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Finances and Projection

Page history last edited by FilmSociety@gmail.com 7 years ago

 

As with any organisation, its financial records can reveal interesting insights, such as the accounts for 1987. They had been meticulously kept by Mike Collett, signed by President Geraldine Tait and Secretary Mark Walton. The Society was still dependent on a profit of $516 from frozen fish sales to supplement membership fees from the 15 members who paid $25 each. Income from casual members and from special fund-raising screenings (total $1,948.43) comfortably covered expenditure of $1,567.31, which included a $541.20 levy to the Federation.


The Society used almost free venues, owned its equipment and had no debt. It had only two major categories of expenditure; the greatest was the NZFFS levy, and the lesser, yet significant one, postage. This situation dramatically improved with the advent of DVDs as this hugely reduced expenditure on postage from that during the film reel era. Thus, with such manageable overhead expenses, the Society had always been able to keep its membership fee relatively low. This was most appropriate for the members, many of whom would not have been able to attend were the fee at the level of other film societies around New Zealand. Even so, a significant number of members chose to pay their fee through a series of installments.


Although low membership fees suited the Society, it did not please the nearby Dunedin Film Society. On March 30th 1992, during a meeting with three of their officials, the complaint was made that some people chose to come over the hill to pay the low membership fee of the WFS, using this to attend Dunedin screenings, as allowed through affiliation to the NZFFS. So few people actually did this cost saving exercise that the issue seemed to very quickly die a natural death.


No matter what format the films were in, there was a basic requirement for capital equipment to project the image and to amplify then broadcast the accompanying sound. In the Waitati School Library days, a Bell and Howell 16mm projector was briefly brought into use. This machine was one of a large number that appeared in New Zealand schools in 1953. A small plaque inside declared that it was presented to mark the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. However by the 1970’s, 16mm films were infrequently or never shown in schools, so, when the Society needed the services of this particular projector it was found to have been the residence of a rodent at some stage since its last use. Consequently a quantity of bedding had to be removed before it was first used by the WFS.


Soon, a slightly more updated, though second-hand projector was bought, funded equally by the Waitati School Committee and the Society. But it was a strange machine with an oil sump that often sprayed its contents over the passing film. Occasionally the teeth did not consistently engage with the sprocket holes so a screening would explain the origins of the historical expression “going to the flicks”. In 1988 a large commercial Eiki projector was purchased second hand from the Otago University Medical School. This was a very substantial machine designed for use in a large auditorium. It performed an excellent service for 12 years but by the late 1990’s spare parts became unobtainable so the machine was replaced by another Eiki projector from the Dunedin Teachers College.

 

The advance of higher quality modern technology reached the Society in 2005 in the form of a video projector, DVD player, screen and upgraded sound system. Screenings from then on have been of a superb quality. However, not surprisingly, some of the older members lamented the loss of the ever moving picture frame, the vertical scratch lines and occasional entertaining lumps of fluff caught in the projector gate, not to mention the ever present and incessant clatter of the film passing through the gate. In fact, for a long time there was a call for these to be re-created electronically during screenings. But most members were pleased that the new system alleviated the need to turn up the sound to help drown the noises of the projector. Projectionists were relieved not to have to deal with the occasional vast metres of celluloid piled on the floor after it had slipped, unnoticed, off a too-small take-up reel.

 

The new digital equipment had been beyond the financial resources of the Society so, through her dedicated persistence, Leonie Rousselot secured sufficient funds from the Dunedin City Council, Community Trust of Otago and the Waikouaiti Coastal Community Board to buy a high quality projector. To the late 1980’s, various members of the Society took turns with the responsibilities of film handling, projection, publicity, accounting, President, Secretary, representative at Federation meetings etc.

 

 

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