HISTORY:
My "world" is 'the arts' and more specifically, music, artwork and hand crafted/decorated chinaware's.
I am not a film enthusiast but an associate has asked me to find new owners for THEIR large collection of photographic and film items ... this is one of those items.
While the world of 8mm/Super 8mm is not my area of expertise, I am doing my best to establish the condition of each item that I am listing.
I tend to be quite detailed in my item descriptions, please READ all the details to decide if this item may interest you.
Now, on with the description ...
Film stock is on a nice solid metal LARGE 12" 1200 foot reel from ELMO (Japan) - this is not one of those "selected scenes" versions on a 400' reel and because of this you will need a projector that can handle these much larger reels.
This has been stored (and will be supplied) in a sealed clear plastic packet which has been supported by a stiff cardboard sheet and then sealed in plastic once again, a long with Silica Gel packets to try and keep any humidity at bay.
Ah, Russ .... but does it "smell"? I hear you asking ...
NO NO NO this is not a stinker! No vinegar odours detected coming off the film (which indicates a chemical breakdown of the film, breakdowns happen to the best of us - even films!)
SUPERMAN THE MOVIE (Christopher Reeve)
MGM - Super 8 Film
Catalogue # Not indicated and unknown
SUPERMAN The Movie (1978)
Most folk will know the storyline but just in case you have been a cave dweller for the last 50 years ... the movie follows the origin of Superman, as an alien infant Kal-El who is sent to Earth, raised as Clark Kent in Smallville, and grows to become a hero in Metropolis, balancing his mild-mannered reporter life with his superhero duties while battling the villainous Lex Luthor.
The film has been living on an original ELMO Japan metal reel
White leader film is fitted and there is a leader film clip
I believe this reel will provide approximately 60~65 minutes runtime, I have a lot of films to "checkout" so I only ran the first 10 minutes or so
Colour
Sound
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Film stock and the reel is undamaged, straight and true
The aluminium reel has a simple labels attached on one side
There is no "outer box or casing" and this will be supplied as described above, sitting on a stiff cardboard sheet with the reel within sealed clear plastic along with some satchels of Silica Gel and then again sealed in clear plastic - all in the name of preserving the condition of this film for as long as possible.
NO unusual smells detected coming off the film i.e no vinegar odours
NO personal names or other writing on the reel
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Film looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
I ran the film through the projector for the first 10 minutes or so, to observe the picture and sound.
The main feature rolls immediately ( no shorts at the beginning) and ... wait for it .... NICE!
I was immediately greeted with colours, lots of them, in the opening titles/credits and this continued into the movie itself. There are Yellows, Greens, Blues in plentiful supply - this film does NOT look like it was shot on Mars! Much of the opening scenes are very "Sci Fi" like but it was nice to see a face that had quite natural colouring/tones. I was impressed, especially after seeing so much Red lately.
The sound, in my opinion, could be a little better though - I felt it was of a lower overall level than other films I was viewing today (I had to lift up the Volume control a little) and perhaps just a little loss of high end frequencies which results in a slight muffled sound.
Still, overall this is a nice copy of a classical movie and quite a departure from the many "selected scenes" versions which folks are flogging online for what seem to me to be pretty high asking prices. During my research I was amazed at some of those asking prices, A$350 for a 400' film - come on, that must be a joke and yet without a single screenshot of that film to show the condition, just the seller holding the leader film - Wow! that will impress, NOT.
My associate is or was a lover of film (he is no longer able to watch), not out to make a quick buck and he knows I have a similar philosophy - offer my films to like minded people Russ (he says to me) but don't rip the customers off - just ask enough for your time and effort in advertising my films. Nice attitude which is so hard to come by these days - for many it's all about the "buck" and as for the art of film making - they ask "What's That!" Neanderthals!
SPECIAL NOTE:
I always include a couple of "off screen" snapshots ... now my digital camera is antiquated (it almost belongs to the world of the Kodak Box Brownie!) and it's limitations are definitely showing up in these sample photographs.
I take the screen shot in very low light levels, the camera flash is turned off (otherwise the picture is flooded with White) and the camera shutter speed is very slow.
This means I have trouble getting sharp photographs, especially when there is movement on the screen and I have noticed that after viewing quite a few films now, that my poor OLD digital camera is tending to emphasise the Red's in the photographs anyway (the camera has no White balance controls, it is OLD) - in real life the on-screen picture is not as Red as recorded in the photographs.
In my opinion, after this relatively brief test viewing, I am happy that the film is as stated on the reel labels and that the reel looks (and smells) to be in pretty reasonable "technical" condition.
