Feeling Nostalgic for Film – Guest Blog by Dave Beever (Chief Technician)

As Borderlines Film Festival 2015 rolled into The Courtyard, the technical department were feeling nostalgic and set up one of our Victoria 5 35mm film projectors for all to see in the foyer.

The Victoria 5 was first introduced to the world of film in 1975, built by Cinnemeccanica based in Milan. Developed as a low cost 35mm machine for use in multiplex cinemas, the Victoria 5 would become the firm’s most installed unit accounting for 95 percent of sales of 35mm equipment worldwide.

Here at The Courtyard we still have the capability to project 35mm film and a fully functional Victoria 5 projector is still used within our studio space, although with the coming of the digital age, the distribution of 35mm film prints is becoming more infrequent with most films arriving on a hard disk as a Digital Cinema Package.

But with some of Hollywood’s biggest studios still shooting on 35mm film every year, there will always be a place, certainly in my generation, for this wonderful medium to continue allowing films to be seen as the director intended when they shot it.

Below are a few photographs of the Victoria 5 in the foyer here at The Courtyard, taken by our resident Production Manager, Carl Hulme. More of Carl’s photography work can be found on his website.

Top to bottom:
Lens housing of the Victoria 5

Left to right: Chief Projectionist Simon Nicholls & Deputy Chief Projectionist Martyn Watkins

Simon making adjustments to the lens housing

Martyn checking the film has been laced up correctly