8mm Forum: Lubricating Movies

This is topic Lubricating Movies in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on December 22, 2009, 01:39 PM:

Thanks again everybody for all of the help!

Is there a "How To" website/book/etc... on maintaining films?

I have NO IDEA how to lubricate film!

Is it a spray or do you brush it on? Clueless! [Confused]

Thanks so much...

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on December 22, 2009, 01:43 PM:

Filmguard or Filmrenew.

Posted by Keith Ashfield (Member # 741) on December 22, 2009, 01:47 PM:

Hi again, Tim. If you go into the "search facility" at the top of the page and put in "Filmguard" "Filmrenew" "Film cleaning" "Lubricating" etc. you will find a plethora of info that will see you into the New Year, not taking off any time for Christmas celebrations, of course.

Seek and ye shall find......

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 23, 2009, 02:32 PM:

Timothy ...

I would suggest that, unless there is a big dirt problem to your prints, I would only use film cleaners sparingly as, (as with any untested situation), if we clean our prints everytime were watching them, we could do more damage to the prints than if we didn't clean them regularly.

For instance, one cleaning of a magnetic sound super 8 print may be fine and OK, but do any of us know how much damage to the (for instance) mag stripe constant cleaning could possibly cause a print?

Some cleaners have a highly alcohol base to them. Alcohol, when it evaporates, also has a "drying" affect to it. Could this potentially be the cause of film becoming brittle way to early?

OK, this may seem a strange analogy, but often "pop psycology" will say something is very good for society, for instance, saying in the 1980's that "latch-key" children without parents constantly home, will have no more psycological problems than children with parents that are constantly there for them. Only a good twenty years after that was announced as a good alternative, we now find that latch key children have a much greater level of insecurities and emotional problems than children who had at least one parent or more always there for them.

What I've been saying with that analogy, (which could have some shaking they're heads), is that we have no idea what constant cleaning of our prints will do to them. The prints appear to survive fine without a constant cleaning. Lubricating occasionally, that's different.

Keep in mind that these are only suggestions. There is nothing wrong with a once in a long while cleaning. However, a good cloth (Steve Osbourne sells an excellent cloth for this use!) will get off an amazing amount of dirt and debris.

For conditioning, lubricating, fine, but film only need be lubricated here and there.

I hope that helps.

Posted by Steven J Kirk (Member # 1135) on December 23, 2009, 03:48 PM:

FilmGuard has been a bit of a revelation to me. I have a number of Super 8 Derann scope trailers bought new in the 90s. Stored carefully several to a reel. But latterly, although picture-wise they were still perfect they all seemed to have a 'clicking' to the sound. I went through everything I could think of... the projector threading guides not making the loops properly, soundhead, stripe decaying and droping out. Couldn't get it. They were almost unplayable due to any gain on the sound rattling and clicking. FilmGuard. Fixed. Not entirely and not at first. Ran one reel earlier today and almost entirely clear sound. Another application will probably do it completely. I describe this at length because I'm sure others must have had the same thing. It isn't electronic or mechanical exactly, it must be the film 'sticking' slightly as it goes through the sound head, jittering. Doesn't affect the picture and isn't classic 'flutter'. FilmGuard is the answer.

Posted by John Skujins (Member # 1515) on December 23, 2009, 04:22 PM:

Filmguard also fixed a sound-clicking problem for me too. After cleaning a film, no more clicking. However, I think the projector somehow was part of the problem. I have recently gotten a new projector and it never makes the clicking noise on any film.

Posted by Michael Dixon (Member # 1836) on December 23, 2009, 06:49 PM:

Interesting topic. I looked through some of my "stuff" yesterday. From about 1980, I found a quart of "Vitafilm Processing Fluid" by R.D. Hanish, Columbus OH. "Kodak Movie Film Cleaner" 4 oz bottle, contains methyl chloroform, never opened. "Permafilm" from Edwal Scientific, Chicago. Your comments about these, please.
I recall in the 9170s. reading all the raves about Vitafilm. Some people were immersing their films (on metal reels) in Vitafilm and praising the results. I was to timid to do that, but did put a small piece of felt with several drops of Vitafilm in many of my film containers. Many of those who do DVD transfers of 8MM/Super8 say they inspect, clean and lubricate the film prior to the transfer. I suspect that there are as many different procedures/potions as there are suppliers of this service. Please, more people tell us what you do about lubrication.

Posted by John Clancy (Member # 49) on December 24, 2009, 03:38 AM:

Timothy, all you have to do is give a lint free cloth a bit of a soaking (not too much) on a small part of it and hold it on the film whilst rewinding a reel. I've never used Film Guard or Film Renew but they have good reputations and should therefore do the trick. I have a large supply of Thermofilm which I purchased when it was discontinued (thanks to the bureacrats at the EEC) and it just doesn't matter how often you apply this to your prints. Too much at once though could have the sound stripes aquaplaning on the sound head but you can still get it off with a dry cloth.

Much research has been done into WD40 on Super 8 prints and that didn't have any adverse effects but I'm not recommending this; what I am saying is that if WD40 doesn't have any adverse effects after soaking a striped film for over a year then just any film cleaner will be fine with the exception of the Liquid Film Cleaner Derann were offering recently - do not use this on acetate prints as it dries acetate stock out and causes shrinkage. German prints are acetate as are most home movie camera film stocks and most of the older mass market releases. I suppose seeing that list of stocks not to use it on basically means don't use it at all - it's fine on Derann's features and releases since they switched to polyester stock in the early to mid-80's but that's it.

I hope this makes sense.

Posted by Timothy Price (Member # 1832) on December 24, 2009, 06:12 AM:

Thanks so much everybody!

It's great to have all of this knowledge to turn to for advice.

I'm really excited about collecting and watching Super 8 films again. I have almost 60 movies that I collected from the 70's when I was a kid (some have taken a tremendous beating) I'm very happy to find out some just may need a little TLC.

I really, really appreciate the help.

Tim

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 24, 2009, 08:28 AM:

Its fun cleaning old dirty films. I once bought a print of "Gullivers Travels" Fleischer/animated feature) from some seller in Australia, and when the film arrived ...

Well, it was so dirty, the mate must have had it sitting out during a dust-storm, minus reel. It was really that bad!

I gave it a few water bath's (didn't know too much about cleaning back then), with the slightest dish washing soap in the mix), which I did actually three times, (also using a good non-scratching cloth to dry it right away after each "bath").

While doing that I also recieved my first film cleaner, some brand named ECCO film cleaner, and gave it one of those as well.

Well, the film was scratched to hell, skinny and green scratches through out, and the color was faded, but I actually did have quite a time watching it as nearly every speck of grime and stuff were gone, and being it was my first venture back into Super 8, (what a first venture back, eh?), it was a great time!

Enjoy your "film restorations"!

Posted by Roy Neil (Member # 913) on December 24, 2009, 09:18 PM:

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