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.
Now, on with the description ...
Released in USA as Airplane! but here in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, and the Philippines it was titled as Flying High!
20th CENTURY FOX - Super 8 Film
Commercial release for the Home Movie market
Catalogue # Not Stated on packaging - in fact packaging is very "generic"
AIRPLANE! FLYING HIGH! (1980)
Wacky aircraft disaster parody - still cracks me up after all these years, watch carefully for the little sight gags!
The reel is housed in an original ELMO Japan (Code 04 2155) generic box
Leader film is fitted
12" 1200' Aluminium unbranded reel but I am told by the owner these are ELMO's
I believe this reel will provide 40~45 runtime so this must be an edited version.
Colour
Sound
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
Film stock and the reel is undamaged, straight and true
Labelling (hand written) has been applied to one side of the reel and one side of the outer cardboard box using dynatape (AIRPLANE on the box & FLYING HIGH on the reel itself)
The cardboard box is also in good condition.
NO unusual smells detected coming off the film i.e no vinegar odours
NO personal names or other writing on the outer cardboard cases or the film reels
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 the film through the projector for the first 10 minutes or so, to observe the picture and sound.
I suspect this has been spliced at the beginning, not sure .... for the first minute or so there is nothing on the screen but the audio is "Staying Alive" which makes sense a short way into the movie during the crazy bar scene!
Next the credits roll for the distributor, cast etc and then the film "proper" runs
The colour has definitely been affected by Red shift (failure of the Blue dye) but I had the impression that as the film advanced, the colouring improved to the point it actually wasn't too bad. I could start to see other colours such as Greens, light Blues etc
SPECIAL NOTE:
I always include a couple of "off screen" snapshots ... now my digital camera is antiquated 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 in the photographs anyway - in real life the on-screen picture is not as Red as recorded in the photographs.
Sound (English dialogue) is good, clean but I felt just slightly muffled, indicating the high frequency range had dropped off a little OR it could be my old ears! Anyway, I could easily understand the rather wacky dialogue and of course, enjoy the music!
In my opinion, after this very brief test, I am happy that the film is as stated on the outer cardboard case and the reel and looks to be in reasonable "technical" condition.
As with all of the "open reel" film I am finding when I sort through the boxes, I am adding a couple of satchels of Silica Gel (for moisture absorption) and sealing the reel within clear plastic. I then also seal the outer cardboard ELMO box. This is done in an effort to preserve the current condition as much as possible.
