HELP NEEDED - Is this leader or some form of sound??

[Jacob Watkinson]

It doesn't seem to be magnetic tape? If it does have content on it - how can I extract it?

Any help would be much appreciated thank you!

[Iain Warner]

That looks very much like 16mm magnetic film.
If it is, and has been recorded, the sound could be on either a centre or edge track. Ideally you should try to find someone local to you with the equipment to play it. I have a double band projector, with only centre track heads, but I am up in North Norfolk.

[Maurice Leakey]

If it has full track then special equipment is needed for playback. If it has standard track it will play on a 16mm projector which has magnetic playback facilities. It will not have any picture. There are numbers on it but don't know what they are used for.

Either way, it's not worth the trouble as it only appears to be about 200ft which will only run for 5 minutes. However, it could be sold on eBay as threading leader for 16mm films.

[Brian Fretwell]

The only thing I can think of for the numbers would be for editing a sound track on sep-mag, but as it would be locked in syc on the editing table that shouldn't be necessary.

[Jacob Watkinson]

Thank you everyone, I am sceptical about whether it is mag sound as it doesn't have the characteristic brown stripe I'm so used to seeing

[Maurice Leakey]

Jacob
I assume you refer to a small stripe. This film has its stripe over the whole of one side. You will see one side is shiny, the other side is matt. It's virtually the same as quarter inch recording tape but with perforations.

[Jacob Watkinson]

Thanks Maurice, so you're saying that even with both sides being that same grey colour it could still very likely be full coat?

[Maurice Leakey]

Yes.

The "dull" side takes the recording. No doubt that here it could be recorded on both sides.

Some special 16mm projectors are known as Double Band. On their far side they have all the heads and a capstan for the tape. The film and tape are both placed on sync marks. Then, the motor runs both picture and sound in perfect sync.

I have a Swiss 16mm film which has a bare sound track area, and it came with a full coat magnetic English sound track. I had to get the recording transferred to a CD. I can now run the two together in approximate sync as it has a commentary (not lip-sync). I am told that Swiss television uses this system quite a lot as the people of Switzerland have three languages depending on where they live. French, German and Italian.

Click below and scroll down to the Double Band projector.

Unusual page2 (binoculars-cinecollectors.com)

[Steve Lee]

This is a 16mm print of a famous Levi's advert, that was made as an international commercial. The picture would remain the same throughout the world, making it cheaper to run off multiple copies of the print, then allowing the soundtrack to be recorded in different languages depending on the country.
You can clearly see the sync marks on both the picture and sound.

[Jacob Watkinson]

Thanks everyone, I guess my next question would be - would a Steenbeck be able to handle this? Or is it a case of a double band projector being a necessity?

[Maurice Leakey]

Thanks everyone, I guess my next question would be - would a Steenbeck be able to handle this? Or is it a case of a double band projector being a necessity?

Yes
The conversion I noted earlier was done on a Steenbeck.