"Anyone ever wondered why company reps post here less and less. Well, because if Brad
can't work the thing it immediatly gets bagged. If you think my comments are ignorent I am glad. Now you know who Sony felt when some moron on this site with no idea gave
them a bad review amongst other great products."

Now I am a little pissed if this comment was directed at me. Yes I said the SDDS was crap, but never said a thing about other products they made. I have actual in the field EXPERIENCE with it, and that makes me QUALIFIED to give it a review (thumbs WAY WAY DOWN, in this case). I also said that how Sony handled themselves was piss poor, and I still feel that way. I believe in what I said and that is why I left AMC over the whole situation.

If that comment wasn't directed sorry, but it appeared that is was.

I was wondering what the long term benefits of film guard are? It seems that plenty of people think that it does wonders to new films that they run, but what about films that are treated with film guard and then stored for two or three years before screening again?

Alot has also been said about how Film Guard covers up or removes small scratches. How does film guard do this. I understand that you may have a closely guarded recipe for your product, but can you tell us why and how it works.

Finally, I stand by my comments that training is the ultimate key in presentation. i have seen presentations in booths that is sub-standard and the link has always been the training. Implement better trainging and the standard of the same booth, using same projectors has goon from being poor, to improving to excellent. Icing or no icing on the cake, if half of the theatres in the world could make this improvement then we would be alot closer to what seems to be all of our goals here, and that is getting better pictures onto our screens, which results in more repeat business.

I've got films that have been stored for as long as 10 years, every 6 months or so new a new application is put onto them. Their counterparts (yes, I use identical copies of brand new trailers) are warped, shrunken and do not run well while the FilmGuarded copies still project as perfect as the day they came out of the lab. The only downside here is after 6 months to a year the coating DOES evaporate off of the film. For example, if you cleaned a print with FG this month and then stored it for several months, when you took it out to inspect, there would be no sign the FG was ever on the print.

FG can cover up the scratches in the same way true wet gate system do. In the simplest terms, the light must refract as it travels through the coating, thus hiding the scratches. Of course I completely agree with you that there is a problem if the print is getting scratched in the first place, but the main benefit of using FG in my opinion is the way the image looks as opposed to the way a typical "dry" film's image looks. Once you see how absolutely perfect the film medium "can" look, you will understand. Perhaps John Wilson would give you a tour if you are ever in his area.

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"I luv the smell of napalm in tha mornin !"

Since we are on FilmGuard I have to say this. I don't use it in the exhibition of film. I use FG on all my test loops to enhance their durability especially after that millionth time that CAT 69t loops gets used.
I have old test loops that have excellent error correction ratings to date and are still in good condition. Same with RP-40. FG helps the splice in my test loops pass better and easier through the picture gate with out sounding like its going to pop out the next time it comes around. FG is a cleaner, polisher, buffer, lubricant, filler, anti-static, enhancer, refinisher, you fill in the blank. FG has earned its keep in my book and is used in conjunction with my work regiment.

I would be happy to. And that open invitation goes out to anyone down under. I have recently demonstrated its benefits to Paul Cunningham as well as others not on this forum.

Come and take a look. You will never again want to be without it.

Having read about FilmGuard on this site, my first reaction was that you should never get dirt or scratching on a print in the first place and so, in theory, it should be un-necessary. There's an English saying - if it ain't broke then you don't need to fix it.

But, thinking about this a little more, there are factors beyond our (i.e. a projectionist's) control. Firstly, any projection system involving a long-play device (be it a platter or a tower) means that large amounts of film are going to be exposed to the atmosphere for long periods of time. The atmosphere has dust in it, unless your cinema is willing to invest squillions in air cleaning plant, which mine certainly isn't.

Now I don't know this and I stress that I'm only guessing based on the information and comments I've seen on this site, but my guess is that FilmGuard contains some sort of organic solvent which suspends particles of crap, then evaporates, taking the crap with it. If so, then in a situation where you've got prints passing to and from platters all day long, possibly over a distance of several metres, I can't see how it can fail to improve the cleanliness of the print. As far as I'm concerned, long-term issues don't apply to release prints because they're just that, and not archival elements. I'm at a very recently opened (i.e. in January) cinema, and we're still really a building site. However carefully you clean everything in the projection box, a layer of dust will have accumulated there by the next morning. I'm all for anything that can help me keep that dust off the films.

Secondly - and as an art/rep projectionist, this is a particular problem for me - you might receive a totally buggered print one Friday morning. WE know how not to put a deep emulsion scratch on a film, but the person who sends it to you on crossover might not. If FilmGuard can do anything to lessen the impact of that scratch on screen, then I'm all for it.

I'd like to get a bottle of this stuff and test-drive it. If, after doing so, I find that it doesn't work as well as I hoped, then nothing is lost except the cost of a bottle. Problem is, no-one sells it in the UK. Brad - if you're interested in exporting, why not make contact with the following British companies, all of which supply consumables to cinemas:
www.soundassociates.co.uk www.jack-roe.demon.co.uk www.bell-theatre.co.uk

to use filmguard as a cleaner, you will also need to invest in a Kelmar Media Cleaner, these cost around $500US. Without it, you will find it most annoying trying to apply this solution.

Next time I'm up north, I'll drop in.
Where is 'in' that I'll dropping in to? You can email me if you want to keep it semi-secret.

Thanks for the invite!