In 1980, when I was 15, I filmed and directed a super 8 skit about a charismatic preacher (played by myself), with three friends: Brad (15), and Mike & Tom (both 14). We had our problems...

Naive as we were, it was basically assumed that when we pulled the trigger and when we heard the motor running (it was a wind up), we were capturing footage. Having seen the old 8mm flicks on our family projector, it was obvious a spotlight was required to illuminate any indoor scene. Even so, we didn't illuminate the scene well enough. The camera setting or the film itself may also not have been suited for indoor use...can't say for sure.

After we finished, my father explained, "There was probably no film in the camera," or, "The film was used up long ago." He said something to that effect...something convincing me that we didn't capture the action. Heartbroken I moved on, but never forgot about that day, so long ago.

In 2005, my father had the two or three hours of Hartman family footage digitally processed onto two DVDs. The footage was from the 60s and 70s. Our family had expected nothing more.

In recent months, I've been filming and projecting with super 8mm, so my father presented me with the family footage. For some reason, though, he never told me about ever having developed one reel from 1980 (and one more reel that I didn't know about either, from 1981). For some reason, these two reels missed the digitizing process.

So, as I went through the footage, you can imagine my incredible joy and surprise at having seen this film. I always wondered what it would have looked like, and now, 26 years later, I know. As a filmmaker, this discovery is priceless because it's the film debut I never even knew that I had!!

At least half of the film cartridge didn't come out (we had no idea that these cassettes only allowed for two or three minutes). Still, there was about 1.25 minutes of useful footage, even though we filmed for a lot longer than that. There was enough essential footage to build the film you see now, Teen Preacher Electric. Additionally, clips from the 1981 reel and recent super 8mm footage, along with computer-based special effects, have been included to round out the flick.

John 2-16-06.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwn-mGLiiQI