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Info: On collectible film cells from eBay

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Hi everybody

I started looking into collecting some individual film cells which can be found on eBay.

There are a few IMAX 15/70mm cells but none of them are from the IMAX “Escape from Jakku” scene, but they’re still cool.

Regarding the 70mm collections from Willits from the mid-90s, I understand they were printed not for screening, but specifically for chopping up and selling, and that’s fine by me. But I just wanted to know: do they have the 6 magnetic audio tracks? I’m guessing that’s what the black bands on each side are do but since I don’t really know anything about film I’m asking. Judging from this image there should be 4 bands whereas the Willits ones only have 2? I won’t be listening to them (lol) but I’d like to know what I’m buying.


On 35mm ones: I learned to spot the Special Edition ones because of the Dolby Digital track in between the perforations. But there are some out there which are letterboxed / matted (hard matted - is this the right term?) Am I right in assuming that all theatrical release prints are anamorphic therefore the matted ones are necessarily from trailers?

And last, but not least, on original theatrical cut film: shouldn’t all 35mm prints be all red by now? Or does that only happen with some film stock?

Album I just made with samples:
https://imgur.com/a/fRfAQ

That’s all for now. Thx! 😄

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The letterboxed one is probably from a trailer, which often ran with movies of a different aspect ratio. I used to see the projectionist physically flip the projector lens if a movie was a different aspect ratio from the trailers in the old days. Weird things would happen if they didn’t!
I’ve got some of those mounted frames, and a couple loose ones from a 70mm theatrical print, (which was turning red/pink) but I can’t recall if the soundtrack is visible on any of them. Will have to dig them out and see.
Interesting no frames from the Rogue One IMAX prints have turned up.

A nice gallery of scanned frames is here:
http://www.jedi1.net/

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Where were you in '77?

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Did anyone save the film cel scans that website appears to be gone. I wanted to see reference on what the Empire Strikes Back 70mm scans looked like.

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I think i’m going to get some Last Jedi cels. They aren’t of the best scenes however. and they look like standard Imax blowup not the extra large format scenes. I’m gonna get the Rey one see if i like it and maybe get the Falcon scene, or Poe.

Edit: the cel i received was better than i thought it would be. it is just three frames. But much more impressive than the cels i have of the OT from the 1990s. Its Imax. Its not faded like those Willits Return of the Jedi 70mm frames.

Generally the prints that are letterboxed or pan and scanned are trailers. But that isn’t always the case. I know for a fact that 35mm pan and scan prints of Star Wars and the Indiana Jones films have come up in auction. Why anyone would pay for them i have no idea. Those were full feature.