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 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 ...
THE BIG SURF Plus SKY DIVING
Castle Films Home Movie
Catalogue # Unknown
400 Feet clear KELVIN (Made In Australia) reel which appears to have approximately 300' of film
NO Leader is fitted, or at least I don't think it is a leader! Quite a long length of clear film (no frames) before the film begins.
Colour
SILENT - No audio but there are on-screen text boxes
Run time: approximately 16 minutes
The Big Surf is all about the surfie culture (including the girls who surf with their towels on the sand!) and seems to be based in Hawaii. About half of the film is about the culture and the remaining film has a lot of "riding the waves"
Sky Diving is all about jumping out of small aircraft and surviving, a lot of aerial photography
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
This reel was 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 it but the job was never completed due to ill health.
NO personal writing on the film reel, in fact there is nothing to identify the reel contents so I have printed a simple label (non-stick) and it will be included with this 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 see just what this reel contained.
Both films exhibit Pink-Reds but there are Greens trying to break through as well, no Blues that I could see however. This means that the ocean/surf scenes had water that was at times Pinkish and other times an ocean with a Green hue and the White water from the waves looks good! Because of the Greens, a lot of Browns can be seen. Not a terrible picture but it would have been nice to see some Blue!
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 both films, these are silent films but with some on-screen text boxes that pop up from time to time. No sounds of the surf, no rush of the air as these guys fall through the sky!
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 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.
