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Even though it was not today but during the corona virus lockdown that I re-recorded the sound on three Betty Boop cartoons. I re-recorded "Betty Boop M.D (1932)", " Betty Boop's museum (1932)" and "Betty Boop in Blunderland (1934). Most, if not all, of those early sound cartoons need a re-record as the sound from the original tracks are often quite muddy sounding. That is where Youtube comes to the rescue as you can find the old cartoons with much better restored soundtracks. Once they are properly synced and re-recorded you end up with a film that becomes very enjoyable to watch again, especially for audience that no longer struggles to hear through the muddy soundtrack! Still have a Popeye cartoon yet left to do from 1942 called "Me musical nephews"!
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Adventures in "New" Film Gauges
This one was last weekend.
I've been collecting film about 40 years now. I got into Super-8 sound about 18 years ago. I started collecting 16mm...two years ago!
(No point in rushing into these things!)
So, I have a 16mm projector, and by virtue of the fact that the Kodak Presstape splicer I had anyway also does 16, I have a splicer. I have some tapes, and I have some black leader: that's it infrastructure wise! No viewer, no rewinds, and just one spare reel.
I bought a pair of 16mm trailers last week: "Knute Rockne, All American" and "Citizen Kane". I said "I'll transfer one onto the other's reel."
-and then they showed up like this:
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-Ohhh No!
The two trailers were masking taped together on a core.
This was a problem.
Somehow, in a process involving my Pageant, that one empty reel, my take up reel, my son at the throttle, and myself with cores and reels on a pencil we managed to get the trailers off the core, splice a foot of black leader in between, splice leader at head and tail and get the end result onto my now un-spare reel. At one point I had to take one trailer out of the equation and with nothing better to do, rough-spliced it at the head of another film with a little reel-space to spare.
The trailers are beautiful: they have that wonderful, classic look that Black and White often has on 16mm. And you have to believe after all of that, I watched them that night!
It was a little tense, but it felt good once I finished. Maybe what got me through is the inspiration of George Gipp himself: "When things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper." (-although I've always preferred the version from Airplane!)
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**More spare reels are now on order!Comment
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Half way thru filming FILM a movie destined for super 8 release. It promotes Super 8 and other gauges. No room for error as I'm shooting on negative.Comment
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Godspeed, Lee!Comment
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Steve Klare Nice job transferring the film from the core to a reel. Not an easy task. This is when rewinds and a split reel makes life a lot easier. Just be glad your trailers weren't very long. Film can easily fall off the core just in handling. A core holding 1600 ft. of film or more can be a nightmare. I have a split reel now...but a few years ago I DIY'd a split reel out of card board. If you don't have to deal with cores very often...this does the trick
http://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bi...c;f=5;t=001628Comment
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Hi Janice,
In hindsight, it wasn't really that bad, but it was a first for me! (Next time, at least I won't be surprised by it!)
I kept running into these little obstacles: for example just at the critical moment I got a reminder that my take-up reel only fits on the spindle one way. I also sat and did that puzzle of which side the sprocket holes are on vs. the direction of the curl. (If it was double-perf I might still be there!)
-but just maybe when there are no more challenges, there will be no more satisfaction either.Comment
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Steve Osborne can probably get split reels in all formats. As long as you have a good pair of rewinds in 16mm or 35mm format - a split reel will be excellent for films on cores. I don't use mine that much but I have one of each in the prime formats.Comment
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-Those are neat, Paul!
I did an interesting edit just now. I've had this film for years that I've never really liked because between two sound Newsreels, they put in a slug of silent home movie footage: it just didn't flow right for me. Today I decided to fix it. Of course you can't see "silent" on Super-8, so I had to project it, shoot some cell phone pictures of where to do the cuts and then take it to the editor and do the real cutting.
-normally a sound editor isn't a wish for me, but today it would have been handy!
(Editing Super-8 is a game meant to be played with young eyes!)Comment
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I thought it was mainly identifying the film stock type on Super 8 by the edge markings that was for young eyes.
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​​​​​​Having moved out of London late last year and relocated to the Isle of Bute off of the west coast of Scotland, I'm finally getting some time (work permitting) to get my 'cinema-room' sorted out and put together.
Although there is still much work to do - it's very much a pleasure (and not a work) in progress! 😊Comment
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Here's a few more pictures.Comment
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Today i serviced an Eumig Mark S O&M that i bought for my personal collection, also a Mark S710D wich someone modded with a second amplifier, both broken. i also serviced a bauer P7 TS universal, that one needs a new capacitor for starting the motor. and i put an Eumig R2000 and Pallas Soundmatic 800M on our dutch Ebay equivalent. and also decluttered the room a bit
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Yesterday I moved my 2x 600' copy of The Dirty Dozen and 2x 800' Grease from cheap looking reels on to Bonums in their own box, followed by printing the titles on the side of the boxes using one of those Dymo hand held printers that punch onto black thick sticky tape (remember them?)
I don't know about you, but I always like my shelves to look visually appealing and having a set of films that were not bought in their original boxes, all now housed in the same type looks really good.
Today I am sorting / ordering replacement bulbs. Had an accident last night. My Sankyo 702 blew a 15v 150w after probably less than 12x 400' The other replacements did not illuminate to pilot light standard. So, has a fuse gone on the projector that powers the bulb circuit, or have I got a replacement duff bulb ?
I swapped it for my Bell & Howell DCR ( a Sankyo by another name) which is 12v 100w. Would you believe it.....THAT bulb went as well! I thought I had a good supply of 12v 100w bulbs so popped the first one into the projector. Fantastic ! It lit ! Switched from pilot light to full light........band..... fused. This time it was my fault. 8v 50w in a 12v 100w box ! Silly me. I was alarmed to see that as I checked each 12v 100w box, most of the bulbs were in various levels of decay. More to the point.... didn't work. I can't remember them being like this last time I checked. It's as if every time a bulb blew, I put it back in the box instead of throwing it away.
Finally, I found a 12v 100w that worked. Game ON. Only problem was, this bulb filament is oh, so slightly larger than the rest, and does not have that "lip" around the edge to slot into position in the machine. Consequently, the beam is not directly going through the frame and the effect on the screen is that of probably a 20w bulb. The corner is light, but the middle has a dark patch. So THAT needs to be addressed, too.
So, I have that to do plus checking my 12v 100w and dumping the bad ones, checking my 702 fuses and ordering new bulbs.
It's a hard life this super 8 lark (!!!)
By the way, before anyone asks......... NO..... the film being shown wasn't Gremlins !
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Along Melvin's line, purchased several back-up lamps for my Chinon and B&H...thinking to add a scope lens again. I also fancy attractive shelves and always eagerly seek out sharp original boxes, colorful and aesthetic. Since this constraint began, I catalogued every title with columns consisting of description, content, gauge, print condition worksheets and related comments...quite a task and a happy one. It's on-going of course....and on....and on, lol......ShortyComment
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