Often times our clients tells that their films have been sitting in a closet somewhere for decades without having been touched. The home movie films, 8mm or 16mm, may have been from a family collection put together by a now long since deceased mom or pops. It is only natural to wonder about the condition of your 8mm home movie films and if they can be duplicated into the digital domain. More than likely they are.
You can do a quick evaluation of your home movie films yourself. Open a reel to examine it. If opening the reel is arduous the chances are increased that when you do get it open you will see something ugly. Immediately you will know if you have the dreaded… Vinegar Syndrome! You will know it because you will smell vinegar. If the vinegar syndrome is advanced you will see that your film looks as if somebody smashed it with a hammer and it will be impossible to pull the film off the reel without breaking it.
Vinegar syndrome occurs when the film is not able to breath over the course of a decade or more. Even sitting within a tight fitting film reel can, daily barometric pressure changes compress and release the walls of the can forcing an air exchange of the can inside with the atmosphere. If the can has become extremely tightly sealed (such as with advanced corrosion) then there can be no air exchange and eventually a regenerative Vinegar Syndrome will be initiated destroying the film. This is extremely rare.
Having opened the can or box holding the reel of film, pull out enough leader to expose the film. Then pull off some more to let maybe a foot or so of film hang freely from the reel. Look for bowing or twisting. If the film hangs freely without slight twisting then guess what. Your film has passed the first important test. If it contorts wildly it will still duplicate though as the film passes through the film gate its distance to the focal plane will be constantly changing with the result that the focus will suffer a little in varying degrees.
Inspect for sprocket damage or tears in the movie film. Gross sprocket damage is easy to see. However, minor damage cannot be easily visually detected. This is most often observed in the first few feet of film. When you lightly pass your fingers over the film you should feel no ridges. In the opening footage of the movie reel it is more likely that you will see this but it doesn’t mean that the rest of the movie reel is that way.
Next, look to see that the side of the film facing away from the reel hub has a slightly dull finish (the emulsion side) and the side of the film facing toward the hub has a relatively shiny finish. If this is not the case we will have to correct it before projection for a nominal fee.
Next, when you hold the reel in front of you such that the film is peeling off from the right side, look to see that the sprocket holes are on your side of the reel and not the side of the reel facing away from you. If this is the case we will have to correct it before projection for a nominal fee. Note, however, that we only charge once for a reel correction. If you have two anomalies on a given reel that we have to correct we only bill you for one of them since a reel correction is a whole device task.
Wind and leading film back onto the film reel and hold the entire reel between you and a light source such as outdoor daylight or an indoor lamp. Look for irregularities and bulges. If there is very little or no light passing through you have passed another important test. If you see some light passing through in one or more spots it may still be okay. Just look for irregularities. Irregularities might be good splices so don’t get too worried. Localized problematic irregularities include torn film at the periphery, sprocket damage, pockets of lint. Irregularities that are somewhat uniform through the reel might be from warped film caused by the emulsion having shrunk. The film base generally does not shrink so when the emulsion shrinks it causes the movie film to bow and warp. These anomalies will cause a constantly changing focus as the film is projected. It’s not a lot but just enough to notice.
When we inventory your movie films for duplication and transfer to DVD and digital we will do these same simple tests. If we believe a given reel is questionable we will manually run through the entire reel using editing equipment to find and repair individual film irregularities that would hinder good projection such as a weak splice or torn film. There is no additional fee for this unless we find a splice to repair.
Leave a Reply