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 is a three reeler, 600 feet per reel so I am thinking that it is the full length feature, not selected scenes although there a couple of trailers at the beginning of reel 1. Each reel has it's own DASCO (Made In France) library case with the drop down front door.
Now, on with the description ...
THE HOT ROCK - Super 8 Film
20th Century
Title: The Hot Rock (1972)
Stars Robert Redford & George Segal
Action comedy drama about two "masterminds" who plan and succeed in stealing a priceless diamond (the rock) and subsequently losing it ... doh!
Commercial release for the Home Movie market
Labelling is on the top and side of each library case drop down door, actually it is simply a number. In addition to this is a manually typed label indicating the film title, reel number and year of release. Each 8" ELMO reel does have the reel number indicated on it.
NOTE: This labelling on the library cases has been typed, not printed - this indicates to me that these labels were made and attached a LONG time ago, probably in the 1970's
3x 600 feet 8" Light Grey/Cream ELMO reels
This should provide 28 ~ 32 minutes run time on each reel, meaning the full movie on these reels should be around 80+ minutes duration (taking off the trailers run time).
Leader film is fitted to all reels, although the leader on reel 3 is pretty short.
Colour
Sound
Supplied in three DASCO (French) hard plastic library cases with a drop down front door. These are similar in appearance to the POSSO library cases but in my opinion, not made to the same standard - the plastic seems thinner and the drop down door is more "flimsy"
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Film stock and each reel is undamaged
NO physical damage to library cases 1 & 3 but case #2 does have a long crack on the side. Someone must have given this a really big wack as the plastic is not that delicate. Forunately the reel inside is undamaged!
All of the library cases have some discolouration, these look to have been "around" for a long time.
NO strange smells from any of the films e.g vinegar odour
NO personal names on the library cases or the film reels - it's all very "anon"
TESTING:
Test projector is the ELMO 1200 that I have on hand at the moment.
Each film reel looks to be clean and in good condition, sprocket holes are not damaged. White leaders all fed through the ELMO projector fine although the leader on reel 3 is pretty short.
I test viewed each of the three reels for around ten minutes each, actually a bit longer with reel 1 due to the trailers.
Initially I thought "Wow, the colour on this film is very nice indeed!" The two trailers looked very good and even the beginning titles, credits of the main feature were also great but then when the film began in earnest, it suddenly dropped into the usual Pink Red colouring with just a hint of other colours - disappointing. This same colouring was found on reel 2 but I had the distinct impression that reel 3 was slightly better than the previous two reels with signs of Blues, Greens, Yellows etc. Still very watchable (this is one action packed motion picture) but the colours are definitely "out of wack" with reality.
Sound across all reels is good and clean and it is easy to understand the dialogue.
SPECIAL NOTE:
I always include a couple of "off screen" snapshots of each reel as it is played ... now 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. Probably more so than any other film I have watched recently ... in real life the picture is not so "washed out" looking.
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 this movie has a LOT of movement) 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 in the photographs.
In my opinion, after this fairly brief test viewing, I am happy that the film is as stated on the library cases and that the film stock appears to be in reasonable 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 decided to repack the film with a little extra care ... a couple of packets of Silica Gel have been added within the now clear plastic SEALED film reels inside each library case, this should keep any humidity effects to a minimum. I have then sealed each library case together as a pack of three, once again in a large sealed clear plastic package, in an attempt to reduce further deterioration of the film dyes (suggestion from a Super 8 film buff to me)
