Hollywood Fire Destroys Films Worth Millions

Hollywood Fire Destroys Films Worth Millions Dec 11, 2019 0:00:22 GMT Doghouse6 and BATouttaheck like this

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Post by spiderwort on Dec 11, 2019 0:00:22 GMT

Dec 10, 2019 23:34:10 GMT Doghouse6 said:

I'm glad you cam across this, as it provides an opportunity to expand upon your extensive remarks upthread. Even when I was in the biz into the late '80s, it was common for the big labs all around town, including CFI, to serve as storage facilities for preprint materials as well as processing ones, which simplified handling when distributors ordered new prints stuck; they were already right where they needed to be.

A side note to that, and one to strike terror into the heart of any current-day film preservation professional: back in '29, original cut negatives were still used, often as not, as printing negatives for exhibition positives.

Of course, it would have made sense for the labs to keep them when they were going to be making distribution prints. And your side note does indeed it strike terror in me and others, I'm sure. That said, when I was making my own short films as a teenager, I sent off my cut negatives to have positive prints made. I think about that now and shudder. But that was my only option then, and for whatever reason I guess it was often the preferred option in the early days of the industry. That, combined with their use of silver nitrate stock, could have been (doubtless was) a disaster waiting to happen.

Nice to chat with you about this again. I love our shared experiences. I love that you know film! I miss seeing it on the screen, but I even miss holding it in my hands, touching it, and turning it in a moviola one frame at a time. Oh, boy. Those were the days.