16mm No 1, 2016
The White Bus in Southend are involved in film exhibition and what not in Southend. They have regular shows at the Palace Theatre Westcliff and put on the Film Festival and Horror Film Festival in Southend. They also have weekly screenings at TAP (Temporary Art Project) at the old waterworks site in ancient Prittlewell, using I think it is the British Council’s former film collection which was being dumped.
In this recording, you hear the once familiar sound of a projector, 16mm in this case, in 2 parts. The projector starts up and the soundtrack begins. The film is “I know where I’m going” by Powell and Pressburger. Later on it stops: I think the tension was wrong. Once that is sorted out they carry on.
The second part of the recording (around 3:35) is just the projector running with the monitor speaker turned off. If you can just about hear the soundtrack, it’s from the hall and there’s also the squeak of a reel going ’round.
Find another recording of the film projector at The White Bus here.
Image of film reel by Holger Ellgaard used under Creative Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike) license.
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Fair point – I’ll have to watch all of it before I make a judgement! These few minutes made the main character seem intolerable, though.
Oh, it deserves better than that. I was seeing it for the first time, no prior knowledge other than Powell and Pressburg and thoroughly enjoyed it. You know exactly where it’s going from the start but it remains engaging all the same. Of course it’s of its time, it’s 70 years old but in time, maybe not that long you’ll look at something like “The West Wing” and think it looks and sounds ancient but if the story stands up that, of its timeness, might just add to the charm, like the clatter of the projector and the particular sound of the monitor speaker.
I love this! I’m fairly certain I do not want to see this film, though. Definitely of its time!
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