What is the best way to clean 8mm film?

I modified it slightly. Using the brownie, I set up the film on the two spindles but did not feed it through the viewer. Instead, I fed it through my fingers with a cloth on a slow forward.

But before I ran anything through anything, I read up on splicing because I was pretty sure I'd need to do some repairs in the process. I found the kodak splicer in this video for $20 on ebay and KODAK 8mm PRESSTAPE (formerly splice tape)(affiliate link) on amazon so that I could do this : 

It's here that I need to tell you that I lost my nerve. Here, I was looking at family history gold. The only video record of my uncles and mother growing up. The only video record of my grandparents during that time. My grandfather died before I could meet him. Here I would be able to see him moving about through life. What a gift!

It chronicled 20 years of a period of time that I'd never see if I screwed it up. The stakes felt too high. So, after doing some cleaning of the most egregious of the dirt, I found a local shop that could put the films onto CD for me. From there, I was able to rip the CDS and stitch the movies together into chronological order. I made DVDs for everyone in the family.  I think I remember it costing somewhere in the neighborhood of a few hundred dollars to get all 50 reels done.  

So, maybe not the authoritative guide to cleaning and splicing and reconstructing old film, but all of this should get you headed in the right direction.  And if you, like me, are not a film expert, and you've got history gold in your hands, it could be worth looking up an expert.  

Speaking of tight, If you decide to prep the film yourself odds are a movie viewer will not wind up the film tight enough for a rank cintel transfer. The too loosely wound film will actually do a bad thing called cinching as soon as it is placed on a rank cintel and threaded. Cinching is when the film on the supply reel scrapes against the inner winds as it tightens up the too loose film.

Not all ranks have the same tension but nonetheless it's usually best to go for a tight rewind like the kind you get from using actual super-8 rewinds.

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Robert Houllahan

Posted July 7, 2007

Robert Houllahan

• 

• Site Sponsor
• 
• • 2.1k
• Industry Rep
• Providence / East Coast /Globe

• Site Sponsor

• • Share

Posted July 7, 2007

Spectra products page has most of the editing goodies you'll need if you care to attempt your own film prep: http://spectrafilmandvideo.com/Products.html

 

However, I do not recommend negative film prep! It is nearly impossible to keep it clean as a lab prep room.

In general, as Justin said, the best policy with Super8 is to make sure it is clean from the drybox on the film processor and then keep it clean through all of it's handling steps. You can use a anti static lint free "handy" wipe to hand clean the film but this will meet with limited success, especially if the dirt is stuck in the emulsion. There are really only two good ways to clean super 8 thoroughly one is a Lipsner ultrasonic cleaner, the other is to "re-wash" the film, i.e. run it through the film processor again this will soften the emulsion, let any dirt go free in the turbulation of the processor and remove any residual water and kill any growing mold if the film is older.

Types of Damage There are countless ways to damage motion picture film. Much of the damage is repairable, but careful analysis of it must precede any such repair. Useful communication about the damage is helped by an agreed upon vocabulary. The following sections are an effort to establish some common understanding and terms for that purpose.

Abrasion

Scratches that we call abrasions can be found on both the emulsion and base sides of motion picture film. In the image area, abrasions are recognized as any disturbance not normal to the picture area. These may be longitudinal or transverse scratches or very small cinch type marks caused by the action of embedded dirt somewhere on sliding film convolutions in loosely wound reels. During rewinding, handling, and shipping, the loose film convolutions can slip against each other to cause abrasions. Continuous scratches along the length of film are generally caused by external means such as contact with equipment components, or dirty and worn rollers in the film path. Regardless of the cause, excessive abrasions in the film image can distract from the film's created illusion and cause distracting noises in the optical sound track. Emulsion abrasions on color film are less tolerable than base side abrasions. If there are a few fine black lines with little sign of emulsion damage, they may be described as minimal base damage. Heavier and more frequent lines could be described as moderate. Major abrasion damage would exhibit many lines and would probably be present throughout the reel. Scratches are severe examples of abrasions. They physically damage the surfaces of the film and can cause the removal of a print from service.

A scratch the width of a human hair will project on a 6 foot screen almost 3/4 inch wide with super 8, 3/8 inch wide with 16 mm, and nearly 1/4 inch wide with 35 mm films. A scratch is a single definite line.

Again, scratches can be found on the emulsion or base side. Base scratches show up on the screen as black lines, because light shining through the clear base layer is refracted by the uneven surface of the scratches. Emulsion scratches on black and white film normally appear as black lines on the screen. On color film, a very light scratch on the emulsion generally appears neutral. But going deeper into the three color layers, it will project as most any color depending on the scratch depth, or even white if all the emulsion was removed. Scratches are best detected by visual observation on projection.

A few emulsion scratches can be tolerated if they do not materially detract from the film presentation. No scratch is desirable, but short, light intermittent scratches can be regarded as minor. Heavy scratches on either the base or emulsion should be cause to consider replacement of a print.

Minor base scratches can sometimes be rejuvenated, but heavy scratches usually mean replacement of the footage or withdrawal of the film. The presence of scratching should lead you to investigate all aspects of the operation rollers, gates, handling room, and any equipment with which the film comes into contact.

Perforation Damage

Most perforation damage is caused by the film users. Perforation damage is often found on the first few feet of film, because it frequently results from improper threading. When you inspect the perforations through a magnifying glass or pass the film through your fingers, you will often find damage progressing from cracked, chipped, or elongated holes to tom holes. with severe damage, you will find holes that are torn completely through or even missing from the perforated film edge. Some perforation damage can be repaired with perforation repair tape, but major damage must be spliced out.

Your best bet for avoiding perforation damage, in addition to proper threading and a sufficient loop, is to be sure that the film isn't brittle, that it's properly lubricated, that damaged film reels are not producing a jerky take up action on the projector, and that your projector sprocket teeth and pull down claws are not worn out.

Edge Damage

A nick, crack, cut, or tear to the edge of a motion picture film greatly increases the film's chance of breaking. Film damage must not go unchecked. The leading causes of edge damage are damaged film reels, wobbles from bent spindles, and dry or brittle film. Nick for nick, convolution after convolution, the reel's damage transfers itself to the edge of the film.

Replacing damaged reels is the best preventative measure. Careful tape splicing is your best repair. Edge damage obviously threatens the sound track as well as the image. If the damage can fit comfortably under the splicing tape, and if the film doesn't show signs of physical distortion, creases, or wrinkles, a perforated tape may be applied over the damaged area without removing any frames. Anything too extensive must be completely replaced.

Breaks

Breaks leave the film in two or more pieces that should be joined together. Film separations can be caused by dry, brittle, shrunken film, poor splices, or by mishandling of film and/or projection equipment. When a break is repaired, be sure that the next break is not built in by inadequately preparing or misaligning the splice. If a film keeps breaking for whatever reason, it eventually begins to lose sound and image segments and becomes very distracting. Those gaps are clear clues to carelessness or stretching a product beyond its physical limits.

Surface Contamination

Soil, minerals, and oil are greatly valued, but not on motion picture films. Films can become contaminated by mishandling and a lack of cleanliness in work areas. Coffee, sodas, glue, and other perfectly useful substances will soil film permanently. We alone can guard against the assault of these substances on film.

Color Shift

Capturing earth's rainbow in the dye layers of motion picture film is a modem miracle. State of the art color film carefully processed, handled, and stored is hardly a fly by night phenomenon. Considerable longevity is built into the product, but it still demands the best from each of us in the film handling chain.

Color shifts in a projected print are usually caused by something other than projection or film handling and are most likely due to misprinting.

If a radical color shift is noted for any reason, the decisions about replacement should reflect how crucial the color content is (in art and medical films, for example), the degree of fading, the standards of viewers, the film's potential use, and the budget.

Creases

A crease is defined as a distinct sharp fold line or crack in a piece of film. We should always splice out a sharp crease because it can lead to further film damage and screenimage deterioration. Creases and folds often occur in leaders and trailers, particularly when poor winding, untaped film ends, use of inadequate reels, or some other film­handling deficiency spills film onto the floor.

Blistering (Burns)

Very much like human skin, film burns start as swellings, grow into blisters, and then progress to the destruction of film. A bum spot on the surface of the film causes the emulsion to get hard and crusty and may easily separate from the surface of the base. The base may also become distorted and brittle. Extensive bum damage must be removed. The stopping of the film in a projector, even for a short time and for any reason, will cause film bums. Equipment malfunction is the cause.

Sprocket Marks, Visual Damage

Sprocket marks showing along the edge of the film will be very distracting, just like scratches. Sprocket damage shows more on the emulsion side than on the base because in most cases some emulsion has been removed, leaving colored or white areas. The usual cause for sprocket damage is faulty threading, misaligned splices, worn or misaligned parts in the projector, or some similar projection deficiency. Severe damage should be removed.

The perforations of a 16 mm sound film appear along only one edge. Given a silent projector with sprockets containing teeth on both sides, you can see how it is possible, maybe barely, but possible nevertheless, to pass the sound film through a double sprocket projector. This results in the projector trying to punch perforations where the track is. Even though there may be damage in the sound track area, it may not severely affect the sound, and the damage should be removed only if continuity is seriously impaired.

Brittleness

You can't restore a brittle film to its original quality. Acetate film that has lost much of its moisture and solvent becomes brittle. Much of the moisture can be restored by proper storage and rejuvenation, but it's probably only temporary. Polyester films are more resistant to brittleness.

Brittleness can be generally recognized when it's no longer possible to bend the film over sharply on itself (with the emulsion on the outside) without having the film snap or break. On old nitrate films, the film would probably break regardless of the bending orientation. Since shrinkage often accompanies brittleness, the film perforations may also fit more snugly over the pins of film splicers and other similar devices that may cause damage to the perforation edges. Because you may damage the film, make these simple tests only at the beginning of a film (not on the leader) where such damage will be less noticeable. Whenever you notice many splices or considerable edge damage in a film roll, you should be alert for brittleness. You may also observe that the section of film normally stored on the outside of the reel is often more brittle than the film towards the center because the outside convolutions have been more fully exposed to the atmospheric causes.

Degrees of brittleness range from the slight amount in which the fold can be reversed without breaking or cracking the film, through signs of cracking or breaking, to the extreme case in which the film snaps, perhaps even before being folded. A brittle film may already be scheduled for retirement because of other damages and losses. Extremely brittle film should be withdrawn from circulation, whatever its apparent wholeness, because it's very Ulikly to break, more than once, during projection. But, with care, it can be duplicated successfully to make another copy.

Shrinkage

Film shrinkage cannot be fully recovered. That fact is troublesome because perforations are carefully placed along the length of the film, and any change in their spacing can become a problem. As with brittleness, the loss of moisture and solvents in the acetate base is the root cause. Again, polyester is less susceptible to moisture loss and has no residual solvents. You can often replace lost moisture by proper conditioning and storage; you cannot restore solvent losses. Therefore, you must be concerned about any storage or handling condition that leaches either moisture or solvents from the film.

You may notice shrinkage because the film does not fit properly over the registration pins in the film splicing block, or because it resists threading. You can determine the extent of shrinkage only with precise measurements. Films are not considered acceptable for projection with more than 1 percent shrinkage for most projectors.

Emulsion Deterioration

Emulsion deterioration results from fungus, mold, and mildew. These micro organisms attack the organic part of the film emulsion especially at relative humidities above 60 percent.

Fungus and mold are most often found on the emulsion side as dull spots or irregular areas. The spots increase in size and number if you leave them unattended. Eventually, they can deteriorate the emulsion to the point of uselessness.

In the tropics, fungus is especially a problem. These growths are most common in the summer in temperate zones that have a drastically high relative humidity. Rain or snow that wets the film may also set up conditions that encourage fungus to grow.

Growths are often found at the beginning of film rolls between loose convolutions. In extreme cases, the emulsion can be soft and sticky. Handling film in this condition is very critical and care must be taken not to damage the emulsion further.

After first examining for tackiness (and the film must be dried if tacky), it must be thoroughly cleaned to remove all possible surface fungi. After that, you may encounter anything from a slightly mottled image, to the beginnings of slight deterioration, to excessive visual distraction and softened emulsion. You must judge if the projected image passes your standards, but you should splice out major damage.

How do you restore a brittle 8mm film?

How long is 8mm film good for?

What is the best way to digitize 8mm film?