Home Movies (1947)

HOME MOVIES FOR FEBRUARY 87 it in your projector. Sometimes 8mm. positive film may be purchased spooled in the single 8mm. width. The following, plus the accompanying illustrations describes how I have successfully copied many 8mm. original films: In preparing the projector for use as a printer, the first thing to do is to provide a less intense light in the lamphouse as a printing light. After removing the regular projection lamp, a lamp such as illustrated in Fig. 3 is substituted. This is a 25 watt tubular frosted bulb in a socket, wedged thru a hole bored in a small piece of plywood made to fit over top of lamp housing. As projectors vary, the method of fastening the wood block will vary also; however, it can simply be taped on if desired. All stray light that may leak out must be blocked out and tape can best be used for this. Fig. 4 shows how a smaller jYz watt bulb may be adapted, although I have had best success with the 25 watt bulb previously described. No matter how it is done, the lamp should be in line with the optical center of the projector light system. This can be checked by turning on the lamp and observing it through the lens or lens housing from the front. A rheostat to control the light intensity is an important adjunct when printing from originals of varying density, but it is sometimes difficult for the novice to determine when to increase or decrease the light while the film is running through the projector. I believe it is better to arrange it so that the film to be duped is of a uniform density as much as possible, even if certain sections of the film must be sphced together to gain this end. Badly under or over-exposed film in the original shouldn't be in there anyway unless there for certain effects. In that case the copy print should be the same too. So, as a starter at least, work with well exposed original films of a uniform density and there will be no need to bother with controlling the printing light. Sixteen millimeter positive film can be used as is, but as mentioned before, double 8mm. film must be split. Fig. 5 shows how this can be done, using one of the special film splitters now on the market. The positive stock can be hung upon a support of some kind while it is being split and wound onto reels on a rewinder. It is a good idea to wear clean cotton gloves while handling the film, especially in the splitting process, to prevent finger marks. Use a large enough surface to work on and cover it with clean newspapers or a lintless cloth. All these operations, as well as all other handling of positive film stock, must be done by safelight such as the O A (yellowgreen) or ruby light. For the longer manipulations under safelight I think the ruby lamp is safest. Rather than winding the original and positive films together on the same reel, as might seem to be the thing to do at first, I have found it is more practical to keep the films separate throughout the entire process. Fig. i shows how this can be done. The projector is set on a wooden base with a short wooden upright in front, containing two bolts on which to hang the extra reels. The original film to be copied is put on the feed spindle of the projector as usual. The spool of positive film is placed on the upper bolt on the upright and both run through the projector sprockets and gate. The two films must be placed emulsion to emulsion, that is, the dull sides of each must be in contact. The original film is nearest the light source and the positive film outside of it or nearest the projector lens as shown in Fig. 2. The original film then leads to the reel on the projector takeup spindle, while the positive film leads to the bottom reel on the upright. The film loops at the film gate must not be the same — have one longer than the other to prevent possible jamming as shown in Fig. 2. Incidentally, the projector lens should be removed and the lens housing blocked with tape or a small cork to prevent • Continued on Page no • Fig. 4 — Some projecfors may require an even smaller light in which case the familiar 71/2 watt bulb shown here is suggested. • Fig. 5 — For 8mm. duplicates, it Is necessary to split the bulk double 8mm. raw film into single 8mm. widths, they respool it for use in the printer. • Fig. i — After the printing operation, next stop is processing the film. Here it is being wound upon a simple developing rack. • Fig. 8 — For longer lengths, the drum type reel is recommended for holding film during the processing operations. • Fig. 9 — The flat rack, however, is ideally suited to reversing short lengths of movie film and will fit an ordinary 8 by 10 inch tray which may be used in all steps of processing. • Fig. 10 — After processing, the film is wound upon a drying rack. One like this is easy to make for the amateur handy with tools.