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Topic: Water Damaged Film

Paul Cunningham
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 146
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 12-22-2000 06:17 PM

We have had a rather bad storm which resulted in the roof leaking onto one of the platters.

One of our films had quite a lot of water on it and the film has subsequently stuck together as if glue had been pored over it. We have taken it off the platter and wound it backwards and forwards by hand quite a few times. Part of it remains very sticky and is not runable.

Suggestions?

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 12-22-2000 06:26 PM

Unfortunately, bite the bullet and order replacement reels, and fix your roof. Chances are, even if you could save the print, you will probably have to babysit your platter to make sure the film does not suck itself through the payout head, and the water damage on the print will prove to be an unsatisfactory presentation to your audience. Since the world can put a man on the moon, send a probe up to Uranus, they still don't have the technology to make a roof that doesn't leak. My best suggestion is to cover your film with a tarp at night just in case the roof springs another leak, or at least try to plan it so your last run of the day puts the film on the middle or lower deck.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 12-22-2000 06:38 PM

If you hadn't have unrolled the film, you could've wiped a very, very generous amount of FilmGuard on the edges, then with film clamps flipped it over and repeated for the other side. That would've loosened it so the emulsion would not peel from the base and you could've then ran it through a freshly soaked set of FG soaked media pads and been just fine. I've saved many a print in this manner from roof leaks and the prints always play and look just fine and dandy afterwards.

...but you've already unwound it, so that idea is pretty much gone.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-22-2000 08:00 PM

It is usually recomended that the print be kept wet and sent to the nearest film lab for rewashing and drying

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 12-24-2000 10:48 AM

I had some 16mm that got wet back in July. There was one roll of Estar and 2 reels of acetate that were damaged. They were left near an open window and we had one of those nice summer cloudbursts that the mountains are famous for...

After a few choice swear words, I tried to unroll each of them. It was the same as your problem, Paul. Glued together.

I applied the FG by spraying a cloth pad with the product and then wiped it on both sides of the film. It sat there for a couple of days. The film unwound with no sticking whatsoever!
In the past, I threw out a set of I Love Lucy episodes that got wet when I lived in Atlanta. If I had FG back then, I'd probably still have the films today.

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 12-24-2000 12:05 PM

Bruce, was there any emulsion damage? I remember (how could I forget) transporting a 7-reeler to one of our theaters that was already built up. When I was putting it in my car, the center ring collapsed. It fell out of the trunk like a Slinky and the whole shebang landed in a puddle of water. To add insult to injury, it was raining, too. Lots of water. I panicked and literally dragged the print back into the theater lobby. Naturally, it had tied itself into one big soggy beautiful knot.

It took me six hours to re-assemble the print. In addition to emulsion damage (nice big green splotches on the screen), the projector sounded like a Gatteling Gun with all the splices I had to make to re-assemble it. The name of the movie was "The River". How appropiate, as I was definately Up The Creek! (without a paddle, too.) Nothing worse than seeing my show sitting in a puddle of water that looked as big as Lake Michigan! The cause of such a blivit? It is called, "Insufficient attention to insignificant minor details" -- in other words, "Screw-ups by the Gross!!"

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 12-25-2000 08:11 PM

The only emulsion damage was where I tried to unroll the reels before the FG application.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 12-27-2000 03:03 PM

Generally, if the film is really soaked, keep it submerged in clean, cool water and have a film lab "re-wash" and dry it.

For minor wetting, it sounds like the oils in Film-Guard prevent the wet gelatin emulsion from sticking to the adjacent convolution, so that when the roll dries out, the emulsion doesn't delaminate. Gelatin and protein-based glues are closely related!

Obviously, the best idea is DON'T GET THE FILM WET in the first place!

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

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Paul Cunningham
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 146
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: Jun 2000

posted 01-01-2001 07:03 AM

Luckily for us the film was on the second deck. The water went through the space for the brain in the top deck and soaked into the first few inches of film. This was leader, film adds, trailers and about 2 minutes of feature.

After eventually drying it out there appears to be no emulsion separation but there is some dirt that has found its way in. Overall I think we got out of this very lightly.

Paul

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 01-02-2001 01:31 AM

You sure were lucky... I wish I would have had the same luck when I dropped the movie "The River" in a big puddle of water. All 14,000 feet of it!

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