8mm Forum: Some 8mm films can't be fixed?

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Topic: Some 8mm films can't be fixed?

Clinton Hunt
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 845
From: Waharoa,North Island,New Zealand
Registered: May 2010

posted April 17, 2011 07:10 AM

I tried to repair a Shirley Temple 8mm film that had quite a few sproket holes damged, took me ages to do and I had thought I had fixed it, then I ran it and it was just as bad!. Do some films become too brittle or too wornout to be fixed? It wasn't my projector that was at fault I am sure.

Cheers,
Clinton

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Cheers from me in New Zealand :-)

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Adrian Winchester
Film God

Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004

posted April 17, 2011 08:05 AM

Repairing damaged sproket holes in a way that looks good on the screen - even with the right equipment - is challenging with 16mm, let alone 8mm, and of course Super 8 is even harder than Std 8. Which was your film, and did you try some sort of technique involving tape?

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Adrian Winchester

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Mark Williams
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 846
From: West Sussex
Registered: Mar 2007

posted April 17, 2011 08:33 AM

The only thing you can do with 8mm is to cut out the badly damaged sprockets all together and then just simply re-join the two undamaged pieces of film.

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted April 17, 2011 11:59 AM

This is tedious, taking ends of a sprocket area and ever-so lightly applying film cement on the very ends, then holding
them till they adhese. It works sometimes. Reluctantly, you must remove the damaged frames and re-splice accordingly. I thought of making a sprocket-hole repair mechanism, so I'm always at the drawing board - Shorty

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Rob Young.
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1633
From: Cheshire, U.K.
Registered: Dec 2003

posted April 17, 2011 12:07 PM

Sprocket hole damage shouldn't occur in the first place.

If it does then, sadly, the print is pretty much done.

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Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted April 17, 2011 12:14 PM

Well, it does if the claw isn't jiving with the film arpeture, true though that one has to be as careful, but not always possible - Best thing is to have back-up prints as I try to do. Costs a bit, but works well and educates you along the way on print structures - Shorty

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Adrian Winchester
Film God

Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004

posted April 17, 2011 02:25 PM

There is another technique you can try with Std 8 films if you're desperate to avoid loss of frames. You need some strong tape, probably the best would be Presstapes from Urbanski in the USA, which Larry Urbanski says are strong enogh for sprocket repair. Apply over the damaged sprockets on one side and then carefully slice off any overlap over the edge. Repeat this on the other side. Then carefully position the film using a suitable Std 8 or 16mm tape splicer that punches out sprocket holes through tape. Then punch them out. If you use a 16mm splicer, the punch will miss out the ones in-between, so you'll have to move it along a frame and punch again. The result won't be perfect but it might be acceptable. In theory it could also be attempted with Super 8 and a CIR splicer but I think the smaller holes would probably lead to worse results.

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Adrian Winchester

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Clinton Hunt
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 845
From: Waharoa,North Island,New Zealand
Registered: May 2010

posted April 18, 2011 12:07 AM

Hi all,
it was a super8 that I bought off e-bay, so it must've been in a poor condition from the previous owner, I tried using presstape which in hindsight was a waste of the few hours it took to do!
I guess it's a case of buyer-beware on the realy old films....

Clinton

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Cheers from me in New Zealand :-)

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David Michael Leugers
Master Film Handler

Posts: 264
From: Fairfield, OH, USA
Registered: Feb 2004

posted April 21, 2011 11:18 PM

I have always felt that torn sprocket holes was the Achilles Heel of Super 8mm film. Way too often do you find torn sprocket holes on films from poor projectors or treatment. Repair is mostly hopeless IMHO. So important to get a great machine and keep it in excellent running order. Also to keep the films themselves cleaned and lubed.

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Live Free or Die

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David Kilderry
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 963
From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Registered: Feb 2006

posted April 22, 2011 05:02 AM

A CIR professional tape splicer is the best option I have found for repairing Super 8 as it actually punches new sprocket holes at each perforation.

David

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted April 22, 2011 01:48 PM

If one still has them, perhaps using that film splicing tape that have the sproket area designed into them, so that even if your missing a sprocket, you still end up with a "wanna be" sprocket hole?

I bet that tape is very hard to come by these days. Wish I had some.

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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