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I have just read an interesting article in the latest issue of Film Collector # 42 magazine published by Classic Home Cinema here in the UK .
The article is titled :- POLYESTER IN DETONATION : THE MYTH OF IMMORTALITY BEGINS TO CRACK and it is printed on pages 20 - 21 and has been written by Ignacio Benedeti .
In this article Ignacio has discovered during inspection of a 35mm trailer from 2008 , that even when carefully stored and free from temperature swings , in an archive that never exceeds 21 degrees Centigrade even in the height of summer , he came across something unthinkable . A clean break running across the frame from the centre outward . A fault line had opened up in the very core of the base . As if something had detonated within the polyester , slicing it cleanly from within in a way no external handling could have caused . It was not an isolated case because after checking other 35mm polyester trailers from between 2004 and 2014 he found similar internal crystallizations every few meters . Not an all reels but on enough to raise an archivist's blood pressure .
There is much more valid detail printed in this article including input from archivist Jack Theakston , German archivist Peter Willems and a response from Kodak as to it's possible causes . There is also a colour photo of the photo example of this problem on 35mm stock .
The article concludes with a provisional that although deeply troubling Polyester film stock is not immortal after all if it rushed through production and subjected to mechanical abuse . Something i have stated in the past to others and suspected all along .
The article is titled :- POLYESTER IN DETONATION : THE MYTH OF IMMORTALITY BEGINS TO CRACK and it is printed on pages 20 - 21 and has been written by Ignacio Benedeti .
In this article Ignacio has discovered during inspection of a 35mm trailer from 2008 , that even when carefully stored and free from temperature swings , in an archive that never exceeds 21 degrees Centigrade even in the height of summer , he came across something unthinkable . A clean break running across the frame from the centre outward . A fault line had opened up in the very core of the base . As if something had detonated within the polyester , slicing it cleanly from within in a way no external handling could have caused . It was not an isolated case because after checking other 35mm polyester trailers from between 2004 and 2014 he found similar internal crystallizations every few meters . Not an all reels but on enough to raise an archivist's blood pressure .
There is much more valid detail printed in this article including input from archivist Jack Theakston , German archivist Peter Willems and a response from Kodak as to it's possible causes . There is also a colour photo of the photo example of this problem on 35mm stock .
The article concludes with a provisional that although deeply troubling Polyester film stock is not immortal after all if it rushed through production and subjected to mechanical abuse . Something i have stated in the past to others and suspected all along .
However it's not the recent copy at the end of film era, but a badly faded Agfa film stock from mid 90's - the very peak of film distribution. So this might be not involved with cost-cutting measure as suspected.
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