Colin Malin had worked at Derann for many years and joined this group around 9 months ago…. but it was only recently that I discovered he’d also had a small film business in Birmingham. Here in his own words is its tale…..
“In my early days of collecting 8mm films and visiting Derann, I met up with Alan Crowe. He too was a film collector, he had a projector and screen always set up in his house and used to hire 8 & 16mm films from Derann. Well I was a film fanatic myself, and used to enjoy all the latest films on 8mm, so after a while we decided to start a film library on the Warwick road, Birmingham.
I put my collection in along with Alan’s, who put the catalogue together and off we went. Derann helped us a lot, we even put out exclusives, including ‘Black Zoo’ Standard 8mm scope film, which we hired along with the a scope lens. We had 2 standard 8 colour copies printed, after that we would add a great many features and shorts to the library We also sold a range of films, both second hand and new.
We had an account with Mountain films and Walton and did very well with callers and mail order, advertising in Movie Maker and the local paper. It was a fun time.
As the time went by my visits to Derann grew more frequent and I was offered a job. I didn’t have to think twice, however this meant closing down my own library. The rights for ‘Black Zoo’ went back to Derann along with some other rights for a couple of Old Mother Riley films that we’d never got round to issuing.
Yes it was a fun time, but now I was able to enjoy my hobby with Derek… what a boss and film collector. Days I won’t ever forget.
The name came from Malin & Crowe…. Macromovies “
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