Keith Wilton is probably best known for being the organizer of the British Film Collectors Conventions but he also operated a film and video business by the name of Filmtek. This was established around 1981 after Keith took early retirement from his job as a BBC film editor although very soon after retiring he was asked to return on a freelance basis and this continued for the next three years. It was during this time that Filmtek’s cine to video transfers commenced which is still progressing to this day, albeit on a much smaller scale.
In 1991 a new project was undertaken to document the film collecting hobby around the UK for release on VHS tape. This was ‘Hollywood UK’ and saw Keith and his son Mark take to the road to attend every film collecting convention and film fair around the country. It was a different time then with the film collecting hobby very much enjoying a renaissance and the resultant video has proven to be an historic record of a time that has now long passed. Thankfully that original video was later re-mastered, updated and re-released on DVD and is hugely collectable today. Take a look at the Filmtek pages within the BFCC web site and you’ll see that you can still obtain a copy.
Such was the success of that VHS venture that subsequent videos followed and this gave us such classics as the Armchair Odeons series and the best of the lot, The Men Behind The Movies series. Many other serious documentaries were undertaken and over time Keith learned that senior people from the major studios in the film industry were purchasing them. Several times these people told him that there was nothing else on the market that quite matched what he was producing on film history. Quite flattering to say the least.
Keith had long been a supporter of Derann Film Services. He and Derek Simmonds shared a similar sense of humour and would always be seen teasing each other at open days, the Blackpool Northern Film Collectors Convention (NFCC) and the Ealing BFCC. Keith wouldn’t hold back in telling Derek if a Super 8 release was of disappointing quality but equally he wouldn’t hesitate in heaping praise if a release was exceptional. Predator, Commando, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines and most of the Disney feature releases were top-notch as far as Keith was concerned and he told the world through the pages of his Super 8 Film Review magazine which was later incorporated into our own Film For The Collector magazine and distributed to collectors around the world. Still today you can read Keith’s ramblings in Super 8 Film Collector which is now incorporated within Film Collector published by Classic Home Cinema.
Re-recording Super 8 features was another service Filmtek offered to collectors and it wasn’t unusual to see [and hear] examples of this work at the BFCC. Synch pulse sound was another development Keith exhibited to large audiences and it was this sort of thing that advertised to so many people exactly how far Super 8 could be taken within your own home. Keith was always pushing the boundaries and although he may have slowed down a little lately he is still screening film in his home cinema today.
© John Clancy (Thanks John)
Leave a Reply