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Info & Help Wanted: 16mm Cartoon & WWII News Reel Restorations...

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 (Edited)

This site has a ton of great film based restorations and with all my years on this site I never thought I might be able to contribute to anything film based. That changed this past weekend when we found a trunk full of 16mm films while cleaning our my grandparents house. I didn’t have time to really dig into it to see what was there but from a quick look it seems like mostly home videos, news reels from WWII and old cartoons. I snapped a few photos and will post them below.

I know the forum probably isn’t interested in the home videos but would anyone be interested in the cartoons or news reels?

From what I could see it’s a least one box full of cartoons and one box full of news reels. I saw labels for Popeye, Krazy Kat, Donald Duck (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9T0dsLMCMY) & Pincushion Man. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fuqN8r4OlY)

It could be nothing but it could be some interested stuff.

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“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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Thanks Williarob. I’ll be in touch about the scanning. Hopefully over the next few weeks I’ll have a better understanding of what films we actually have.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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I’d love to see these. As much as I like the beat up newsreel aesthetic, the SD interlaced masters you usually see don’t look super great.

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We’ll see what we have to work with in a few weeks Wazzles. I got a great message from Williarob with a lot of information to start. Now it’s just a matter of finding the time to go through all this stuff. As you can imagine cleaning out a whole house is quite a process. I’ll be sure to update everyone. I’m glad that there is at least some interest in this stuff. From that feedback I’ll see what we have for WWII newsreels first and go from there.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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This is amazing. Are you familiar with Steve Stanchfield and Thunderbean Animation. MIght wanna contact him too.

"Ollie, wontcha speak to me…?

“I have nothing to say.”

L&H

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Thanks for the names to contact, I’ll keep them in mind once I get back to this. I haven’t gotten around to looking into these films yet and still a lot to do around the house. Could be more like a few months instead of my earlier estimate of a few weeks. I’m glad there is some interest in this stuff. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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ty man!

"Ollie, wontcha speak to me…?

“I have nothing to say.”

L&H

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Small update on this. We finally got the house cleaned out and I moved all the movie reels to my home. It will still be some time before I can get to this project but the next step is organizing and creating an inventory of what is in these boxes.

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“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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awesome man!

"Ollie, wontcha speak to me…?

“I have nothing to say.”

L&H

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Mackey256 said:
… we found a trunk full of 16mm films while cleaning our my grandparents house.

Be sure to immediately open each can of film and smell for any hint of vinegar-like odor. Any reel with that odor, even faint, means it’s film is breaking down. Worse, the odor is really an acidic gas and can seep into nearby cans and start breaking down them as well.

Immediately isolate all vinegar-odor reels in another room with ventilation (clean garage, dry shed, vented basement). Remove the reels from their cans (sit them on top of their closed cans) for the gas to escape away from the film. The no-odor films should be placed in another room with the lids propped open for ventilation.

Here’s what the pros say:

University Of Illinois Library - Preservation Self-Assessment Program - Film

Storage Environment
Allowable Fluctuation: ±2°F; ±5% RH

. . . . . .
Ideal Acceptable
Temp. 0–32°F (-18–0°C) 33–54°F (1–12°C)
RH [relative humidity] 30–50% RH 30–50% RH

Storage Enclosure(s)
Container: Film is ideally stored in a vented inert plastic can. Vents allow the film to “breathe” an even air exchange (crucial for acetate). The enclosure may be plastic, non-corrosive metal, or archival quality paperboard. Dirty, rusty, non-vented, or dented metal containers will only heighten the potential for film damage. The container your institution uses will largely depend upon the environment.

If storing film in a room temperature environment, vented containers composed of polypropylene or polyethylene are optimal. If you are storing your film in freezing temperatures, your cans should be sealed and moisture-resistant. In any case, cans should be clean and free from debris, rust, and structural damage. When freezing film, ensure that the the film is properly housed by double-bagging it in zip-sealed freezer bags.

Core: Film should be stored on a core, which is ideally made from inert plastic, rather than on a reel. For 16mm and 35mm, the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) recommends that the core be at least 3 inches wide. A wider core diameter lessens stress on the film as the film will not be wound as tightly. Smaller film gauges may be wound on smaller (less than 3") cores. A core is distinct from a reel. A reel is a metal or plastic hub with extended sides between which the film is wound for projection. Reels — especially metal, dented, or otherwise damaged reels — are NOT appropriate for long-term storage.

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Thanks for the info. That’s a huge help. 😃

There is a heavy Vinegar smell on these for sure. They were stored in a wood trunk for god knows how many years. I’m thinking this is end of days for more than a few of these reels.

For now they are sitting in my house at room temperature and I hope to get to them this weekend. At the very least I was planning to separate the Vinegar smelling reels from the others. Hopefully a few of these can be saved and scanned before they go completely.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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I don’t suppose you wound up with any Felix the Cat in there?

See my separate thread on this for details on the missing Felix films…

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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Funny you ask because I just got back the first batch of film scans last night.

Sadly I haven’t even had time to go through and see what we have yet so no idea about Felix. I found a local guy who does film restoration and I took him a box that represented the various film formats we have to get some test scans done. My next step is to setup a work flow and archive system for the rest of the films. That will be sometime early next year.

Once I have that process in place I’ll start uploading the scans I do have to YouTube. This will primarily be to share with family and friends. While I do have a lot of stuff to scan the family films will be the first priority.

For now here is some cool box art I found while quickly going through the box to get the films for the test scans we just finished.

Comic Films

Disney

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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Is that a picture of “Little Orphan Annie” on the top one, second from the left?

"Right now the coffees are doing their final work." (Airi, Masked Rider Den-o episode 1)

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Sure is. 😃 I don’t know if that’s what’s on the film or not.

Hopefully I find some stuff worth scanning in these boxes. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for rare stuff for sure.

I’ll try and upload the test scans to YouTube over the next week or so. I’ll post a link to the channel I setup for this when I get started doing that.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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I was going to take time to label these correctly but I might not get to it with the holidays upon us. So I thought I would share what I’ve uploaded to YouTube so far.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLDl0N2DX_REK3zmdFL4Jgg/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=0

This is all the test scans I’ve had done so far. 5 16mm films and 13 8mm films in various formats. This is cross section of all the formats I have to scan eventually which explains the random nature of the files.

I really wish I would have found those two cartoon films I posted photos of but that was already after I sent the first batch off to be scanned. Maybe in the next batch.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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Could you upload the raw scans someplace like MEGA? I just can’t stand YouTube compression.

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slumberdore said:

Could you upload the raw scans someplace like MEGA? I just can’t stand YouTube compression.

Maybe at some point but not anytime soon. I should also point out that the video files that were uploaded to YouTube had already been converted to .mp4 before upload due to my limited bandwidth around here. 😕 Sadly it’s the best I can do for now. On a more positive note I updated the titles of each YouTube video to represent what was on the film reels.

SKot said:

I don’t suppose you wound up with any Felix the Cat in there?

See my separate thread on this for details on the missing Felix films…

–SKot

Good news there. I went through all the film reels I have and did come across this little gem.

Felix the cat film reel

I’m not sure what I’m looking for but this is what the start of the film looks like. Not sure how that helps.

Felix the cat film reel

Sadly you can see the start of the film is gone. 😦

Just to give you guys some idea of what I’m working with, here are photos of all the stuff I haven’t had scanned yet.

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Films

In super bad news the two film reels posted earlier in the thread that had Mickey Mouse and Little Orphan Annie on them ended up being raccoon and bobcat trapping films. 😦

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”

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It looks like there’s a good chance that a number of those films aren’t what they say on the canister or reels. That one marked Felix the Cat doesn’t look like a Felix film - the animation and artwork doesn’t look right for any of the Felix releases. So I’m guessing that’s something else as well, but I’m not sure what. Oh well.

–SKot

Projects:
Return Of The Ewok and Other Short Films (with OCPmovie) [COMPLETED]
Preserving the…cringe…Star Wars Holiday Special [COMPLETED]
The Star Wars TV Commercials Project [DORMANT]
Felix the Cat 1919-1930 early film shorts preservation [ONGOING]
Lights Out! (lost TV anthology shows) [ONGOING]
Iznogoud (1995 animated series) English audio preservation [ONGOING]

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Well as you can see I have my work cut out for me. If I come across anything I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

“You know, when you think about it, the Ewoks probably just crap over the sides of their tree-huts.”