Faded memories (quite literally)

[Steve Lee]

I have to start by confessing that I have not handled super 8 film for about 25 years since selling most of my collection and machines in the mid 90s but also hanging on to the feature films I owned in which I have no idea of their origins or who distributed or printed them.
So last year in the lockdown I decided through boredom to make some changes to my projection room where my super 8 and 16mm collection has been stored for many years. The room has a constant cold temperature with no humidity perfect for film storage.
After Christmas I purchased a decent replacement projector as I thought it would be fun to run these films again after such a long time.
Over the past few months time permitting I have been running through these reels remembering that they had such beautiful colour, but to my horror and in the words of Peter Sellers as inspector clouseau ( not anymore! ).
Why and more so How did Eastman Kodak get away with selling their crappy film stock to the world knowing from day one that it was not up to much and would never last, this has cost the industry a fortune over the years, and has endangered so many great films that were unfortunately shot on it, let alone collectors that have invested money in these prints over the years.
The only upside to this is that I can say I own some very Special Editions
Close Encounters of the Red kind,
2001 a sepia odyssey,
Lawrence of pinkabia.
I just want to cry !!!

[Osi Osgood]

Fortunately for us collectors, not all super 8 were printed on quick fade Eastman. There was also AGFA, LPP and to a lesser extent, the later Fuji. These prints still have stellar colors. Check out my post, just a few posts down, concerning my "JAWS" digest, and click the YouTube video for proof.

[Winbert Hutahaean]

My AGFA and Fuji are fading too now. Both go purplish instead of red.

[Osi Osgood]

I think that might be because of either how they have been stored or atmospheric conditions (humidity ECT). I'm not saying that what happened to your films, didn't happen ... It's just that this is the first time I have ever heard of fade with these film stocks, so I am betting it is due to conditions that these film stocks are not used to.

[Lee Mannering]

Hi Steve. My Agfa prints are stored in a cool room and perfect. Agfa is my favourite film stock for collection with excellent blacks but it depends what we like to see on screen.
LPP is going but the great Alberto from Movie Magnetic can offer a solution for precious films.

[Steve Lee]

Hi Lee.
I have just checked out my print of Lawrence of Arabia all three reels are printed on the same stock and are marked 773S which I believe is a Agfa stock and there are no other markings on the film. This print has sat in my projection room for 20 years and the temperature never exceeds 5 degrees as it is insulated and with soundproof,. As you can see from the photo it has faded to nothing. I do know of the service in Italy that can bring back some colour but the problem is that I have 30 plus features on super 8, it could be cheaper to re-shoot the movies from scratch.
It is really heartbreaking to see them like this when I have cherished them for so many years, the really strange thing is that all of my 16mm prints are fine, stored in the same room for the same time.

[Osi Osgood]

Thanks for those photos. I wonder if this is a 3M film stock? From what I have observed of agfa, it tends to have, so don't know everything.mewhere in the sprocket area, either a " 1 S" or " 2 S", but I don't know everything.

[Brian Fretwell]

The 400ft Mountain Films cut down I have of Lawrence is on 3M stock, but it has a large 3M printed in the sprocket area. The nearest I have to those codes shown are on a couple of Disney silent or Spanish 200ft extracts (873S and 883S) both of these have much better colour (the Mary Poppins one excellent) much better than the Buck Films prints on Fuji.

I think the 1S,2S etc on Agfa comes from the Gaevert era (before they were bought up by Agfa) as a couple of B&W prints on stock branded with their name has these codes too. I suspect it is to show which strip it was split from a wider roll.