It is hard to believe, but our project has now been online for a full year! Sometimes I feel it was almost yesterday that we announced our project, but other times it feel ages ago since so many things has happened. In this post I will write about the history of the project, a thanks to all that helped us and some thoughts about the future.
As I write this, we have 5564 films (releases) registered, 1828 of those with a cover, 3093 people (actors, directors, writers) and 102 distributors. When we launched we had 2500 films and 1000 of those with a cover. Behind these numbers are a massive amount of work hours. Let’s take a closer look on what has happened so far:
I can see from our code repository that our first lines of code were made in November 2018. I had been thinking about this for a while, and had some thoughts about how it should be made. I work as a programmer, so I knew I could pull the programming side of the project off. But I had only been collecting a few years, and I would need so much info, so many cover scans and so much help to get this site become what I had envisioned. In reality you would have to be a bit crazy to start something like this.
So with the mind of a crazy person not thinking about how incredibly big this task would become, I started with the programming in the autumn of 2018. The name was set when I acquired the domain name in October of 2018, and all the hard work needed to get this started off was done. It might seem like a simple site, but it does indeed require a lot of programming, and I got help from my wife, who is also a programmer, for the front end programming.
But this is what is ironic; I do not think I would have ever started this project if I had been collecting for years. The reason I started to think about this in the first place was all the info I wish I had. I saw all the seasoned collectors knew a lot, and I could certainly ask some questions and get good answers, but I wish there were some place to use some time to browse for releases and search for specific information. And sometimes you feel a bit stupid when you asked about things you were expected to know, right? I guess most of us have had that feeling from time to time.
I focused on what was needed to show the potential of the project. Just a couple of close friends knew about this as it was far away from showing its potential. This was at the time when I started to know Greg Perry, now an admin at the Reel Magic Film forum. In December I told him about my project as a side note in a message that was really about something else, and gave him access to my secret server with a polite request to keep it a secret until further notice. This was his reply:
Now, to the most important topic: Super8Database! All I can say is FANTASTIC! What a great project and how helpful a resource this will be to not only collectors, but dealers and sellers as well! Thank you for sharing this with me and I will certainly respect the privacy of this. If I can help with your project with any type of testing or in any other small way please let me know.
And ever since this, Greg has been my right hand of the project. In fact he has entered way more data into the database than me, as my time has been stretched between programming, data entry and work with cover images. And at this point it is rather our project than my project. My name is on most of the posts on Facebook and forums, but Greg has been as important to this project as me!
By this time we had the database structure, the main tool for the job, some data I had been adding and a few covers from my collection and from some friends. But we needed more covers to show its potential. How could I get many covers in a hurry? I took a chance by asking Bert Haagsman over at Super8warehouse as I knew he had many cover scans from his work with his shop. This was no little request as he had put a lot of work into this, and it would be fair to expect a polite decline. I showed him the little I had made so far and in January I was very pleased to see that he was willing to help me off with the first big batch of covers. He sent me a lot, and I can’t emphasize enough how important this was to jump start the project and make others believe in its potential! I am not sure how this project would have evolved without his initial positive response and help to the project!
The rest of the year was used to add more data, more covers and improve the technical part of it. In November 2019 I traveled to Blackpool with some fellow Norwegian collectors. And at the airport of Oslo while waiting for the plane, I showed them the project so far. The response was very positive, and I got more feedback on the project.
And finally the 15th of February 2020 we made the site public! I still remember the excited, yet a bit nervous feel when I removed the password protection, and posted about it on forums and Facebook.
After this I have felt behind schedule all the time. And most of this is positive as it means that we have received many new covers and other feedback. There are many helpful people I have had the joy to make contact with: From collectors sending the few covers they had, to dealers like Keith Mockett of Rake Enterprises who gave me a huge load of covers. From Andreas Chmielewski in Germany, to Tony Lewis in Australia. From new collectors to Ged Jones from Derann who have been in the business since before I was born. There are many more who deserves to be mentioned, but I am afraid to forget some if I mention more. A huge thank you to everybody!
Since the launch we have improved the search, added support for non English films, added reviews, added support for back sides and other scans and a lot of smaller adjustments. There are still more programming work needed, and this will continue in 2021.
So what is the current status of the project? We obviously have way more films and covers to add. This will always have the main focus, but I try to look further into the future by thinking about other things like facts and notes about releases as well; things that can’t be found in the sales catalogues. Around us are seasoned collectors that has been collecting since Super 8 came to market in the 60s, and it is important for us to collect facts they know that could otherwise later be lost.
We have also started to add news about what happens in the community to increase awareness of the efforts of others too. We will all benefit of sharing awareness of other peoples efforts.
The goal has never been to become the biggest site in the community, but rather to be a helpful tool for all collectors as a result of a joint effort from helpful individuals in the community. But with exposure comes more feedback leading to better content, so it is important for us to be a known site among collectors.
One year has passed, and more are to come. I look forward to get in touch with you!
Eivind