WARNING! This description is long-winded and very detailed, it took a while putting this together but that is the sort of person I am - detail, detail & more detail
Sit down with a cuppa and read on, if you dare ...
HISTORY:
I am not a 'film buff' and my "world" is 'the arts' and more specifically, music, artwork and hand crafted/decorated chinaware's.
An extremely unwell associate has asked me to find new owners for THEIR large collection of photographic and film items ... this is one of those items. I am often asked "THE QUESTION"
So how many films do you have, Russ?
My response is ... boxes and boxes of them, perhaps 500+
I have been honoured with the trust and care of these films, to the owner they are an important part of his life and I respect that. Each film is VERY SLOWLY (I have a lot of other things to do as well!) being evaluated, run through the projector (currently an ELMO ST1200D) and if needed, addition packing added to protect the film more.
ALL film stock is safely away in my storage units, nice n cool and out of harms way while I look (and smell!) each film ... NO ONE can just casually "browse" the collection. My associate wouldn't like that and neither do I.
Due to my previous working life in technical fields, I tend to be quite detailed in my item descriptions, please READ all the details to decide if this item may interest you.
Vinegar Syndrome: my nose came up POSITIVE on one or more of these reels ... please read the detailed description of each reel in conjunction with additional information under the TESTING section
In any case, keep the following in mind
From time to time I have noticed a "vinegar smell" coming off some films that I have been checking. I have been contacted by a learned ex film professional who has provided some pointers about this vinegar smell. Thank you kind Sir!
It seems that the presence of this odour indicates a chemical reaction is underway which will affect the base material of the film - over time. Most of these films are already around 50 years old, how much longer will they "survive" I wonder? No-one can provide a definitive answer to that one ... it's a bit like "the earth WILL be hit by a comet, one day, but no-one knows when"
This chemical reaction which is indicated by the Vinegar odour can (over time) affect both colour and black & white films equally, gradually becoming worse as time passes although I could not find a reliable guide as to how much time we are talking about - months? years? No-one seems confident enough to commit to a time frame.
If you "click" on the CAVEAT EMPTOR (Buyer Beware) in Red above, buried there is a link will take you to the esteemed National Film And Sound Archive Of Australia page which talks about this Vinegar Syndrome problem. These people at NFSA know their stuff ... the most disturbing aspect which jumped out at me is the possible effects of this chemical reaction on HUMAN health. Be careful when handling one of the "vinegar beasties", even just breathing the vapours is apparently not a good idea for sustained periods!
Having said all of this, I will ALWAYS indicate film stock that is producing this Vinegar odour in my description - although "aged", my nose still works (sort of!). I will still run the film through the projector for "testing" but have no way of knowing how advanced the chemical reaction may already be - unless the film stock crumbles in my hands! Hmmm ... not a good sign!
I still have a ton of films to investigate (the owner of these films was a BIG film buff in the 1960's ~ 1980's) and so far only a small percentage have proven to have the air of Vinegar about them ...
I have also been advised that even if NO smells are being produced, chemical reactions may still be underway but as yet undetectable by the human nose.
It really comes down to ... these films are OLD, probably they were never intended to be viewed up to 60 years later ... everything eventually fails
Please be realistic and keep all of this in mind.
Now, on with the description ...
SPECIAL NOTE:
Why offer the three reels of this box set separately I can hear you asking? Well, it's like this ... it seems the owner of the films liked to maximise his reel usage! While the original "space material" is on each reel, 'tacked' onto the end of each reel are short films which are totally unrelated to 'space' ... please read the description for each reel below and then you can select one, two or all three of them. If someone takes all three then of course they will get the nice, original outer White plastic box which takes all three reels.
MAN ON THE MOON(Plus 'extras') - Super 8 3x 400' Films
THE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF SPACE Series (Plus 'extras') - Super 8 Film
This was a 10 part series, being described by IE as Reel 1, Reel 2 etc ... this is the last of the series, Reel 10 but just to confuse you, Reel 10 comprises of 3x "Parts" being 1, 2 and 3 with each part being on one reel. Confused? I was, initially ...
So what I am offering here is Reel 10 of the series, comprising 3x reels (or parts) and all deal with Man On The Moon.
IE International (Italy)
3x Reels, each packaged in it's own clear plastic, hinged case
All three 400' reels are intended to then live inside the outer White box packaging (made by Grasso Italy), which has a click-button locking system.
Catalogue # REEL 10 (Parts 1,2 & 3) Unmarked on the outer box and the reel cases just have Part 1, 2 or 3 on each spine
According to the marketing blurb on the side of the outer case, these films cover the flights of Apollo 8, 9, 10 & 11 and Soyuz 4 & 5 - not dramatisations but real video footage and radio communications from Earth to the spacecraft.
If space history is your "thing" then these reels may be of interest, non-fictional real time event photography and radio transmissions - fascinating.
Nice voice-over work, professional and yet not too excitable - very nice "non-accent" male voice artist accompanied by appropriate instrumental music.
It appears this series from IE was originally a ten part release (details are on the side of the outer box), I have only found this box set (so far) and they are:
Part 1: Opens with KAYAK not Man On The Moon. KAYAK is a quite "arty" production, various action scenes from recreational to competition kayaking accompanied by a mix of sound tracks, opening with Dualling Banjoes through to various unidentified rock songs. No dialogue. After around 7 minutes or so, the "main feature" begins ... Part 1 (Man On The Moon) First Manned Voyage Around The Moon (Biosatellites to Soyuz IV)
While my initial impression was "Oh My, this is very Red" I had to change my opinion as the colour would (at times) snap back and suddenly I was looking at Browns, Greens and even some Blues! The colouration was patchy, sometimes there and sometimes just a Pinkish/Red tinge.
Part 2: Life In Space (Soyuz V to Apollo 10) runs for around ten minutes and then ... Danger Is My Business (Tokyo Steelman) Similar colouring to Part 1 in that initially I can see a lot of Red/Pink colouring and then suddenly Green springs to life and even some Blues. The short film Tokyo Steelman though is more Red/Pink but it does have some light Green in some frames, couldn't see any signs of the Blues though.
Part 3: Apollo 11 - Launch To Return runs for about ten minutes and then ... Wimbledon Tennis, with an English male voice artist (who also sounds good). A little history of the venue but more focus on the various matches of note over the years. Colour has a little more Red than the first section of film but Green is still visible at times - no Blues though. The Wimbledon grass looks VERY dry and Brown for the most part but some Yellow-Green at times.
Sound on all three reels is very good, clean and sharp - easy to understand
All three reels are a Green/Grey and have no identifying markings on them at all, not even a feet scale (!), just a simple paper label detailing the reel "end" program
The spine of the outer White box also has a paper label indicating the same thing i.e the extra contents on each reel.
Leader film is fitted to each reel but no film clips
Colour
Sound
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
The outer White custom designed case is in great condition with no damage structurally although it is pretty obvious that the clear Film covering the box graphics has "bubbled" but no tears or splits. This box is clean and unmarked.
Each reel is in very good condition, just a simple label attached to the reel to identify what the extra contents is on the film. Although fully 'loaded' with film, no reels have film clips.
ALERT! I am getting a low level 'whiff' of vinegar here ... it is not terribly strong but I am sure my nose is detecting that a chemical breakdown may have begun. More details about this ...
I am detecting this light vinegar smell from EACH reel however I cannot determine if the whole reel is undergoing a chemical change or just either the first section or the latter spliced add-on section of film.
Part 1: A light "whiff" of the vinegar smell, not strong. Leaving the reel in the open air and the smell largely vanished but when kept in an enclosed area (inside the case) it does seem to slowly build up the vinegar odour so this is an active reaction going on.
Part 2:A light "whiff" of the vinegar smell, not strong. Leaving the reel in the open air and the smell largely vanished but when kept in an enclosed area (inside the case) it does seem to slowly build up the vinegar odour so this is an active reaction going on.
Part 3: A light "whiff" of the vinegar smell, not strong. Leaving the reel in the open air and the smell largely vanished but when kept in an enclosed area (inside the case) it does seem to slowly build up the vinegar odour so this is an active reaction going on.
Although it may well be too late, each reel is now packed in individual sealed clear plastic to both try and reduce the speed of the chemical reaction and reduce "cross-contamination" to other reels ... this may or may not help but doing something is better than nothing I feel.
NO personal names on the case or the film reels
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Please read this "test viewing" information in conjunction with additional notes I added up above
All of the film looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
Because of the "cooked looking" plastic on the outer case, I looked especially for signs of film warping but nothing noted at all - the film moves freely through the projector transport system.
I ran each reel for the ENTIRE length, I needed to check just what those "end of reel" contents are ...
PART 1:
Kayak is the opening film and this is an interesting short film, not just a bunch of scenes with kayak's doing what kayaks do but interesting music soundtrack and snap shots of a leaf here or just running water ... this all made the film quite interesting, in addition to the action packed scenes during the competition kayaking. The "feature film" Man On The Moon was quite similar, at the beginning it looked quite Pink/Red and then suddenly full colours were bouncing back at your from the screen. Over the whole reel, the colours were quite Red at times but then again, suddenly almost full colour (Yes, even with Blues) would spring up on the screen. It is as though the dye failure (Blues/Greens) was happening in patches on the film stock.
Sound is just the background music, which is great - there is no dialogue at all.
PART 2:
Opens with a lot of information, videos and Russian language communications between the Soyuz 4 & 5 - I found this really interesting and we so often get bombarded with "We are Americans, so great!" in relation to space but the Russians were also very advanced in the "space race" - really interesting insights into the Russian side of things. Then the film moves onto Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 which is equally as interesting as the Russian side of space travel. Next up is the interesting short, Tokyo Steelmen. As the voiceover artist calls them "Human Flies" working on a 1000' steel tower construction. No safety equipment is being used at all and way up the tower they are heating rivets to "Red hot" and joining beams - such a dangerous occupation, surely they don't do it that way some 55 years later!
Like the other two reels, the Reds/Pinks dominate but once again I can see Greens (and Browns) and even Blues, but only sometimes - this reel is like reel 1 where the colouring is patchy. Some scenes look so good (outer space, looking back at Earth with its Green Blue splendour) and then other times it looks as though Apollo was flying over Mars not the Moon (quite Red) but as this is all real footage, very interesting to watch. Same goes for the guys up on the steel tower, Reds yes but not entirely - Greens peep through from time to time and at times the sky looks almost normal! Really scary stuff working up so high but I then got to thinking, "what about the cameraman?" That would have been one very interesting film making exercise. Both films have full audio dialogue (with the beginning Man On The Moon section having a lot of spoken Russian) and the audio is clean and clear - no issues with the sound.
PART 3:
Blues have definitely gone off to the moon but not returned! ... the dominant colours are Red, Brown and Greens - yes, Green does show itself quite a bit, resulting in solid Browns as well. But things like the sky obviously don't look right due to the lack of Blues. The second part, Wimbledon is similar but I had the impression that Green was less obvious in this part of the reel, resulting in Reds, Oranges, some Browns, occasional Greens but no Blues once again.
SPECIAL NOTE: I felt I needed to add this little note ... whilst viewing the film on the screen, it actually looks "reasonable" although obviously Pinkish ... it has become apparent to me that my antiquated digital camera (very old, one of the very first 'point n shoot' models!) just isn't up to the task in regard to colour representation nor the ability to portray contrast properly. The screen shots I take are while the film is running too, that doesn't help provide a good image. The photographs are only a very rough guide for what to expect but in reality the film is not as bad as in the photographs. I work with what equipment I have, room lighting etc ... if anything, at least you can see that the films have actually been run through the projector and any special points (such as the film aspect ratio) can be seen. In my humble opinion, the colour rendition remains watchable, but certainly not brilliant.
Across all three parts (reels) the sound quality is very good, levels are fine and it is easy to understand the dialogue.
In my opinion, after this quite extensive test viewing, I am happy that the films are as stated on the reel cases and overall, the films look (although they do "smell" lightly of Vinegar) to be in fairly reasonably "technical" condition albeit with the obvious dye failure taking place.
I am very fastidious and careful with these films, they are after all the property of another, and I have now packed each reel back into the clear case after adding a couple of Silica Gel packs and then sealed each reel in clear plastic. After inserting all three reels back into the White case, yet again I have sealed the whole package in clear plastic. Yes, the dyes have already undergone some failure but I undertake all this "sealing" in an effort to stabilize or at least slow down this chemical process taking place on the film.
Of course, now this has been all packed up, the package is now kept in a nice cool, humidity controlled environment while it awaits the new owner to look after it.
