16mm Film Collecting on DVDs

Over the last couple years, I’ve had conversations with people who’ve told me how much they like the Accidentally Preserved DVDs I’ve released. Which is really gratifying. What started out as a one-off turned into a short series that wound up as the springboard for Undercrank Productions.

Film collectors, in particular, seem to be the folks who enjoy these DVDs the most. I suppose, for them, it’s a way to see what’s in other people’s collections, especially the really rare stuff. And if you’ve got a video projector, you can put on one of these DVDs and have something like a 16mm film night yourself. (Perhaps I should have added a secondary audio track with projector noise.)

I’ve blogged about some of the films on the DVDs, and will continue to do so over the coming months. There are more than thirty shorts on the four volumes, and I think I’ve only covered about four or five of them.

Doing the first couple of the Accidentally Preserved volumes really helped me get my feet wet with DVD production, promotion, marketing and distribution. After doing volume four, which was all films that only survive on 9.5mm film, I figured that might be the last of these.

I’m not into acquiring more rare shorts on 16mm, although I do peek at eBay every once in a while, but nothing’s really been of interest. On the other hand, there’s my answer to “do you collect films?” which is: “I don’t collect films…I collect other collectors.” So, it’s quite possible there may be other material to draw on.

I thought I was done with the Accidentally Preserved series, and it’s now been three years since I released the last volume. However, physical media doesn’t seem to be going away, especially when it comes to classic film and especially the rare and obscure titles. Perhaps I ought to blow the dust off the franchise for 2020.

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My blog posts about film on the DVDs are here.
Accidentally Preserved: Volumes 1-4 are available online at Amazon, the TCM Shop, DeepDiscount and many other online retailers in the US and in international markets (Amazon UK, Canada, Australia, and on WowHD).