Introducing kids to film...

[super8man]

Just ran my new-to-me Zeiss DS8 projector and some Ektachrome 100D in my son's 2nd grade classroom. Luckily I only needed 10 minutes (1 minute setup, 100 feet of film and 1 minute to break it down). The kids enjoyed it and half were smitten by the projector...loved the kids asking me, prior to setup, where the screen was on the projector case. Priceless. Being a silent film, with kids it was great as they could talk about what they were seeing while they were seeing it and not really miss anything. Good times. I highly recommend you try and do this - makes for a lot of fun. Useful hint: Make sure your film has LOTS of shots of kids doing things. They are not big fans of scenery. Luckily my scenery shots were limited.

[beamascope]

As a teacher I watch other teachers hooking a laptop into a video projector and there is ALWAYS an issue. I jokingly wonder why we ever quit using film. I've actually thought about doing this with my old Revere projector and some dbl 8 film. That old projector is as "projectorish" as it gets. I doubt ANY of those kids had ever seen a real projected film.

[grainy]

Yes!! I've had very similar experiences --
I guest-taught art class for kindergartners for one day and decided to do it about film -- brought in some actual 35mm print (old trailers) for them to touch, got them to chant "24 frames every second!" and shot a little super 8 film of them running around and making faces. The kids loved it - they could TOUCH the film and SEE the pictures on it, even the tiny little super 8 one once it was developed.
Also at home we shoot 1-2 home movies (not video) every year, and when we get them processed we play back the complete works, which has the kids as babies running around. And yes, the silent aspect is a bonus -- like you say they can talk over it, plus there's no fool Dad voice saying "look at the camera" or anything.
Movie night in feels like a night out for them. There's nothing like projecting it on the wall (need to get a screen, but the wall works for now)

[Sasounet]

That's a good idea. Too bad my kids are now too old to show super 8 movies at school. Even if my kids are used to see me with my super 8 stuff, their friends (in the 16-20) always ask for more.

[Actor]

A few years ago my grandson was vocalizing his Christmas wish list. One thing he wanted was a camera. Looking right at me he said "... and I mean a REAL camera, not one of those you have to put FILM in."

[Angus]

I've worked in a school for 11 years now. Today every classroom has a ceiling mounted digital projector connected to the PC....but the teachers STILL have problems showing clips and DVD's via this system.

Sadly the 2 Eiki 16mm projectors lie dormant in the Science department toilets. They both work (I saw to that) but we don't even have any 16mm films any more.

A few years ago I used to shoot super 8 at the school, encouraging kids to get involved and shoot with my cameras...but let me tell you photographing kids at school (even for an employee) is getting difficult. Lots of kids were curious, some interested enough to ask where to buy cameras etc. But the cost of the film put them off.

[carllooper]

Picked up a working projector this morning (shipped halfway around the world from Canada): an Elmo K 100 SM. I acquired the projector for film transfer work.

But as an added bonus, it can also be used to show films

My eight year old daughter has never seen a Super8 film before. It simply never occured to me that she might find that an interesting experience.

Carl