Derek Simmonds
Derek Simmonds was Derann Film Services. Starting from his home in the West Midalands, Derek built the pinnacle company for film collectors in the UK and the world. He had faith in the collector to keep buying films in the lean times when video tapes was taking over.
I only met Derek at the Blackpool Film Conventions, he sold me Raise The Titanic, which I think was the first film in the ITC deal.. Derek was rightly proud of this film, the print was fantastic. I'll swear he was rubbing his hands when he sold it to me.
He stood by the film collector and continued to release films at a time when some people thought film was dead. And the collector stood by him.
I bought my ST1200 from Derann, my first film from Derann, and my film hire bookings from Derann. I would say that I bought the biggest part of my films from Derek at Derann.
His greatest deal was to get Disney to release through Derann their full length features.
Thank You Mr Simmonds for your dedication to super 8.
