8mm Forum: 8.75 mm Chinese film

This is topic 8.75 mm Chinese film in forum 9.5mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=000133

Posted by Dino Everette (Member # 1378) on June 10, 2011, 03:04 PM:

A friend of mine just went to China and I finally picked up a full 800 foot reel of the Chinese 8.75mm film and a small booklet about the electrical aspects of the projectors...Now I just need a projector..... [Big Grin]

I only wish Warton was still here as this was one of our mutual obsessions......

Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on June 10, 2011, 07:52 PM:

Dino, you are going to have to make that projector. I'm sure you have enough spare parts...and maybe use the LEGO design. [Razz]

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on June 11, 2011, 03:54 AM:

Here's a fine article about the format for those interested:
http://www.super8data.com/database/articles_list/8-75mm_format.htm

Posted by Dino Everette (Member # 1378) on June 11, 2011, 04:55 AM:

Here is a picture of one that my friend saw in the student union in beijing...I;m gonna get me one, and it won't be made of lego's haha...... [Razz]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on June 11, 2011, 08:01 AM:

That looks like a wonderful projector Dino. Can you post some close up pics of the film so we can see what it looks like. Does it have an optical sound track?

Posted by Mikael Barnard (Member # 1637) on June 11, 2011, 12:27 PM:

Thanks for the photo Dino, have often wondered what a projector for 8.75mm film might look like (the sad thing is there is no irony or sarcasm in this statement, I really have!)

Edit: Many thanks to Christian as well, now I've seen a few more!

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on June 11, 2011, 02:21 PM:

All of which raises the question why did'nt Kodak go with 8.75 mm film when they re-designed standard 8mm? The Chinese logic of 35mm divided by 4 makes perfect sense, and I imagine the picture quality and screen brightness is susbstantially better than super 8mm, probably approaching 9.5mm. They could have still called it Super 8mm if they had wanted to use that title for marketing purposes.
Oh well, Kodak screwed up so many things designing super 8, so this is just one more lost opportunity.

Posted by Mikael Barnard (Member # 1637) on June 11, 2011, 07:54 PM:

Presumably for the same reason 17.5 was shunned by so many until the introduction of the Pathe standard- there was a lot of nitrate stock around in 1932! Of course, as Pathe proved, there's nothing wrong with using derivatives of 35mm for the home so long as safety stock was used but using a gauge that couldn't be economically slit from 35mm reduced the risks still further.

Posted by Larry Arpin (Member # 744) on June 11, 2011, 08:30 PM:

In all my years of film I have never heard of 8.75 until now. Fascinating!

Posted by Dino Everette (Member # 1378) on June 12, 2011, 11:32 PM:

OK so I got a little busy playing 3 gigs with one of my heroes Walter Lure from the legendary Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders...Oops let me pick that name up I just dropped...hehe

but here are some pics of the 8.75mm film next to super 8 film...The main things you can notice are the pitch between perfs is slightly wider on the chinese film, even though the perf itself looks to be the same same size.

Also as you can see it uses magnetic sound, which may or may not be the sole sound format.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 16, 2011, 11:52 AM:

I'd guess the advantage of 8 over 8.75 is the fact that you can slit 8mm out of 16mm without any waste.

Then the question becomes why didn't the Chinese Ministry of Culture simply adopt Super-8 as a standard?

-probably because It's easier to "Minister Culture" when you control the medium.

Russia's railroads have a different track gauge than the rest of Europe. One of the reasons it's stayed this way for over a century is it keeps armies from the west from invading using their own trains. It worked pretty well during WW2: the logistical headache it created probably kept Hitler from taking Moscow. (it was that close...)

-much the same: a bunch of Super-8 projectors in China may have created a black market for Bugs Bunny, the Beatles, "Carry On" and other decadent Western Ideas!

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on June 16, 2011, 12:15 PM:

Well Steve, there are some advantages to a dictatorship [Big Grin]

- in this case what appears to be a superior film guage to what we have here in the west!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on June 16, 2011, 03:07 PM:

-and some things never change.

I've heard that the Iranian government is interested in starting its own national Internet.

-different tune, yet the same dance!

Posted by Dino Everette (Member # 1378) on June 17, 2011, 12:43 AM:

Actually Steve that would not be the advantage since you can cut 4 x 8.75 out of 35mm, so in that regards they are virtually the same

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on January 21, 2018, 04:29 AM:

This thread being from before I joined the forum and just having it brought up again I will add.

I would also think that this gauge (if it was universally adopted there) would discourage import and showing of films the dictatorship would deem "inappropriate", either to their politics or morals.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 21, 2018, 11:17 AM:

I would imagine that the picture quality of 8.75mm is approaching that of 9,5mm, in other words noticeably improved over super 8mm, and looking at Dino's pics of the film it may also have a wider aspect ratio. Too bad Kodak didn't go this way.

Posted by David Ollerearnshaw (Member # 3296) on January 21, 2018, 12:43 PM:

The real reason is the 'west' didn't want its people corrupting. [Mad]

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on January 22, 2018, 03:06 AM:

I did hear that Betamax was promoted in China because most of the Western porn was on VHS :-)

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on January 25, 2018, 02:21 PM:

Dino, please join us in Wildwood come April, Shorty

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2