Tape #2

Our early video cassette releases were all acquired from the same trusted UK distributors and agents that we had been using for our 8 and 16mm releases. Miracle Films supplied titles like ‘Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle’; ‘Blue Belle’; ‘Monsters from an Unknown Planet’, ‘The Fiend’ and ‘Cannibal’, a quick phone call to Tom Blakeley would be enough to secure ‘Island of Terror’, Night of the Big Heat’ and ‘Devils of Darkness’. Butchers Films would add the likes of ‘The Night Caller’ and ‘Orders are Orders’. We had several from Enterprise, ‘The Redeemer’, ‘Dogs’, ‘The Comeback’, ‘Bruce Lee : The Man; the Myth’ and ‘Leopard in the Snow’ spring to mind. Derek’s contacts in the UK would also produce titles like ‘Bloodlust’, ‘Freelance’ and numerous English dubbed “sex” romps, the likes of ‘The Sexy Dozen’ ‘When Girls Undress’ and ‘Frauleins in Uniform’ We had a fairly large catalogue of product available, which grew quickly as we made our trips to the various media markets in Europe and the USA. For me these were turbulent times…ONE: Exciting: Because we met a great number of new contacts, and visited many new cities around the world…TWO: Worrying: Because no matter how much we could afford to spend on the rights of the movies we purchased, deep down I felt we could never fight the likes of CIC, Fox, Rank, and W.B. THREE: Depressing: because when we attended any of the large UK trade shows in London to sell and promote our product range, my fears concerning our output were always confirmed when we found ourselves adjacent to ‘Magnetic Video’ the video arm of 20th Century Fox, who might be plugging ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Alien’. I felt like the salesman of second-hand ‘Reliant Robins’ whose yard was next to a glossy showroom selling BMWs. Overseas readers may have to look up ‘Reliant Robin’ to understand the analogy. Worse still were the buyers and punters, your average Joes who would have the wife in tow with a pushchair and two young children. They would step onto the stand only to ask any good sex or horrors? These people had no love of film, they were just stocking a commodity they could stack in a corner of their small shop or newly opened library section, next to their cans of Heinz Baked Beans and Tomato Sauce. I missed our 8mm customers who knew what they wanted and enjoyed talking about it!

When Movie Maker added the subtitle ‘The Film and Video Monthly’ to its August 1980 cover it signaled what was to come and beckoned the beginning of the end… for a time anyway. Adverts from the video majors would now appear with regularity and even Derann advertised a few of its range in full colour in Movie Maker October 1982. The December issue of 1980s Movie Maker was the first to give an ‘Entertainment Film & Video Guide’, video recorders and cameras were regularly given test reports and by January 1982 Bill Davison was reviewing both 8mm and Video releases. In October 1983 Movie Maker changed its subtitle to ‘The Video and Cine Monthly’, it was also that same year that Walton Films closed down! There seemed to be clearance sales from every 8mm distributor and the amount of space devoted to video was a just a precursor of the things to come. The adverts of Video cassettes almost disappeared, but this was only because there were new magazines like ‘What Video?’, specifically aimed at that market. There was also a new breed of magazine for the ‘professionals’ like “Video Trade Weekly”. I was on the point of handing in my notice more than once, it was a bad time for me. Luckily I never made that decision, just look at what I would have missed out on.