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 350+ are now left for me to look through ...
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 NEGATIVE on this reel ...
Regardless, please 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 ...
CARTOON COLLECTION (3)
Walt Disney Home Movies & King Features Home Movie
Catalogue # Unknown
400 Feet clear KELVIN (Made In Australia) reel which is fully loaded (roughly 400')
White leader is fitted, but no film clip
Colour
SILENT - No audio but there are on-screen text boxes or, as in the case of Winnie The Pooh, interesting "book graphics" so the viewing experience is something like reading from a book while watching.
Run time: approximately 16 minutes total (around 5 minutes per cartoon)
The three titles are:
Popeye - A Mite Trouble
Winnie The Pooh - The Honey Tree
Robin Hood & Little John
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
This is another reel which I found stored in a paper bag within a plastic bag, I found a whole box of these - reels which seemed to be in the process of finding cases or cans to live in but the job was never completed due to the owner's ill health.
NO personal writing on the film reel, in fact there is nothing to identify the reel contents except for a paper label which is loose (not attached to the reel).
Film stock appears to be undamaged
TESTING:
Test machine: ELMO 1200ST
The projector film path has been completely cleaned prior to running this film through the machine. I now have a "running sheet", my maintenance schedule if you like - I record when each maintenance is performed because I am running a lot of films through the machine.
Film looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
I ran the film through the projector for practically the complete length as I needed to view all of the reel contents.
Overall, not a lot of full colour left on any of these cartoons - at best I would say some Greens showing (and thus Browns, Oranges etc) but not good solid Blues.
As a result, Popeye has an overall Reddish-Brown hue, Winnie The Pooh looks a bit "washed out" but funny enough his jacket colour looks about right! Robin Hood & Little John is much like the first cartoon, quite Reddish Brown without any signs of Blues in particular.
SPECIAL NOTE: I felt I needed to add this little note ... whilst viewing the film on the screen, it actually looks "reasonable" but 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 (it is good at the Red end of the spectrum but poor in the Blues) nor does it have the ability to portray contrast properly. The screen shots I take have been made with the film on pause (so the projector lamp is much dimmer) but I felt this method gave better representative photographs. 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.
The sound is not existent on all three films, these are silent films but with some on-screen text boxes that pop up from time to time or on-screen prompting - requires attention to be paid to what is happening on-screen.
I am very fastidious and careful with these films, they are after all the property of another person, and I have now packed the film reel into a sealed clear plastic package (along with an identification label!), along with some Silica Gel packs and then placed the reel onto a stiff cardboard backing, the whole package once again sealed in clear plastic to possibly preserve the current condition as long as possible.
This film is now stored in a cool, low humidity environment while it awaits a new projector to live with.
