Home Movies (1943)

HOME MOVIES FOR SEPTEMBER PACE 283 FR ItliLEkandL wi Itk care . . The slogan "Save the Surface and save all!" also applies to movie films the film shipping cases of one motion picture rental library is a vivid red and white label, "Handle With Care!" And beneath this admonitory caption, "Please treat this film as if it were your own. Project it only after your machine is thoroughly cleaned and in good running order. Scratches are irrepairable damage. Replacement prints, when they can be had, are costly." While this labeled admonition points an indicting finger at the careless borrower of films, it applies equally to many movie amateurs whose thoughtless handling of their own films have made many of them unscreenable. Home movie flms, when carefully handled and stored, will last indefinitely, and while scratched and torn films probably will last equally as long, they no longer provide the clean, unblemished pictures on the screen they otherwise would had they been treated with kindlier hands. With the borrowing of films from rental libraries increasing daily, the libraries are obliged to exert greater precautionay measures to insure the safety and life of their pictures. Most movie amateurs, of course, are familiar with the perishable qualities of cine film through experience in handling their own personal movies, and accord the same care to films loaned them as to their own. Nevertheless, many cine fans, having devoted more time and attention to shooting movies than to their care after processing, are still woefully lax in projecting their films, in storing them, and in keeping them clean and free from dust particles that cause scratches during projection. Following initial drying of film in a motion picture laboratory, the gelatin structure of an emulsion contracts and is permanently changed. The hardening action, induced by the final treatment in the developing or processing stage, continues for a time as a further small amount of residual moisture is given up. While traces of excess moisture remain, the emulsion is "green," relatively soft, and susceptible to the slightest scratch or abrasion. In projecting freshly processed "green" film, minute emulsion particles are scraped off, accumulate in the projector, and become hardened with heat and friction. If not removed, they cause excessive tension from friction or abrasion of film passing through the gate, with consequent scratches, pulled perforations; and projector chatter. With time, green emulsion gives up residual moisture and picks up traces of oil from the projector, becoming harder, surface lubricated, and less susceptible to abrasion and tendency to form deposits in the projector gate. Film damage from projection may result either from improperly maintained equipment and incorrect operation, or from the condition of a print when it is received from the processing laboratory, or, in the case of a rented library film, the condition it was in when received from the distributor. It is well known that no 8 mm. or 1 6 mm. projector of reputable manufacture will injure film if it is threaded correctly and if the projector is kept in proper operating condition. Film can and will be damaged by any projector if it is not threaded correctly, or if the mechanism is not kept clean. Proper threading of film in a projector is not a matter of special difficulty, • Continued on Page 293 • Seventy-five per cent of scratched film troubles begin in the projector gate where dust and emulsion particles accumulate, harden, and make deep, irrepairable scores in films during projection. Film gate always should be cleaned before each projection. Accumulated dirt may be removed with soft wood stick — never with metal instrument. • Never "cinch" film during rewinding by stopping, momentarily, the unwinding reel with hand. "Cinching" causes dust accumulated on film surface to be ground into the, film, forming both vertical and lateral scratches. • Run film between fingers covered with canvas glove worn inside out to remove dust and grime. Moisten glove with carbon-tetrachloride. Dust-free films rarely are scratched during projection.