A Derann Story

When I joined Derann in 1975 the Super/Standard 8mm and 16mm libraries were a very important part of the business, possibly more so than the sales. Only a new Walt Disney title like ‘I Wanna’ Be Like You’ could generate much interest and get the sales line ringing, in those days. The bookings were handled…

I’m sure I don’t need to remind you just what an expensive hobby film collecting was and trust me Derann, Walton and the other 8mm distributors were not raking in a fortune! By the time the cost for the rights for a title, the master material, the royalty for each print, the negative cost, the…

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…

We now fast forward to 1988 and Harry, still thirsting for all things film, is taking a course on genre movies at Manchester University. Here he makes the acquaintance of Gil Lane-Young and after a few months they decide to form a film society to show and discuss genre movies. Harry invites his old friend…

Many of the UK members will fondly recall the name of Harry Nadler, a quiet but energetic and affable gent who was more than a little consumed by his love of fantasy films. He was a film enthusiast through & through, who brought and sold 16mm, a hobby that would turn into a small business.…

It was around 1980 that we first felt the cine mood shift a little. VHS & Beta pre-recorded video tapes were a subject on every-ones lips and we could see the sales of our 8mm films,  especially the features, begin to falter and slow very slightly. By now even our retail shop had a selection…

As far as I am aware Derann had always sold it’s product in some sort of packaging. White cardboard boxes (200′ and 400′), abound in every corner and there were regular deliveries of these when I joined in 1975. They were packaged not only because they protected the film, but also because the film was…

All of the artwork for these events was always prepared in store, as was the printing, except for the very large pieces that we were unable to handle. The second van would now be booked. All of this used to take up time and would obviously cut into the regular work schedule. At the ten…

In the first of this three part post I tried to outline the work that went into preparing for a visit to a ‘BFCC’, ‘Widex’, ‘Film Fun Day’, ‘The Wessex Film Collectors Convention’ or the like and stated that we would begin at least ten weeks prior to the show. However any event were we…