So I bought this old 1959 35mm film movie.

[Bob W]

Just to have a tiny bit of movie history I bought the complete five reel (14 inch) theater released movie "Gidget" staring Sandra Dee. Now I'm wondering if it's worth more than I thought since I have received emails from some dude in southern California offering to buy it from me or trade for other 50's items or both. Is there anyway to find out what something like this 35mm film is worth?

[ChrisX]

Just to have a tiny bit of movie history I bought the complete five reel (14 inch) theater released movie "Gidget" staring Sandra Dee. Now I'm wondering if it's worth more than I thought since I have received emails from some dude in southern California offering to buy it from me or trade for other 50's items or both. Is there anyway to find out what something like this 35mm film is worth?

It is very rare and I suggest you to contact the film company who originally made it.

I just checked out from my computer database on movies generally. The original film was made as “Cinemascope”, the trade name for 20th Century Fox’s anamorphic wide-screen process.

The film at the moment is only available on VHS tape and distributed by Columbia/Tristar Studios.

I just found out that the cinematographer, Burnett Guffey who is on the production credits of the film “Gidget”. He was primarily at Columbia during the 1950s and 1960s.

You could ask Columbia/Tristar Studios to authenticate your 35mm films and have it valued by some expert in Hollywood?

You could ask at any cinema chain to have it valued?

Are you in California? The studio is at Culver City in Los Angeles.

[The village idiot]

That film may be old enough to self destruct! Seal it in plastic bags, and put in your refridgerator! And I'm not joking. Some of the old film stock was made with nitro cellulose film, and would decompose very easily after time has past. Not sure if this is old enough to have that worry, but I would err on the safe side. Just let it warm to room temperature before opening the bag.

[ChrisX]

That film may be old enough to self destruct! Seal it in plastic bags, and put in your refridgerator! And I'm not joking. Some of the old film stock was made with nitro cellulose film, and would decompose very easily after time has past. Not sure if this is old enough to have that worry, but I would err on the safe side. Just let it warm to room temperature before opening the bag.

Sure, the film reels are so old. I agree, may not be worth much?

He can still check its worth. I wonder where did he get the reels from and how much did he pay?

[housepig]

Some of the old film stock was made with nitro cellulose film, and would decompose very easily after time has past.

I thought that was more prevalent in movies up to the 30's, then the technology changed - didn't think that was a big problem for 50's film stock.

in fact, it looks like 1950 was a key year - take a look at this page:

Until 1950, films were produced using nitrate cellulose film stock, a chemically unstable and highly flammable material that inevitably deteriorates and turns to dust. (italics added)

[housepig]

btw - "worth" is relative - you want a quick and dirty check of it, put it up for sale on eBay and see what kinds of bids it fetches...

[Bob W]

That film may be old enough to self destruct! Seal it in plastic bags, and put in your refridgerator! And I'm not joking. Some of the old film stock was made with nitro cellulose film, and would decompose very easily after time has past. Not sure if this is old enough to have that worry, but I would err on the safe side. Just let it warm to room temperature before opening the bag.

Sure, the film reels are so old. I agree, may not be worth much?

He can still check its worth. I wonder where did he get the reels from and how much did he pay?

$117 and from eBay. The reels are labeled "Columbia Pictures" and dated 1958.

[The village idiot]

in fact, it looks like 1950 was a key year - take a look at this page:

Couldn't remember when the change was made. It would be a shame for them to have exploded :P from the age They should be fine then, with no real "special" handling.

[The village idiot]

The next challenge is to scan all those frames and make an avi out of all those jpegs

[Bob W]

The next challenge is to scan all those frames and make an avi out of all those jpegs

Is that how they convert these old movies to digital? If so that would a long and boring task. Anyway I have already converted the movie from VHS to DVDR.

[Will Hay]

The next challenge is to scan all those frames and make an avi out of all those jpegs

Is that how they convert these old movies to digital? If so that would a long and boring task. Anyway I have already converted the movie from VHS to DVDR.

....and as you own the original there's no copyright issues
wILL

[Bob W]

To bad DVDshrink doesn't work on 35mm films.

[ChrisX]

....and as you own the original there's no copyright issues wILL

This depends on how he uses his 35mm film and Columbia/Tristar got distribution rights of the film, “Gidget”.

[The village idiot]

I could build you a rig for transfer of the picture part. Only problem is I can't get it to run more than about 1 frame per second. It is also still only a theory, but should work just fine, atleast until the memory card fills up, but with 2 GB CF cards available, I wouldn't worry about the memory card while it works overnight. Here's what you need:

Digital still camera
slide copy adaptor
film gate with sprockets
stepping motor from a disk drive
micro controller
motor driver circuit
daylight balanced continuous light source
power supply for camera and MCU and motor
still image editor with batch functions for cropping images
probably a few more minor items too

optional would be :
connection for camera to a PC
keyboard to be modified and interface to MCU and PC

Someone more skilled in programming for PC would be able to do it with out the MCU.

You would of course also need some thing to run the film on that will produce the sound too, but those machines are fairly easy to find. Just need a film editor setup with a sound head, or the rest of the projector that you took the film gate from.

The way they really make the transfers is sort of similar, but with higher resolution cdd's and more like a flatbed scanner except the ccd is large enough to cover the film size. And they also use a special format similar to TIFF for the highest quality. Kodak makes the ones called Cineon, there are a few other companies that make others.

[ChrisX]

A warning: Be careful buying any old audio-visual from eBay. No offense taken to Bob W.

You don’t know what you are buying from eBay and the item can be stolen on a police warrant. Someone can be arrested or arraigned over the item.

An old friend of mine in Sydney was arrested for having very rare reel-to-reel recording of “The Beatles”, which was loss or stolen over 30 years ago.

He bought the recordings at a music fair a few years ago. January 2003, he was trying to sell the recordings for a million dollars when the police raided his home on a warrant for the recordings issued from Apple Records in London.

He was also arrested on copyright infringement as well.

[Bob W]

A warning: Be careful buying any old audio-visual from eBay. No offense taken to Bob W.

You don’t know what you are buying from eBay and the item can be stolen on a police warrant. Someone can be arrested or arraigned over the item.

An old friend of mine in Sydney was arrested for having very rare reel-to-reel recording of “The Beatles”, which was loss or stolen over 30 years ago.

He bought the recordings at a music fair a few years ago. January 2003, he was trying to sell the recordings for a million dollars when the police raided his home on a warrant for the recordings issued from Apple Records in London.

He was also arrested on copyright infringement as well.

Interesting, however I bet a Sandra dee movie is not as important as a Beatles movie. I don't plan on selling the film but this one guy that keeps emailing me sure has a powerful interest in getting hold of this film for some reason. He said he worked with A&E on the documentary about Sandra Dee so maybe he is just a collector of 50's stuff like me. If I wanted I could make a tidy profit selling the film to him but then that's not why I bought it in the first place.

[housepig]

I would think that there is a qualitative difference between an unreleased reel of Beatles material (because it would have to be stolen in the first place) and a print of a film that may have been owned by a distributor or exhibitor that is later offered for sale.

Bob W, I don't think you have to worry about the MPAA breaking down your door... unless you start duping it and selling copies!

[ChrisX]

Interesting, however I bet a Sandra Dee movie is not as important as a Beatles movie.

I agree, Sandra Dee isn't as significant as The Beatles. This fellow got caught done the silly thing trying to sell it for an extreme amount of money and he wasn't aware items "stolen". He put an ad in the Trading Post.

This is a correction. Wow, he was trying to sell it for 5 million dollars. A way too much for old reel-to-reel audiotapes.

Check out: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/14/1044927802250.html

Anyway, the very rare audio recordings now gone back to Abbey Road where they belong as part of music heritage in the UK.

[ChrisX]

Bob W, I don't think you have to worry about the MPAA breaking down your door... unless you start duping it and selling copies!

I don't think Bob W got anything to worry about. He can keep it and a very rare movie reel is good to have.

[BJ_M]

does it have a sound stripe on it ? it may not as that movie was released in two parts ussually , a film part and a mag stripe reel(s) which would run in sync ...

film scanning on a laser scanner is about 1.50-2.25 a frame depending on a number of factors and color correction required -- the frames will be dumped on DLT (unless other media is specified) and are in LOG CIN format (means with out special software (fusion, shake etc) the images will look really wierd) or sometimes other formats . this will get you a 2k (or more for more money) resolution image suitable for HD .. maybe cheaper though as i mostly get only 70mm done.

for straight video transfer its pretty cheap and is done on high speed telicine to tape directly (D-Beta ussually) .. 100-200-300 per 10 minutes , lower quality is cheaper yet ..

[BJ_M]

then again - you can buy a working used 35mm projector , sound head , preamp , mag reader , lamp house and transformer, etc ... for about 10 grand well used .. cheaper if its in rough shape or is still carbon arc ..
but in many places it would be not legal to run it as you need to be a member of the projectionist union and lic..

[rallynavvie]

I saw somebody's rig to capture old home video reels by basically projecting into a lens and recording that image with your DV camcorder and then onto your PC. I'm assuming a machine built specifically for this purpose would contain a CCD built-in rather than the possible quality loss of recording a projection of it. If one were to offer 8mm transfers to DV for consumers what machine would you use?

As for worrying about the film being stolen I think you have plausable deniability regarding the theft of the item. Unless you're some sort of expert how would you ever know it was a stolen item, a replication of a stolen item, or just plain purchased by the person you're buying it from? Maybe if you bought it from some guy who pulled it out from under his trench coat in an alley you may be accountable, but with how huge and anonymous eBay is I doubt any charges would ever pass. More likely you'd just lose the item and hope law enforcement finds the seller so you can sue them for your money back (and more if you're in the US ).

[BJ_M]

8mm Film Transfer
Film to Video Tutorial:


http://www.film-to-video.com/tutorial.html

[Rookie64]

8mm Film Transfer
Film to Video Tutorial:


http://www.film-to-video.com/tutorial.html

cool...I have a bunch of these type of 8mm films that have been sitting in my drawer for more than 25 years

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2199484209&category=37887

I was wondering if these things would be worth anything today, but see they don't go for much on ebay


oh well

[mysticgohan17]

find someone with a telecine machine (Hugh Hefner :P ) and ask if you can use it to save the piece of movie history (its old, its a movie, so its history).

[The village idiot]

Here is what you need:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2959977301&category=21166

[BJ_M]

Here is what you need:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2959977301&category=21166

:lol:

neat -- good price , but missing a few parts it looks like ..

[Bob W]

Here is what you need:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2959977301&category=21166

A $2500 boat anchor.

[The village idiot]

I little big for an anchor. You could gut it and use it for a dog house :P

[Bob W]

Update: Now the dude who wants to buy this film from me is offering double what I paid for it. Perhaps the film has some real value hmm.