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Topic: Lubricating Movies
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 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.
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Michael Dixon
Junior
Posts: 29
From: East Bend, NC, USA
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 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.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 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"!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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