Double Perforated SOUND Film !

[Melvin England]

I have just received a batch of three 16mm cartoons from Ebay. On visual inspection, I was alarmed to see that the one I had really wanted (Ginger Knutt's Christmas Circus) was on double perforated film. I.E. sprockets on both sides, which basically is silent stock.

However, after loading up the projector, I was astounded to find that it DID have a soundtrack. On further inspection, there IS a sound track in between the sprockets holes, which is of the "bar code" variety. The net result is that not only do I get the soundtrack, I also get 24 "clicks" a second as the sound head reacts to the sprockets making the intended sound irritating. This seems a complete contradiction, like expecting to eat hot ice cream, or swim in dry water!

Why were these films made this way, does anyone know ? Was it a mistake or maybe produced before someone had the idea of a single row on the opposite side to the sound ? I would be interested to know.

I have a sample of the film below. Incidentally, the color is excellent.

[Ken Finch]

I have never seen this before, I think it must have been a mistake by someone or a trying to make a silent copy on reversal stock. Any indication of what the film stock is? As it is a variable density track, you could get rid of the annoying clicks by temporarily blanking off the relevant part of the scanning slit and cranking up the volume.

[Melvin England]

Ken - Unfortunately nothing to indicate what the film stock is. Either down either side of the perforations or on the (original) leader which only has the words "Projectionist Please Focus" "Head" and "Protection Leader" before a countdown from 11.
On the white leader added to the beginning of the original, someone has merely written "Ginger Nuts Christmas Circus Copy 2404 1Rl 7/29 (or 1/29)".
I don't suppose any of the above would give us a clue ? Suffice to say, as mentioned, the colour is still excellent.

[Ed Gordon]

I would guess that someone in the lab grabbed to wrong reel of 16mm stock. Ken's idea to mask off the section that has the sprocket holes just might work.

[Kenneth Horan]

This must be a lab error. A technician pulled the wrong raw stock. I used to work in a film lab for years. I never saw anything like this.

[Alan Paterson]

Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. That's what you get when you run double perf stock through an optical sound head. Never seen an optical soundtrack on silent stock before though. Just when you think you've seen it all.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Or could this be a test-print (only to check the image and/or developing chemicals)?

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

“Bar Code” variety

The actual term for this is “variable density” track. They were used along with the more common “variable area” tracks from the 1930’s up through the 1970’s (and maybe beyond).

It was claimed that variable density tracks had better signal to noise ratios since there are no clear areas on the track to pick up dirt and light scratches. Unfortunately this was done at the expense of frequency response which is why variable area tracks were eventually adopted by everyone.

Films originally released as variable density usually had a screen credit indicating “Western Electronic Noiseless Recording”. Variable density was an AT&T process, variable area was an RCA process.

[Melvin England]

Thank you for that, Mitchell.

Not knowing the correct term, I thought "bar code variety" was a description everyone could relate to. I am just relieved that it did not require an alternative optical system on the projector. Had it been modern day, that is exactly what each company would have done. Made their own projector for their sound system.

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