Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers (1930-1949)

Methods of Procedure As a basis for this study, a complete file of damage reports for a full fiscal year was consulted. Separating total from partial damages, the reports were broken down into months and the four sizes of films involved. All the damages for each month were tabulated in a systematic manner, indicating color of the film, amount and location of damage, and the type of damage. The authors are in the fortunate position personally to have seen and passed judgment on all damages; hence, the descriptions are reasonably uniform. After all damages were classified according to the descriptions given, each damage type was assigned a code number for ease in handling data. It may be added here that the damage types described in this paper are the major types found. Results In Table I are descriptions of the damage types in partial and complete film damages for a full fiscal year. Doubtless, there may be other types of rare damages found in former years, but in the main, this list of 28 damage types adequately describes damaged conditions of the group of films in question. Inasmuch as these damages are given code numbers, it may become necessary to use Table I as a reference point whenever damage-type code numbers alone are used in the discussion. In Table II is a detailed breakdown of the frequency of damages found in 400ft films. An analysis of partial damages found at the beginning of films shows that, with the exception of damage types 12, 13, 14, 19, 21, 24 and 25, all other damage types are represented. The total amount of black-and-white film damage amounted to 2,863 ft, whereas 814 ft of color film was damaged. Of the total number of damages found in the beginning of 400-ft films, 23% were in color films. Twenty-two per cent of the total damaged footage was color. Were it not for the high destructiveness of damage type 5, the damaged footage for color film would have been very much less, for in other damage types the average color film damage was usually less than for blackand-white films, which accounted for 40% of the 96 damages at the beginning of 400-ft films. Table II continues with a detailed analysis of damages found in 400-ft films at various points up to the halfway mark in the film and some distance in from the beginning of the film title. Of black-and-white film, 1,195 ft were damaged, with 258 ft of color film damaged. Of the 80 damages, 22.5% were found in color film. Nineteen per cent of the total damaged footage was color film. In the portion of the 400-ft film beginning at the halfway point, but not extending to the end of the film, 33 damages were recorded. Table II shows only one of these to be in a color film, with 13 ft, whereas there was a total of 679 ft of damaged black-and-white film. At the extreme end of 400-ft films, as indicated in Table II a total of 58 partial damages was found. Of the total, 18 were color film damages, or 31% of the total number of the damages. For black-and-white film, 1,225 ft were damaged, with 589 ft of damaged color film or 32.4% of the total damaged footage. Twice as much black-and-white footage was damaged as color film footage. For 800-ft films, starting at the beginning of film, Table III shows a total of 30 damages, of which 20% or 6 were damages in color films. In black-andwhite films, 877 ft was damaged, with 306 ft damaged in color films. This indicates that 25.7% of the damaged footage was in color film. Of the total, black-and-white damaged footage amounted to 2.5 times that of color in 800-ft films, at the beginning of the film. Table III shows a total of 26 damages in 800-ft films, occurring in that part of the film between the beginning of the Tiemann and Rich: 16-Mm Film Maintenance 521