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» 8mm Forum   » 8mm Forum   » Optical sound Supers 8, where they came from. The facts

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Author Topic: Optical sound Supers 8, where they came from. The facts
Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003


 - posted November 11, 2017 02:08 PM      Profile for Tom Photiou     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Now this is the article that sprang to life 19 years ago, (i cannot believe where the time has gone). I wrote to Derek Simmons to ask a few questions and one of them was, Where did super 8 optical prints actually come from, how did they originate,
Here, from an early FFTC magazine in 1998 is the answer, and it is a very good & interesting read.
I Hope you can read them as obviously i had to reduce them to put it up.
The optical item starts on page 1, (obviously) Row 3
If you cant read it and would like it emailed full size let me know but hopefully there will be a way you can see it.

SEE BELOW (Read down the thread to get the article, thank you Doug)

[ November 12, 2017, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: Tom Photiou ]

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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator

Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003


 - posted November 12, 2017 11:51 AM      Profile for Douglas Meltzer   Email Douglas Meltzer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I resized Tom's article to make it more legible.

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The next part continues from "At any one time there were twenty projectors running, checking...."

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I think there's room for just one more film.....

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Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003


 - posted November 12, 2017 12:16 PM      Profile for Tom Photiou     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thanks Doug, thats better. [Wink]

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Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006


 - posted November 12, 2017 12:21 PM      Profile for Graham Ritchie   Email Graham Ritchie   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Excellent article...very interesting.

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Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003


 - posted November 13, 2017 01:55 PM      Profile for Tom Photiou     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thank you Graham, i think so to, to think of all those titles that had to be destroyed. Just about every film must have had an 8mm print back then as the airlines would have had all the up to date movies for their passengers. (just like they do now on the cheapy format, and the headphones are still hopeless today as they were then) [Big Grin] [Wink]

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Dominique De Bast
Film God

Posts: 4486
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jun 2013


 - posted November 13, 2017 02:33 PM      Profile for Dominique De Bast   Email Dominique De Bast   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Interesting article, indeed. To complete the informations provided, not all optical films were printed for airlines companies. Les Grands Films Classiques (in France of course) released several classical features (in black and white) for individuals.

[ November 14, 2017, 08:34 AM: Message edited by: Dominique De Bast ]

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Dominique

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Tom Photiou
Film God

Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003


 - posted November 14, 2017 06:33 AM      Profile for Tom Photiou     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I never knew that,

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Kenneth DePriest Jr
Film Handler

Posts: 64
From: severn MD
Registered: Aug 2012


 - posted November 14, 2017 08:30 AM      Profile for Kenneth DePriest Jr   Email Kenneth DePriest Jr   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
anybody know where you can find a Pic of the projectors the airline used?

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Osi Osgood
Film God

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


 - posted November 14, 2017 11:35 AM      Profile for Osi Osgood   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
... and, there were quite a few super 8 optical sound feature prints made exclusively for "libraries" where you could check them out for home use. This occured specifically (from my research), in South Africa, which is where I secured my "Charlie Brown" features as well as other optical sound prints. One of the very wonderful things about these prints from South Africa is that they were printed and distributed along with extras. For instance, there were original 1940's and 50's B/W MGM short subjects that were released and on the front of current (at that time) 70's MGM releases). They;re are/were many feature releases in optical sound that were there in South Africa which, to my knowledge, were not anywhere else.

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

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Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014


 - posted November 15, 2017 02:20 AM      Profile for Brian Fretwell   Email Brian Fretwell   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Another article states where the shorts for Derann and PM Films were printed Derann's were by Technicolor but at their Italian labs, PM (I think) were done by Buck Labs.
I'll look up the article in Film for the Collector after Blackpool.

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Allan Broadfield
Master Film Handler

Posts: 452
From: Bromley, Kent
Registered: Nov 2010


 - posted November 15, 2017 03:37 AM      Profile for Allan Broadfield   Author's Homepage   Email Allan Broadfield   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Re. Uncoated super8 optical tracks;
Before the introduction of cyan optical tracks on 35mm, that could be read with red readers on projectors, the track would be coated with a bead of 'applicator' which would redevelop the sound to give a hard black image that would respond well when using the old photo electric cell reader. The reason for the change to cyan was that the applicator fluid was deemed unsafe to be drained into the sewers, though this had been the practice for many years.
Kodak apparently had no plans for this with 16mm, and at Soho lab we had to devise a printing technique to make up for the loss of the applicated image.
That's a long winded way of going back to the british super8 optical tracks not being coated, therefore lacking in volume etc.
If that was the case with british super8 I'm surprised that the quality was as good as sometimes reported.

[ November 15, 2017, 05:56 AM: Message edited by: Allan Broadfield ]

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Melvin England
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 707
From: Hull, East Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Feb 2016


 - posted December 10, 2017 04:04 AM      Profile for Melvin England     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Would it be right to assume that, as the vast majority of optical prints were for airline use, they would prefer "flat" versions of films to fill a larger screen and that no anamorphic optical prints were ever made?

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"My name is for my friends!"

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007


 - posted December 10, 2017 04:17 AM      Profile for Maurice Leakey   Email Maurice Leakey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Other than airlines, I believe that Japan was a great advocate of Super 8 optical prints.

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Maurice

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Melvin England
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 707
From: Hull, East Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Feb 2016


 - posted December 10, 2017 04:29 AM      Profile for Melvin England     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
I am sure Jason could add a few comments, Maurice, but were any of them made in cinemascope ?

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Jason Smith
Master Film Handler

Posts: 358
From: Tohoku, Japan
Registered: Oct 2015


 - posted December 10, 2017 06:25 AM      Profile for Jason Smith     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Most Super 8 digests and features released in Japan were optical films. I know at least one company in Japan who released digests in magnetic and optical.

There are optical films here in Japan that were released in Scope.

The movie studio Toei released quite a few of their features in optical scope on Super 8 in Japan on Fujifilm.

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Melvin England
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 707
From: Hull, East Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Feb 2016


 - posted December 10, 2017 06:32 AM      Profile for Melvin England     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Thank you for that info. Jason.

My super 8 knowledge has just increased. Am very grateful.

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"My name is for my friends!"

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