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 stock ... this is one of those items.
Most of the film stock is Super 8 or Regular 8 film but I also found some 16mm, this is one of those film reels
Unfortunately, while I have a number of Super 8 & Standard 8 projectors, I have no equipment for 16mm so the information about this film reel is limited
A VISIT TO THE BLUE MOUNTAINS N.S.W - 16mm Film Reel
Estimated circa 1970's (based on the owners advise and the time period in which he obtained this film)
Reel is all pressed metal, Grey in colour
There are no identification marks on the reel
Reel diameter: 267mm (10.5")
Film stock is 223mm diameter (not quite a full reel)
More research undertaken and it would appear that there is likely to be somewhere between 600 ~ 800ft of 16mm film on this reel, or around 15 ~ 20 minutes of exciting scenes from the Blue Mountains!
Short leader, just about 30cm or so
Nothing is printed or written on the leader tape
I have painstakingly run off some film manually and then using a light source and mirror, viewed the first few metres of film.
Full colour
I do not know if a soundtrack has been recorded but after some research I think that it is UNLIKELY to have sound (double sprocket holes and apparently 16mm film often has no sound recorded) I could not see any sign of an oxide recording stripe.
Definitely a commercially produced film, opening credits ...
W.R.O.R. xx
(obscured by a graphic and I cannot read the last two letters)
PRESENTS
A VISIT TO THE
BLUE MOUNTAINS
N.S.W
After this title page is a bush scene, which appears to be static (no changes frame to frame)
Then another title/text page
We start from the foot of the Mountains
thence to Glenbrook, the front door of the Mountains
.... (it continues on but I read no more)
I did not proceed any further just in case my handling of the film was risking damage and quite frankly, my method of retrieving this information was cumbersome at best and VERY tiring (that text is extremely small!)
COSMETIC CONDITION:
The short leader has seen some use but not "broken" or severely creased. The film "appears" to be relatively clean although my fingers have been all over the first few metres or so!
The film DOES NOT feel brittle or fragile and I did not noticed damage from previous use.
As much as I would love to, I cannot view the film and make further judgements about it's condition. After gaining the information above from the frames, I had the distinct impression that this was perhaps a tourism promotional film - I would have loved to see the scenes right up at Katoomba, particularly the very historical Hydro Majestic. It was not to be though ...
Since I have done all I can, I have now placed this film reel within clear plastic and sealed it - there is NO canister at all. Hopefully someone (with a 16mm projection system) can run this film up and perhaps get some interesting insights into the Blue Mountains area some 50 years ago
