Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Fast Food Nation (Rusty Dirty ETS Cans)

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Posted by Sonja O'Reilly (Member # 1322) on 11-28-2006, 05:57 AM:

Just a head's up:
I received a print of Fast Food Nation a few weeks ago and one of the cans was either super-rusty and old (big suprise) or just had dirt in it.. All three reels were covered in a dark brown dust, and so were my arms after I pulled them out.. I spent a good 20 minutes cleaning off the reels and the edges of the films itself.. The film itself was fine (we film guarded to take away any more dirt)and the print is fine, so if anyone receives a copy with the reels in a trash bag, that's why, because Brake Water (ETS) would not send a new can.. I think they were as perplexed as me..
Has anyone had this happen before? I know the cans are dirty (I nicked my finger on a sharp edge once and got a slight infection)..
[I don't know why this was double posted, so sorry!]

[ 12-01-2006, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: Mike Olpin ]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 11-28-2006, 08:07 AM:

As an archivist who knows all about rusty and knackered steel containers, my inclination is that you did absolutely the right thing in getting rid of them. My guess would be water contamination during storage is the culprit, which can cause the sort of corrosion damage you describe in a surprisingly short time. I've had my share of fused tight rusty cans too, and the odd battle scar from trying to get them open (tip: if absolutely all else fails, drop them onto a hard floor from about waste height. Yes, if the film pack is loose, you could risk a bit of cinch damage: but after seeing a friend nearly stab himself with a screwdriver while trying to prize a can lid off, I figure that's probably the lesser of two evils).

It's amazingly short-sighted of the distributor not to supply (or at least, offer to foot the bill for) new cans, though. As a limited release/arthouse title, there can't be that many prints of Fast Food Nation in circulation, and you'd have thought that they'd want to keep the ones they've got in as good a state as possible.

The bin bags are airtight, and presumably the individual reels come on 4" cores in the plastic split spools which I understand is the norm for shipping prints within the US. If so, the spools will provide structural ingegrity and the bin bags will keep contamination out while the print is in transit.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 11-28-2006, 10:58 AM:

I agree that it is shortsighted for the film exchange to not be willing to replace the defective film case, especially since the rust and debris inside will damage presentation quality. You did the correct thing putting the film reels in clean plastic bags to ship them back. If you labeled the cans as damaged, hopefully someone at the exchange will remove them from service.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 11-28-2006, 01:01 PM:

quote: Sonja O'Reilly
(I nicked my finger on a sharp edge once and got a slight infection)..

...better watch out for such matters - and go get a tetnaus shot if you nicked yourself on rusty surfaces like that for it aint fun getting tetnaus if you're system is down on immunizations. for an infection is an infection - no slight or heavy...

-Monte

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 11-28-2006, 01:18 PM:

Tick...tick...tick...

Posted by Sonja O'Reilly (Member # 1322) on 11-29-2006, 04:42 AM:

Monte wrote:
better watch out for such matters - and go get a tetnaus shot if you nicked yourself on rusty surfaces like that for it aint fun getting tetnaus if you're system is down on immunizations. for an infection is an infection - no slight or heavy...

i'm not worried about that, i've got all my shots up to date..

anyhow, what i meant to say was that the reels are still in the cans, but are contained within plastic bags.. they've already moved on to another theatre, but fortunately the booth manager is an old co-worker, so i'll let him know to write "damaged" on the box..

Posted by Jonathan Bodge (Member # 4072) on 11-29-2006, 07:05 PM:

My thought would be that the chemicals in the fast food are eating avay at the steel. Just a guess.