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May 2002, Week 3

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Subject:
From:
Leo Enticknap <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 19 May 2002 07:40:03 +0100
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Jessica Rosner writes:

>Too Vague You have to know the EXACT lengh of footage,what format of
>film  and the nature of the negative  ( new, old, printed on lately, does
>it need to be wet gated ? etc) could run from $200 to $5,000 ( ok that's
>extreme but I am  just trying to give an example).

I'd say that Jessica's 'extreme' figure of $5,000 is in fact quite
conservative.  Two real-life examples that we've recently had done:

No. 1 - a reel of local topicals recovered from the attic of a cinema in
Tyne & Wear shortly before demolition.  The master element is a 35mm
nitrate positive, full-gate silent, 922 feet in total.  Most of it is b/w,
but the reel includes a tinted section of 87 feet.  From this we had a 35mm
polyester b/w dupe neg for preservation and a 16mm reduction print for
viewing.  We also had a 35mm Eastmancolor dupe neg and 16mm colour viewing
copy made from the tinted section.  The original element was in very good
condition - there was no siginificant decomposition (float tests taken from
all the different stocks which constituted the reel showed negative),
shrinkage or perforation damage.  It was duplicated by continuous contact
printing and the only benchwork needed was an ultrasonic clean before
printing.  Total cost for this lot - UK£1,326, which I would guess is
around US$1,800.

No. 2 - a 16mm industrial training film from 1963, 799 feet in total.  The
elements we had were the triacetate cut camera negative (in a/b rolls) and
a combined positive.  Both had significant vinegar syndrome and bad
Eastmancolor fading.  The lab needed to do quite a bit of testing to
ascertain which of the two elements would yield the better colour balance
in the preservation copy.  Optical printing through filters was needed to
offset the fading.  We had a 16mm polyester dupe neg made for preservation,
a sound negative re-recorded from the combined print and a combined 16mm
viewing copy made from the new preservation elements.  This cost
£1,904.  The lab advised us that to properly preserve this material in a
way that safeguards against future colour fading we would need to have
Y/C/M (yellow, cyan and magenta - the subtractive negatives of red, green
and blue) colour separations made on three strips of b/w stock.  This would
have meant blowing the negative up to 35mm, as the special film stock
needed to make fine grain separation masters is not available on 16mm.  The
quote we got for doing this was between £8-9k for a 21-minute film - we
couldn't afford that.

Leo

Dr. Leo Enticknap
Director, Northern Region Film and Television Archive
School of Arts and Media
University of Teesside
Middlesbrough  TS1 3BA
United Kingdom
Tel. +44-(0)1642 384022
Fax. +44-(0)1642 384099
Brainfryer: +44-(0)7710 417383

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