Derann Film Services

Derann Film Services, usually referred to as Derann, was an electronics store and film distributor based in Dudley, England. For the visitors to this site they were notable for being the worlds biggest distributor of Super 8 mm, and one of the last major distributors of super 8 after video took out quite a few of the other film distributors in the early 1980's.

Derann was founded in 1964 by Derek Simmonds (December 23, 1935 - September 19, 2002) and his wife Anne, whose first names made up the company title. Originally renting out 8 mm films from a spare bedroom in their Stourbridge home, they soon grew to have a large customer base, and eventually relocated their business to downtown Dudley.

In the following years, the company secured deals with MCA, EMI, United Artists, 20th Century Fox, and eventually Disney, and by the early 1980s had a vast number of titles in their library. During this period both Betamax and VHS entered the market, and the company expanded to include these formats too, as well as supplying audiovisual equipment. By the late '80s and early '90s, super 8 mm film saw a rapid decline in favour of other formats, although Derann continued to sell super 8 mm to customers around the world. Following the death of founder Derek Simmonds in 2002, his son Adrian Simmonds took over the company.

Closure

Following a prolonged period of downsizing, and with the effects of the ongoing financial crisis taking its toll on finances, Adrian Simmonds announced in early 2011 that Derann would cease operations before the end of the year. After paying host to their last ever "Open day" on September 11, 2011, Derann closed their doors for the last time. At the time of closure, it was one of the few retailers still selling cine film and equipment.

I hope that the statement that Derann put out at the time of closing, stating that it was more the increases in business rates, utilities bills and not the film side was correct.

Derann was the first company I ever had dealings with as a collector. I bought my ELMO ST 1200 from them, my first film and had a block booking for film hire. Every two weeks a new programme would arrive for seven days hire. Some very good titles from their library usually a feature and a couple of shorts to make a few of hours entertainment. Of course a few of the feature titles were real stinkers real 'B' movies, in some cases 'Z' movies.

Looking back Derek WAS the man for film collectors in the UK. Some of the films from them were not the best, both in content and quality. I suppose the master material for printing the super 8 print was a big factor in the 1970's. But when they were at their best they were the BEST.

Looking at my collection a large part are films that Derann released. When super 8 was at its height during the 1970's whn I started, most of the releases were released at a standard length of 8 reels (4x400ft) about 72 minutes, with the odd title complete. I think with the ITC deal was when complete features were first available. I remember buying Raise The Titanic feature in scope off Derek at the Blackpool convention, sure he was rubbing his hands at another sale. A film that works far better on the home screen than TV. If memory serves me it was shown on Tony Shapps of the Widescreen Centre London on a massive screen, a kind of promo film part trailer and part of the film. Fantastic.

As a collector this is one that I never thought I would have to put in companies gone section, but sadly Derann are now gone.