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Topic: slightly scatched films
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted September 12, 2014 12:53 PM
Andrew has a good point, if they are very light lines, a good cleaning can get rid of much of that, and some of those great film cleaners can actually get in the "scratch" and also help alleviate the naughtiness of it.
... kind of like what happens with "wet gate" printing, when they take an old scratches print, have it pass through a wet gate as it is copied onto another piece of raw stock, the water gets into the scratches and can almost make it look like the scratches never existed. A very necessary element of film restoration!
-------------------- "All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Adrian Winchester
Film God
Posts: 2941
From: Croydon, London, UK
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted September 13, 2014 11:25 PM
For emulsion scratches that are not too bad, the 'water treatment' can be remarkably effective - I know as I've used it many times. The late Ivan Watson recommended it in 'Movie Maker' and caused me to try it. Light scratches genuinely 'disappear' and worse ones become less conspicuous. There are other threads here that mention it. Here's what I said on one of them:
"I use a slightly different approach which seems to work for me. I fill a bath with 3-4 inches of warm water, adding a water softener like washing up liquid. (Incidentally, I once treated a 50ft short in the sink of my hotel when in Blackpool for the convention, and as the water is soft there, it was no problem to use it without adding anything!) I take care to 'wind it out' in a way that reduces the risk of it getting tangled when I remove it. After about 20 mins I take one end and pull it through part of a folded towel, to remove excess water. I then it spread out on a non-fluffy cloth to dry in a warm room. The danger at this stage is that some film stocks stick together if emulsion makes contact with emulsion, so I move the film 2 or 3 times while it's drying, trying to ensure that this does not happen. After about an hour, it can be rewound, and I also apply Film Renew to clean off any dust and to lubricate the film."
A word of warning: it's equally applicable to 16mm (don't overdo the footage) but never use it on a Technicolor print - the colour will come off! Also be cautious with b/w films and don't leave them submerged for too long, as the occasional print seems to be prone to patches of emulsion coming off! I've never found that with 8mm.
-------------------- Adrian Winchester
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