I’ve always liked when people repurpose old items into cool new things. I remember watching a programme back in the 80s called Low-Tech where a guy called Rick Ball used to make seats and plant pots out of rubbish basically. That was quite cool. I’ve also seen people recently make lamps out of old whisky bottles. That’s quite cool too. I do, however, often have issues when someone makes a lamp or something out of an old item that might still have purpose or be worth money to a collector. Perhaps, for example, a retro gaming console wasn’t working properly but if the case still looks good my argument would be that it’s always worth keeping and trying to fix it or offering its body to another console that works but has been damaged. It’s good to use rare items for their original purpose if at all possible.
I was contacted by Greg from The Wolfe Brothers about their project based around film reels. Greg has been collecting film reels for years. Obviously 35mm film isn’t really very easy to use these days, but also a lot of Greg’s reels have been damaged so they wouldn’t be able to be shown anyway. Rather than just bin them Greg has found a cool way to share them and make some money in the process. Greg kindly gifted me a couple of samples for me to review on the site. As always it’s a totally honest review.
Actual Film Strip
This is an actual piece of 35mm film that ran through a projector in an old movie house. You can tell it’s the real thing because you can see the mono soundtrack that runs down the left hand side of the strip.
All of the 35mm film stock that Greg uses comes from decommissioned reels. Film that is too brittle or too damaged to make its way through a projector. Some are from single reels found in old theatres that have made their transition from 35mm to digital projection.
They’ve got some quite cool films available, such as Star Wars, The Godfather, Harry Potter, Young Frankenstein and Some Like It Hot. The one I have is a cool sequence from Star Wars’ Battle of Yavin with an X-Wing in front of the Death Star. It’s pretty cool owning this, knowing that at one time it did run through a projector and entertain audiences in a theatre.
Go to the Actual Film Strip Etsy page to purchase your own.
Actual Film Votive
Their other product is a frosted glass ‘votive’ tea light. This consists of one individual film cell, fixed to the side of the frosted glass. When you light a tea light inside it illuminates the cell with a flickering glow of old movie magic. Quite cool when you see it in the flesh.
Again they have cool films available to choose from such as Star Wars, It’s a Wonderful Life, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Elf, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Apocalypse Now and more.
Go to the Actual Film Strip Votive page to purchase your own.
It’s a very cool idea, and thanks again to Greg for sending through the samples.