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Topic: BEN HUR film stock ...
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted November 18, 2008 10:08 AM
I just recently bought a feature print of BEN HUR. The seller said "cinevision film print" and the covers on the boxes are indeed cinevision covers, but this is definitely a Derann film print manufactured in England.
From what I understand, Kempski sold his negatives to Derann, and Derann then continued to print copies of his features, (this being among them). Am I safe in this assumption?
It has that standard bluish cast to the color which definitely shows it's origins, (UK) and the print is quite enjoyable. Magnificent sharp image, but slightly muted color, mostly due to that bluish cast, I'm betting.
My question is :
I have looked at endless amounts of film on this print and have not seen a single mark on the sprocket area that denotes any kind of film stock. It appears to obviously be L.P.P. or some other "Long Phade Process" film stock, but which one is it, AND when was it printed?
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted November 18, 2008 02:57 PM
Well, if it's not Derann, then it's definitely a U.K print, as ...
1. the films that come out of the UK film labs definitely have a bluish tint to them.
2. It's probably Derann as Kempski, the person who released so many of the great scope feature prints of the early 1980's, worked in conjunction with the man who produced the Cinevision films of the late 70's early 80's and then Kempski worked with Derann later on and when Kempski decided to call it quits, most of his negatives went to Derann films, and one of the negatives, all the way back to Cinevision days, was Ben Hur.
Kempski was also known to have released a one reel (600ft) of just the chariot race sequence from Ben Hur.
... so, it is probably undoubtably a Derann/Kempski print. I'd love to be proved wrong however.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted November 18, 2008 05:05 PM
This the strange thing Winbert.
There was a review of the 3X400ft BEN HUR digest, and in most cases the 3X400ft digest has faded ...
... the strange thing is that the 1X400ft (one of which I am currently selling on ebay, shameless plug for my auction, I know)
digest of Ben Hur has held up much better.
When I had a 3X400ft digest of Ben Hur, I could immediately tell where scenes from the 1X400ft had been edited in. The color has tended to hold up far better. The print I'm selling right now, (another shameless plug!), while it has about a 25 or so percent of fade, it still looks fairly good, especially in that naval battle sequence.
It was a matter of the 3X400ft BEN HUR being printed on the quick fade Eastman, the 1X400ft BEN HUR digest was printed on another grade of Eastman film stock, not the L.P.P. but a better grade ...
... either that or the film lab cut corners on the 3X400ft, or another lab may have used the same film stock, but had better procedures on washing the prints, chemicals, ect.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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