Sint 1977

Amateur Film is the low-budget hobbyist art of film practiced for passion and enjoyment and not for business purposes.The international organization for amateur film makers is UNICA (Union International du Cinema Non Professionel); in the United States the American Motion Picture Society (AMPS), in the UK it is the Film & Video Institute. These organizations arrange annual festivals and conventions. There are several Amateur Film festivals held annually in the United States and in Europe.Amateur films were usually shot on 16 mm film or on 8 mm film (Either Double-8 or Super-8) until the advent of cheap video cameras or digital equipment. The advent of digital video and computer based editing programs greatly expanded the technical quality achievable by the amateur and low budget film maker. Amateur video has now become the choice for the low budget film maker and has boomed into a very watched and even produced industry with the usage of VHS and DVD Digital Video camcorders.

Dutch Damnednest

The storm surge barrier of the Oosterschelde is, without any doubt, the most impressive storm surging structure of the Netherlands.The storm surge barrier, with a total length of three kilometres, would be placed over three channels. It would consist of sixty-five prefabricated concrete piers, among which sixty-two steel slides would be installed. When the slides are open, three-quarters of the original tidal movement is maintained. That should be enough to maintain the environment in the Oosterschelde. The building excavations of Neeltje Jans and Noordland, together with the sandbar Geul, formed the closed part of the storm surge barrier. Neeltje Jans was the island from which the operation was performed. The greater part of the prefabricated elements were built there â the piers, and foundation mats. The stones, which would be plunged around the piers later, were also stored there. As many parts of the dam as possible were made beforehand, on the mainland.

Our Lady Procession

The silent 16 mm format was initially aimed at the home enthusiast, but by the 1930s it had begun to make inroads into the educational market. The addition of optical sound tracks and, most notably, Kodachrome in 1935, gave an enormous boost to the 16 mm market. Used extensively in WW2, there was a huge expansion of 16 mm professional filmmaking in the post-war years. Films for government, business, medical and industrial clients created a large network of 16 mm professional filmmakers and related service industries in the 1950s and 1960s. The advent of television production also enhanced the use of 16 mm film, initially for its advantage of cost and portability over 35 mm. At first used as a news-gathering format, the 16 mm format was also used to create television programming shot outside the confines of the more rigid television studio production sets. The home movie market gradually switched to the even less expensive 8 mm film and Super 8 mm format.

Our Garden

an old super 8 mm movie

Gardening has been very popular in Holland at least since the renaissance and today Holland is the centre of Europe's horticultural industry. There are many Dutch gardens from the Baroque period, though they tend to be on a smaller scale then equivalent French gardens – which makes them closer together and much easier to visit. The character of Dutch gardens can be seen from the aerial photographs on our Dutch Garden Finder pages. Holland produces a high proportion of Europe's plant stock but it is not as evident in gardens as one might expect.

 

Playing with puppets

Puppet film develops on the basis of traditional puppetry. It is in the form of a film that the main characters are puppets. Puppets’ limbs are controlled by people and their mouths usually does not move frequently. The height of a puppet is approximately 20 centimeters and the background is a model which fits the size of the puppet. The film is shot by grid-by-frame photography. Puppet film starts around 1900s. Between 1930s and 1980s, most genres of puppet films are comedy and animation. There are some famous magnum opus such as Thunderbird series and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. After 1980s, many horror puppet films appeared such as Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich. Compared to other films, puppet film focuses more on characters’ movements and the main audiences are children and teenagers. More and more reality elements are added into puppet film in recent years.

Dutch Destiny

A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters include natural disasters such as earthquakes or asteroid collisions, accidents such as shipwrecks or airplane crashes, or calamities like worldwide disease pandemics. The films usually feature some degree of build-up, the disaster itself and sometimes the aftermath, usually from the point of view of specific individual characters or their families.
The genre experienced a renewal in the 1990s boosted by Computer-generated imagery (CGI) and large studio budgets which allowed for more focus on the destruction, and less on the human drama.

Bordeaux Saint Andre

A quote from Truffaut:

“To be a film critic helped me a lot because it’s not enough to be a cinephile and to watch a lot of movies. The necessity to write about films pushes you to get better, and forces you to make a mental gymnastic. It’s when you have to sum up a screenplay in ten sentences that you realize its weaknesses or its strength.”

Ride

The Center for Home Movies advocates the preservation of films within the household. Often called “family films,” home movies are likely to have their greatest meaning for immediate family members. Even if no one in the family currently takes an interest in these personal documents, a future spouse or child may find them of enormous significance.

In addition, you may be surprised to learn that your home movies can hold great interest for a much wider public, including local historians, international scholars, and artists. Popular celebrities or historic events that appear in your films would be obvious examples, but in fact it is the record of normal human beings being themselves in everyday circumstances that may be of most historical value. Imagine how our knowledge would be enriched if we had original movies of home life in the 1700s or 1850s, whatever the circumstance of the subjects! In a hundred years, and even today, your home movies will contain unique and precious documentation of a way of life – from the cut of fashionable clothing to the eroding contours of a beach. The mere backgrounds in your films may be of historical interest, even if the main subject is out of focus or making a silly face. And home movies can offer a real-world comparison to the fictionalized versions of our history conveyed through popular films and television programs.

Dutch Nationalpark Biesbosch

A Super 8mm camera is a motion picture camera specifically manufactured to use the Super 8mm motion picture format. Super 8mm film cameras were first manufactured in 1965 by Kodak for their newly introduced amateur film format, which replaced the Standard 8 mm film format. Manufacture continued until the popularity of video cameras in the early 1980s. The cameras are no longer professionally manufactured (although used cameras may be restored and sold) and most cameras readily available are used from the 1960s and 1970s.

Sound and Vision

The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision looks after, and provides access to 70% of the Dutch audio-visual heritage. In total, around 800,000 hours of television, radio, music and film;] making Sound and Vision one of the largest audiovisual archives in Europe.
Sound and Vision is the business archive of the national broadcasting corporations, a cultural heritage institute (providing access to students and the general public) and also a museum for its visitors. The digital television production workflow and massive digitization efforts break grounds for new services.