Above: Mark Williams was nominated to introduce the evening 35mm presentation of 'LAST ACTION HERO' projected by Darren Payne of Dirt In The Gate Movies (photo: Ben Wales).
John McTiernan's 1993 action blockbuster stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and it was one of the big highlights of the day. Park Circus are the distributor of this single remaining 35mm print and thanks to Darren Payne of the Christchurch Regent 'Dirt In The Gate Movies', the requisite arrangements and rights clearances were made for this historic first at any collector convention. We felt that 'LAST ACTION HERO' was entirely suitable for the BFCC, particularly in this beautiful theatre venue, as the film is actually set within a cinema. Ben Wales, Darren Payne and Mike from The Barn Theatre were responsible for every aspect of this show and the standard achieved was of the highest order. Ben Wales travelled the country purchasing the professional JBL speakers and equipment he wanted to make all the film shows sound as good as possible and the end result had to be heard to be believed. The general opinion is that it was better than most commercial cinemas today. The pristine quality of the print certainly helped as there was barely a mark on it, other than around the original reel changes which is where film always takes a bit of a beating. Below is Darren during the show with his incredible 35mm projector (photo: Ben Wales).

Above are Darren and Ben together. They were pleased with the 35mm shows and they can be rightfully proud of what they achieved (photo: Ben Wales).

We created an advert which focused on the evening 35mm presentation. These were exclusively for distribution at The Barn Theatre and can be seen below.

Trevor Dawe and Bruce Latham's stand in the 'Little Barn' (below) to the rear of the main Theatre. Photo courtesy of Trevor Dawe.

Murray Paterson's stand was also in the 'Little Barn' (below).

Simon Chambers and John Di Petrillo ran the Bring & Buy as usual and were situated in the largest of the backstage rooms. Patrick Moules had a small table in there too so it was very much like old times at this BFCC. Patrick had been operating the Bring & Buy since 1977. Chris Bird took the photo below of Patrick with Dominique De Bast who contributed most of the photos on page 1 for this record of the 67th BFCC.

Simon sent us through the Bring & Buy Booking In/Registration Form form for uploading onto this web site. This enabled people who were bringing along films, equipment, memorabilia or home video discs to sell to print out and complete the forms ahead of time. This seems to have worked well and so we'll aim to do this again in the future.

Chris Bird has also contributed some very nice photos and these can all be seen below.

We setup Phil and Denise Sheard of Classic Home Cinema in the Theatre bar. They had an impressive display and some very tempting titles were on sale.

Chris took a snap of the team (below) while they were working out how to get the screen into position safely. It was a tight fit with only 2 to 3 inches to spare at left, right and top.

Super 8, 16mm and 4K UHD video projection were setup at ground level while Darren Payne prepared the 35mm projector at the front of the Gallery (below).

Simon McConway looking through some of Keith Wilton's Super 8 collection on sale on the 'Film Is Fabulous!' stand who setup in the open air, outside of the Little Barn which is situated to the rear of the main Theatre building. This was a brilliant idea on such a gorgeous day as it made it so easy to spend money there. Too much money!

Noel Cronin of Renown Films/Talking Pictures (above) was situated in the 'Little Barn' at the back of the main Theatre building.

Bryan Pearce and Roger Godden were in one of the backstage rooms (above). Below are two of the multiple 'Film Is Fabulous!' tables. FIF! are based at the De Montfort University in Leicester.

The 24 foot wide BFCC CinemaScope screen is a tight fit and stands right in front of the stage but it worked out very well in the end. Film is fashionable once again and this has helped to resurrect these conventions after the pandemic. Anyone interested in film and 4K UHD home video projection got the chance to see both projected onto that huge screen to enable close scrutiny and a good comparison to try to work out the little nuances that make both such a different viewing experience. However, the LED lamp in the UHD video projector appears to have started failing during the last of the video shows which featured short extracts from 'Thelma & Louise' and 'F1 The Movie'. This will no doubt be rectified by the time of the 68th BFCC. We did fill about 22 feet of the width of the giant screen though. It would have been the full 24 feet but we weren't able to raise the video projector high enough to clear some of the heads towards the front.

The video below shows the new venue and also gives a brief history of the British Film Collectors Conventions.

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