Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Whats wrong with the first 3ft of my film print?

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Posted by Joe Cornick (Member # 10694) on 03-22-2019, 06:21 AM:

On about the first outer 3ft of film print from 2000, there’s blotches where the emulsion has gone and the print feels sticky? How can I clean this, any advice?

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 03-22-2019, 10:23 AM:

Just curious:
What type of print is it? (Eastmancolor? IB Technicolor?)
I recently came across this in an IB Tech print of OKLAHOMA!, where
one entire reel had the emulsion either flaking off or and/or sticky and
was totally useless/destroyed. The other reels were very slightly 'tacky'
to the touch, but were runnable, albeit with great caution.
The print will most likely have to be trashed soon.

I cant say for sure what happened with your print, but knowing the
history of this OKLAHOMA! print I was handling, I'm pretty certain
the damage was caused by storage in an overly humid/damp location.

Last year I inspected a similarly damaged IB print of "Mary Poppins" (1964)

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-22-2019, 10:31 AM:

Upload a photo, but it's likely blocking damage from being too tightly wound and stored in a humid environment. Polyester prints can't handle humidity as well as acetate prints can.

Here is an example of what happens

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-22-2019, 10:32 AM:

Does it smell like vinegar?

If not, sounds like water damage.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-28-2019, 10:36 AM:

Polyestar doesn't go vinnegar. The thing that happens here in humid areas is the geletan swells and expands and then cracks because it's the only thing on the film that can absorb very much water. I had a reproitory print come in to a theater this way back about 2009ish.

Mark