Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: shimmering streaks: what are they?

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Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 08-08-2003, 03:49 AM:

so the other day i saw seabiscuit and noticed a problem in r4. throughout the entire reel, there were 2 vertical stripes of "shimmering", about 1/5 and 2/5 of the way from the left side of the picture. not scratches, not soundtrack redeveloper, not filmguard streaks. it looked a bit like a reflection on rippling water, but very consistent. what do y'all suppose it was?

carl

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-08-2003, 05:59 AM:

Since the streaks tended to be on the left hand side of the image and only on one reel, I still suspect they may be from poor washoff of the soundtrack redeveloper, leaving a bit of silver in the image area. If the developer was diluted by the wash off, it may still leave a deposit, but not the darker "blotchiness" you would see with bleeding of the concentrated developer. This is one quality issue addressed by the upcoming conversion to cyan dye tracks, which eliminate the need for the redevelopment step, and the waste that it creates.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-08-2003, 06:42 AM:

*Maybe* the theater just changed out their R4 with a replacement and you happened to see that first pass through the film cleaner with FilmGuard? Someone could've soaked the pads and left the cleaner laying on it's back for awhile before cleaning (so the operator side wasn't as saturated).

That's my only guess because the streaking would have been gone by the second run. Since you mentioned it, odds are you know what they look like though and that isn't it.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 08-08-2003, 06:53 AM:

I saw it too. We don`t use FilmGuard - Brad, you haven`t sent me that test bottle yet! -, so it can`t have been that.
Reflection of water is a very good description. It is somehow regular. At first I thought it might have been reflections from the air fans in the ceiling. But when I had turned them off (it was during a nightly test screening with no audience), the shimmering was still there.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-08-2003, 06:56 AM:

But just on reel 4? How does that reel look in another auditorium? You should definitely find out if that is a print issue or an auditorium issue.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 08-08-2003, 09:25 PM:

I used to get the same thing on b/w 16mm I shot back in the 70s. But only when I had a particular lab process it and make my work prints. Looks almost like light leaks, but mostly noticeable on bright scenes.

Also noticed the same thing in sky shots of "For a Few Dollars More".

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 08-09-2003, 04:35 AM:

michael- are you saying you saw this on seabiscuit r4? that would mean a bad negative.

it's definitely not filmguard; it's too consistent, and too shimmery (i know that sounds like a contradiction). i still don't think it's redeveloper as it's not any darker, just kinda scrambled. like the grain up and rearranged itself for some reason. it might not even be visible just looking at one frame. you might have to see them in rapid succession, on the screen. not my theater anyways.

carl