get the discounts using my name to get the volume of films up, to get the d

iscounts. So it's everything he does is been with my assistance, I hope, and advice, you know. How high is the print run usually these days, for a new product? If I print a new title, my initial print order is always 20 prints, be it a feature or trailer, it's always 20. And then if I reprint out the next print, there's another 20. Some of the later releases will give it to 20, of which make some grossly expensive. And I don't think there is any money to be made at all in the Super 8 releasing.

I think in America some people have been producing prints from 4K video to try and cut costs, making digests of them. Which is easy to do on video and then printed on Super 8. The problem there is: the quality is not good, even though it's from 4k. So even then the prices are tremendous because you have to produce a negative. That's where the money goes. And as a proper registered business, I write the cost of that negative off against my tax, which if you're not a registered business, it's very

difficult to do that. So they bump the price of the prints up and that really puts the match to the candles they burn. And so expensive now for short print runs. Was there a special big success in your products? I think, personally, I have two big sales to report to you. One was a cartoon based on Casablanca called “Carablanca”, and it was a spoof of the classic film noir involving all the Warner Brothers characters. That to my mind, if you look it up view elsewhere, it's absolutely hilarious.

And the caricatures of the characters in there are really wonderful. That was a great film. And the other one I did was an advertisement reel. I thought we’ll have a bit of fun with this one. And we got the Pearl & Dean reel out, which I called “Beer, fags and women”. Beer is self-explanatory. Fags in the UK is cigarettes. And women are women. And the whole reel was full of very sexist and all the other advertise you'd never see in the cinema nowadays. But to watch it is absolutely hilarious. An

d that went very well. We can't get enough reprints of that. I've still got a negative, so probably do some more someday. I would be interested. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. And now we are talking about the future of your business. And in 2022, you invested in a new website which was revised again this year. In the same year you announced that you were looking at a successor for your business. Does this position still stands? Well, I still run the business in my own name now, and run it myself, becau

se it keeps me alive. Sadly, I am not a well man. I have a cancer and I can't live forever. So I really like to see the business continue selling film. If it does go, I'd like to sell it on. The majority has a going concern because it's been going now longer than the other UK business. I'd love to see it continue ad infinitum in any form really. So I have no plans to retire because running the business keeps me going. But I like to see the business going when I've gone. And have any interested

parties already come forward? Not really. I think you'll see the level of stock we've got, but you know where we are in the country. But it doesn't mean, to say, it has to run from this building, you know. But no, I don't think there is sufficient interest or business potential in selling cine film nowadays. In fact, I have to tell you, we do well with it ,because we are the leader in the country, probably with it. But to start the business of yourself now would not really be viable. I don't thi

nk. well so I hope to have you in the in the hobby for a long time and as a connection point for everyone because it's such a value. And I am not sure if there is anyone else who can fulfil that position. My last question to you: What makes Super 8 interesting for you? Well, it's not necessarily Super 8 that's interesting. But cinema itself is. And that cinema experience is duplicated by Super 8 for me a lot of the time. But I like to see the unusual. And seeing Super 8 on the screen in a home e

nvironment is unusual nowadays. If you wanted to watch a copy of Titanic, you could say “Well, thank you, Phil, can I borrow the disk? I'll take it home, watch it.” And if I said to you: “Do you want to come around and watch my video of Titanic?”, it's: “No, I've seen” or “I’ve got my own disc.” or “Can I borrow the disc?”. If I said to you: “Do you want to come around tonight and watch Titanic on my home cinema screen in a comfortable little theatre, a 12 foot wide screen with stereo sound and

so on... That's this experience because you'll also get the newsreel, the adverds and the trailers with it. You don't get that on the disc. It's possible to recreate that with bits and pieces from various discs. But the home cinema experience is the Super 8 one. Phil, that was very interesting. Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best for everything you're planning. Well, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Yeah.