HISTORY:
My "world" is 'the arts' and more specifically, music, artwork and hand crafted/decorated chinaware's.
I am not a film enthusiast but an associate has asked me to find new owners for THEIR large collection of photographic and film items ... this is one of those items.
While the world of 8mm/Super 8mm is not my area of expertise, I am doing my best to establish the condition of each item that I am listing.
I tend to be quite detailed in my item descriptions, please READ all the details to decide if this item may interest you.
This reel looks to be a compilation made from three films, previously in their own boxes but moved onto this one reel and some parts of the old boxes used for identification. The outer box is a plain ordinary Hanimex box.
Now, on with the description ...
UNITED ARTISTS (3 ON ONE REEL)
A) Title: HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS: The Man Called Bogart
This is a snapshot of the many movies that Bogart acted in, frequent subtitling as there is no sound
B) Title: GOOD OLD CORN (Featuring the Keystone Kops)
Many sequences from the Golden era of slapstick comedy before sound came on the screen. This looks to be focused on the many films made by Mack Sennett, of master of his time. There being no sound, subtitles are shown on-screen although a lot of this comedy is visual anyway.
C) Title: Gullivers Travels
I had already watched the first two selected scenes films A & B and didn't continue until the end of the HEAVILY LOADED reel ... I did not watch this last film
Each "selected scenes" film runs for approximately 6~7 minutes, the reel is loaded right out to the rim (it could have done with a film clip as the film keep unwinding while I was trying to fed into the projector!)
Catalogue #
Film A: 2201
Film B: 2226
Film C: unknown
Estimated 450 ~ 500 feet packed onto this reel
Black & White
Silent (NO Sound at all but with "sub-titles")
Run time total: approximately 21 minutes
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Very good
Film stock and the dark Brown CARL SCHNEIDER 7" reel are undamaged, but there is NO leader film and no film clip (shame because this is one very heavily loaded reel!).
This means that once fed into the projector, the first film begins quite quickly - after the usual 10-9-8 etc countdown
Outer all cardboard HANIMEX box is holding together ok, assisted by a strip or two of cellotape.
NO writing on the reel and plain outer cardboard box has parts of the two films A & B original packaging stuck on it for identification and part of the old box stuck on the front for film C.
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Film looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged.
I ran this reel through the projector for approximately 15 minutes into the reel, I am beginning to really enjoy these Black & White silent films! I just don't have the time to watch each and every reel entirely so at 15 minutes, I stopped (Good Old Corn was still running)
The Black & White picture is good and clean, and the films were both easy to watch and clear.
There is no sound, you need to concentrate and watch for the text on the screen that tells you what they are saying or just what is going on - some classic lines from Casablanca of course (Play It Again, Sam)
SPECIAL NOTE:
I always include a couple of "off screen" snapshots of the first two films is showing, I didn't continue viewing so the third film snapshots were not taken but I have no doubt the image quality etc will be very similar to the first two.
My digital camera is antiquated (colour balance? what's that) - like I said, this is one OLD camera and it's limitations are definitely showing up in these sample photographs.
I take the screen shot in very low light levels, the camera flash is turned off (otherwise the picture is flooded with White) and the camera shutter speed is very slow.
This means I have trouble getting sharp photographs, especially when there is movement on the screen and I have noticed that after viewing quite a few films now, that my poor OLD digital camera is tending to emphasise the Red's and Yellow's in the photographs anyway - in real life the on-screen picture is not as Yellowish as recorded in the photographs
In my opinion, after this quite lengthy test viewing, I am happy that the film content is as indicated on the box and that the film stock appears to be in pretty good technical condition.
I am very fastidious and careful with these films (I am after-all doing this on behalf of another person) and I have now sealed the inside reel in clear plastic along with a couple of packets Silica Gel (at an enthusiasts suggestion) and then packed it back into the original cardboard box AND sealed the film again within clear plastic - waiting for a Super 8 film Black & White buff to enjoy!
