100 Years of 16mm Film! Some truths about the format that made home movies possible.
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#franlab #film #history
- Music by Fran Blanche -
Fran on Twitter - https://twitter.com/contourcorsets
Fran's Science Blog - http://www.frantone.com/designwritings/design_writings.html
FranArt Website - http://www.contourcorsets.com
In the 1960s, I used to love lighting Fender guitar picks on fire, (when I could afford an extra pick). The nitro-cellulose burned nicely.
Thank you for explaining the difference between 8mm and Super 8 film. We used to watch 16mm films in elementary and high school. My dad had a Super 8 camera.
I’ve watched your videos for years and I know you are in Philadelphia, but I just now realized that you have the same accent as Terry Gross.
So perhaps you could say that 16mm film really exploded onto the scene because it wasn't explosive
Great video, but missed opportunity: The REEL Innovation…
Wasn't it the proximity to a very bright light (which was not) that caused the fire? There may have been chemical instability but I think the projector itself was the greatest danger. I can imagine that any problem that caused the film to loiter in front of the lamp would have caused a fire. Also, back in the early days of film, it seems that there were many more movies and they were much more popular. We don't often go out to a theater now but back then, it was regular entertainment. But the need for cheap film stock may be a little understated because of our current context of cheap reusable digital media.
I thought I knew a fair bit about film & its history, but this opened my eyes to SO much that I did not know. Thanks Fran – as always. 🙂
You videos should be used as part of ChatGPT training dataset 😮
Am assuming the journalist had all the facts but somehow focused on the wrong syllable.😢
Excellent context!
Then there was the "Dawson Film Find". In 1978, 533 reels of nitrate film was discovered in Dawson City Yukon. The Dawson Amateur Athletic Association began showing films starting in 1903. Dawson City was at the end of the line for the tour of the films, and the distributor didn't need them back, so they got stored in the local bank (!!). Later, there arose a problem with the ice rink made on top of a swimming pool. The bank was getting crowded by these films, so they killed 2 birds with 1 stone by using some of the reels as fill under the rink. The rest of the reels were sent to a different DAAA location, which was burnt down in 1951 when the film caught fire.
The reels under the rink, many of which are the only surviving copies, were preserved, to varying degrees, by the permafrost. Due to the dangerous nature, but importance of the material, it was moved by military transport to the Canadian Archives and U.S. Library of Congress.
i cant quite recall but wasnt the zapruder film a 16mm double sided film?
I'm continuously impressed by your breadth of knowledge.
There is a technique in molecular biology called the Southern blot which uses nitrocellulose membranes. It binds very nicely to DNA.
I saw The Siege (1998) in theaters and the film burned halfway through the movie. That got my heart pumping…
I really appreciate that you are keeping this technology in discussion. In the 70's I ran a projector in my university to show 16mm features as well as showing films for our Engineering Club, where "Closed Mondays" was a huge hit. I eventually acted in a friend's 16mm film for her senior project. It was a cut above our parents' 8mm, and much cheaper than the totally unaffordable 35mm equipment. Different media are important.
Great history lesson, Fran. Keep 'em coming!