What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Melvin England]

It was a rare double bill up in the Man Cave this evening.

Starting off with....

Calamity Jane - 1x 50' Trailer

South Pacific - 1x 50' Trailer - An alternative version I bought recently that knocks spots off the teaser I possess.

The Girl Most Likely - 4x 400' - Jane Powell has to choose between 3 boyfriends! This was a Mountain black and white version of a colour film.

Bundle of Joy - 4x 400' - Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, who stumbles across an abandoned baby on some steps. This was colour and MUST have been on LPP as the colour is still stunning. No scratches either!

I also watched a 1x 400' entitled "Mexican Hat Dance" which had very good colour, too. Even though it had the MHD title, it looks like it was just one of the reels of The Girl Most Likely. Strange.

[Osi Osgood]

Lee, could you put up a screenshot, per chance? I had this service done to one of my prints as well, and would love to see another print resurrected from a slow pinkish death.

[Lee Mannering]

34 pages of S8 history well done everyone.

We watched the Ken Films Alien 17 minutes. Think I got this from Portland Christmas 1979, so had it a rather long time and a box full of memories.
The film stock is un marked and was pink/red ish, so I decided to chance a colour treatment with Movie Magnetic along with other material some time ago. It came back with much improved colour and so I decided to build a Stereo sound track for it in digital software. The end result is a face lift and nice to recall the memories every time we project it.
Still have the receipt in the box, £170 in todays money.

[Brian Fretwell]

As it is Easter some of you may have guessed that my Derann 'Scope Tom & Jerry "Happy go Ducky" went through the projector last night, for a change with the "new" ,scope lens I bought at Blackpool a couple of years ago. On Agfa, the colour has not noticably changed over the years.

[Graham Ritchie]

Ran a reel of shorts, didn't get far until the lamp blew, not surprising it was getting on. I have had a great run out of it. Once the lamp was changed it was on with the show of nine 200ft shorts. The egg cracker suite and the barber of Saville still looks good, I bought those two new back in the 70s as at that time it was still Castle not U8. The one gem on this very full 1200ft reel, is Tom and Jerry The Two Mouseketeers, this particular print I bought new also back in the 1970s from Walton. What stands out is the stunning color print, even after all these years it still looks as good today as when I bought it over 40 years ago.

[Ed Gordon]

Red prints can be digitally restored. I was watching John Clancy's Youtube channel last evening and his latest video is on 4k scans of 35mm film. Towards the end of the scanning discussion they mention that they are able to scan red prints that are considered lost and recover the color using DaVinci Resolve. If you have a red print that can not be replaced, it is possible to scan it and create a digital version that can be color-corrected to look like a new print.

The video is below. The discussion of red prints begins at the 20:35 time mark.

Scanners Inc. have been creating and supplying 4K video transfers from 35mm film to cinemas now for some time. In this video we meet Scanners Inc. founder Peter Aldanmaz as we attend a screening of their 4K DCP transfer of Roger Avary's 1993 classic 'Killing Zoe' at the Prince Charles Cinema just off Leicester Square in the West End of London. The Scanners Inc. ambition was to create digital video transfers that replicated the original look of a film print as closely as possible. This would facilitate authentic looking film screenings around the world for cinemas who have lost their 35mm film projection equipment. The Prince Charles Cinema still screens 35mm film on a daily basis (regular 70mm screenings are featured too), so this is the ideal location to test this new venture to an audience. Some of that audience give their opinions after the screening. We later speak with fellow Scanners Inc. team member Lincoln Barrett and Peter Aldanmaz to go through some of the issues they came across when creating this new, accurate version of 'Killing Zoe', what their plans are for the future and also take a look at the cine to video transfer scanning unit in action. Parts of this video were shot by Peter Aldanmaz. Lincoln Barrett re-processed the sound from the Zoom conference to eliminate unwanted echo and to equalize all the volumes.

[Brian Fretwell]

I think, like my copy, a lot of the Bridge on the River Kwai prints were made on 3M colour stock, which has not aged well.

[Melvin England]

They are not quite perfect, Doug, unless I am expecting a higher level of quality than they originally were in the first place, but a hell of a lot better than other 400'ers that have crossed my path..... and still VERY watchable! After reading other colleague's woes on this forum regarding 2 reelers generally, I do feel very lucky overall..... and that goes with VS too! Never been a problem.
The biggest disappointment I have come across must be The Bridge on The River Kwai. Are there any non beetroot copies out there still, I wonder? Pity. Good edit barring voice over.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Melvin,

You're a lucky man! While not red, my copies of these have all lost some of their color.

[Melvin England]

No feature film tonight in the Man Cave. Instead, I decided to dust off a hand full of various 400'ers, most of which do not seem to get mentioned that often on this forum.

So.....

Jurassic Park - The Lost World / Dante's Peak - 1x 50' - Double trailer on one reel.

Winston Churchill - 1x 200' - Different to the Walton release. This was presented by GB Equipment Ltd. Anyone heard of them ?

Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - 1x 400' - Newman / Redford classic.

Taxi Driver - 1x 400' - Robert De Niro

Earthquake - 1x 400' - Charlton Heston / Ava Gardner

Airport '77 - 1x 400' - Jack Lemmon / James Stewart

The Rose - 1x 400' - The Bet Midler !

Damian - Omen II - 1x 400' - William Holden

Mutiny On The Bounty - 1x 400' - Trevor Howard / Marlon Brando


I must say, with the exception of "Mutiny" the rest of the films have kept their colour quite well, particularly The Rose. Some of the soundtracks were a little heavy. I find that even with the films that have faded, it is only the colour that fades not image fade, so as long as they are not beetroot red, I can find them still very watchable.

[Douglas Meltzer]

I watched Iver Film Services' 400' cutdown of Twilight's Last Gleaming, a well edited thriller with Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Paul Winfield & Charles Durning. Very effective use of split screens by director Robert Aldrich. Partially faded, this sharp print still has some color remaining.

[Melvin England]

Tonight's line-up in the Man Cave was all singing and dancing in glorious colour! No black and white tonight !


Kiss Me Kate - 1x 50' Trailer - Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel

Nothing's Impossible / The Young Ones - 1x 200' - Two song and dance routines from Cliff Richard from, indeed, The Young Ones

Can't Help Falling In Love / Rock-A-Hula Baby - 1x 200' - Elvis in fine voice with songs from "Blue Hawaii"

On The Town - 4x 600' - Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly hit New York on a 48 hour pass. Also stars Ann Miller. Stunning colour.


.

[Brian Fretwell]

The 400ft of Dressed to Kill and a "White box special" test print of Aliens part 4 (printed reversed, so a good job they did a test!! ).

[Osi Osgood]

Larry, that's not bad image quality for a non Derann print! Who released it?

[John Fedko]

1972 Columbia Color 200 ft silent World Series !
Oakland beats Cincinnati in 7 games . Great series !!!