So I bite the bullet, break the bank and order an original Kodacolor filter from eBay. It arrives but I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it to the lens, I conclude there is a bit missing and have another look. Sure enough there's also a filter assembly that comes separately. Luckily the same seller has one and that is now on order but f**king typical eh! And the Kodascope B I was hoping to use is in bits and my attempts to get one of my fellow nutte... er, colleagues to look at it are not going well.
Of course all is now gearing up for the big event in October, Bletchley Park will be giving us the run of the ground floor of the mansion on Sunday 3rd and one of the things we're doing is inviting people without projectors to bring their films in for us to project for them. Of course 99% of this part of the events falls on my shoulders as I'm a qualified film archivist and the others aren't so they've basically put me in charge of this side of things. There is a word to describe how I feel about this- the word is 'EEK!' So all my projectors, having been taken in for PAT testing by our electronics genius, are being stored at the Park. This means I do not have them here at home for the next two weeks. All they need to do now is cut off my testicles and my misery will be complete! Still the 3rd will be a day of near-constant film and there's the film fair at Harpenden next Sunday so it's not all bad. Not all bad but, of course, not all easy because
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Sunday, 12 September 2010
Pathe Baby and Post
Well readers how about this, for once something that actually came together. I sat down the other night determined to sort out the last couple of issues with my Pathe Baby and would you believe I fixed it! The take-up wheel now rotates and the claw actually comes back far enough to pull the film down properly! Being little more than a glorified toy it needs a little help now and then but, what with being the proud owner of a beautiful Lux, it's not like it will be used very often, but at least it will now give a good demonstration!
Of course these occasional nuggets where things are slightly less not easy (if things were easy I wouldn't have had to fix it in the first place) are always balanced by things that are fully not easy. So it is with the two memory sticks I ordered from eBay, my sister has hers but where the f**k, might I ask, is mine?!
And my Kodacolor filter is sitting waiting in the depot for me to collect tomorrow, whereupon I have to hand over not just the slip that came through the door but £11.36 in customs charges. B*stards!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Of course these occasional nuggets where things are slightly less not easy (if things were easy I wouldn't have had to fix it in the first place) are always balanced by things that are fully not easy. So it is with the two memory sticks I ordered from eBay, my sister has hers but where the f**k, might I ask, is mine?!
And my Kodacolor filter is sitting waiting in the depot for me to collect tomorrow, whereupon I have to hand over not just the slip that came through the door but £11.36 in customs charges. B*stards!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Friday, 3 September 2010
Perfs
Grrrr. Spent some time yesterday repairing a reel of 9.5 sound film. Went to run it today and it tore about three times about 60ft or so from the end. So I stopped patching it up and had another look at it on the rewinds and I've found out why it kept breaking. The last 60ft or so is quite brittle and on practically every frame extending from the top left of the perf almost to the edge of the film are tiny little hairline splits. These aren't actual 'tears' yet, just tiny splits but even the gentle claw on the Super Vox (yes it lives again with it's lovely, very pricey rewound motor!) is enough to push them over the edge and break the film. This calls for preventative measures which means the practically the whole lot will have to be taped to shore up the perforation and prevent the splits turning into tears. Applying splicing tape to every frame over 60ft or so of film is not only going to use up a lot of tape but is going to take quite a bit of time. What's really annoying is that they're not 'proper' tears, just these tiny little hairline splits (which is how I missed them when I was checking through the film yesterday). This is good because it means the damage won't show onscreen but it's frustrating that even the gentlest projection is enough to send the damage 'over the edge'. I've never encountered quite this sort of damage before and I hope I never do again because it's so incredibly finicky and in an ideal world where everything's easy the film would still be strong enough to hold or, better still, the splits wouldn't be there at all, but then
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Busy Times
Has it really been so long since my last post, I guess another pertinent question is why isn't it f**king easy to find the time to write blog posts?!
Anyway, good news on the Kodacolor front, I have broken the bank and have an original filter wending its merry way from America!
In other news I have another batch of 1/2" tapes to transfer, put them on the machine to assess them this morning and, of course, all bar one is sticky, and that outstanding one is skip field and needs the other machine which is at home! Typical eh!
I've had someone ask if we can transfer some 10.5" diameter reel-to-reel audio tapes. The short answer is no because the belt on the deck we have is knackered and getting a new belt isn't an option right now.
And it turns out the telecine unit the Trust has is missing its camera and a few other essential bits and bobs. By the time we've done all the work needed it certainly be easier and barely more expensive to just buy a new one so that's been shelved until I can find a way forward on the funding front. If any of my readers has a vast sum of money they would like to donate to a charitable Trust so it can purchase some quality telecine gear do get in touch!
And one of my colleagues asked me today 'why can't things just be easy?' Well, as we know:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Anyway, good news on the Kodacolor front, I have broken the bank and have an original filter wending its merry way from America!
In other news I have another batch of 1/2" tapes to transfer, put them on the machine to assess them this morning and, of course, all bar one is sticky, and that outstanding one is skip field and needs the other machine which is at home! Typical eh!
I've had someone ask if we can transfer some 10.5" diameter reel-to-reel audio tapes. The short answer is no because the belt on the deck we have is knackered and getting a new belt isn't an option right now.
And it turns out the telecine unit the Trust has is missing its camera and a few other essential bits and bobs. By the time we've done all the work needed it certainly be easier and barely more expensive to just buy a new one so that's been shelved until I can find a way forward on the funding front. If any of my readers has a vast sum of money they would like to donate to a charitable Trust so it can purchase some quality telecine gear do get in touch!
And one of my colleagues asked me today 'why can't things just be easy?' Well, as we know:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Kodacolor & Projector
Howdy all. It's been a while but, like Kyle's cousin 'I'm baaaack'! So to business.
Was lucky enough to get in touch with someone who had drawn a spec for a Kodacolor filter based on one he'd seen for use with an Ampro (most unusual). I wasn't entirely convinced for various technical reasons but thought I'd give it a go. And it almost worked! I'm convinced the reasons it didn't work were 1) the spec didn't allow for the black spaces between the colour strips and I can only conclude that these are as critical as I thought they were and 2) HAVE YOU EVER TRIED CUTTING SOMETHING TO WITHIN THREE DECIMAL PLACES OF AN INCH?!! That really wasn't f**king easy and I sure wasn't 100% there with that! I've got two options now, either get in touch with someone who has one and take some readings with the calipers (working on it) or find and buy an original (quite rare and often a bit pricey).
As for the second thing I'm a bit reluctant to post it because it makes me look like an utter wally but since it's been so long since I posted I guess you all deserve a treat so have a laugh at my expense. We've got this big film weekend going down at the Trust in October and one of the things we want to do is have interactive displays. So I dug out an old Norris 9.5 projector I knew we had which is equipped with a motor and a handle. The puzzling thing was there was no way to switch off the motor yet keep the light on so why the handle. I then realised the motor was providing fan cooling to the lamphouse but reasoned it must be rigged to turn when the handle does (duh! This is very incorrect for so many reasons and as such is absolutely stupid!) So I had another look today to see how difficult it would be to fit a switch. No problem at all but then one of the other guys said 'well why don't you just take the motor belt off, it's got a voltage control knob so under-volt it a little to compensate for the lack of load and hey presto! Fan cooling and handle operation!'
DUH! DUH! DUH! ERRRRR, BRAAAAAAIN, WHERE ARE YOU? DUUUUUUH!
Talk about trying to create work for yourself. WHY didn't I think of that, SO obvious! If you go around trying to find much more complicated solutions to problems than necessary then you will certainly find that:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Was lucky enough to get in touch with someone who had drawn a spec for a Kodacolor filter based on one he'd seen for use with an Ampro (most unusual). I wasn't entirely convinced for various technical reasons but thought I'd give it a go. And it almost worked! I'm convinced the reasons it didn't work were 1) the spec didn't allow for the black spaces between the colour strips and I can only conclude that these are as critical as I thought they were and 2) HAVE YOU EVER TRIED CUTTING SOMETHING TO WITHIN THREE DECIMAL PLACES OF AN INCH?!! That really wasn't f**king easy and I sure wasn't 100% there with that! I've got two options now, either get in touch with someone who has one and take some readings with the calipers (working on it) or find and buy an original (quite rare and often a bit pricey).
As for the second thing I'm a bit reluctant to post it because it makes me look like an utter wally but since it's been so long since I posted I guess you all deserve a treat so have a laugh at my expense. We've got this big film weekend going down at the Trust in October and one of the things we want to do is have interactive displays. So I dug out an old Norris 9.5 projector I knew we had which is equipped with a motor and a handle. The puzzling thing was there was no way to switch off the motor yet keep the light on so why the handle. I then realised the motor was providing fan cooling to the lamphouse but reasoned it must be rigged to turn when the handle does (duh! This is very incorrect for so many reasons and as such is absolutely stupid!) So I had another look today to see how difficult it would be to fit a switch. No problem at all but then one of the other guys said 'well why don't you just take the motor belt off, it's got a voltage control knob so under-volt it a little to compensate for the lack of load and hey presto! Fan cooling and handle operation!'
DUH! DUH! DUH! ERRRRR, BRAAAAAAIN, WHERE ARE YOU? DUUUUUUH!
Talk about trying to create work for yourself. WHY didn't I think of that, SO obvious! If you go around trying to find much more complicated solutions to problems than necessary then you will certainly find that:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Monday, 9 August 2010
Word
Had a bizarre experience today with Microsoft Word. I spent some time on Saturday compiling the various chapters of this book I've been writing with my mother into one long document. Some of the material had been originated using Office 2007, some using 2003. When I'd finished it flagged up the usual 'formatting may not be preserved' warning message and I clicked yes. Then yesterday a couple of minor alterations were made and the document saved. Went to open it again today and half the book was missing. Saved it again and more text disappeared from the bottom. Luckily I have all the chapters saved individually and backed up in several places but why the hell would it do that?! What the hell was that all about?! Bloody Microsoft.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Saturday, 7 August 2010
Film and Printer
Why is it that the one film I pick up and risk screening without checking turns out to be in a real state all the way through and kept loosing the bottom loop. Luckily it was just a casual showing to my stepfather but it doesn't do my defence of film as the world's best motion picture format any favours!
Good news, my mother and I have finally finished writing our book and today I went to print our first manuscript... only to have a paper jam on the 11th sheet. Easily fixed but bloody typical, like the film it couldn't have just been easy could it?
Two things that should have been so simple and easy but, of course,
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Good news, my mother and I have finally finished writing our book and today I went to print our first manuscript... only to have a paper jam on the 11th sheet. Easily fixed but bloody typical, like the film it couldn't have just been easy could it?
Two things that should have been so simple and easy but, of course,
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Super Vox Motor
Good news! My Super Vox motor has been sent away for re-winding and will soon be ready! Bad news: it's going to cost a bit more than the £70 originally suggested, nearer £160 actually. Damn! The thing is I'm an unwaged ex-student with two Master's degrees looking for a good job in a market that is never exactly buoyant at the best of times and because of the recession is currently flat as a pancake. I'm holding down two volunteer jobs to try and get the 10 billion years of experience all the jobs that do come up seem to require and as a result I'm not exactly rolling in it. And I'm trying to save up a not inconsiderable sum for a 17.5mm projector and all this extra expenditure really isn't helping!
And what the f**k is with these glass negs, they've cleaned and scanned OK but looking at them now they look and feel like they're coated in oil, don't know what the hell is going on. Is one supposed to use distilled water? Nobody ever taught me this sh*t! I get so annoyed that there is so little information out there when one tries to fill in the gaps in one's knowledge of this sort of thing. I did have a good look around for information on handling glass negatives, I know a bit but things like 'use distilled water' if it is neccessary would have been helpful, as it is there's next to nothing (and one of my master's degrees is in librarianship so it's not like I don't know how to find information). If I wanted to know about diodes or the properties of iron oxide there are more websites than one can shake a stick at but glass negatives... F**king conservators, get some of that knowledge out there. Slipping your uncles and cousins in through the back door and teaching them on the job is all well and crap but what about those of us trying to make their way without any f**king nepotism?! Grrrrr...
Motors, glass slides, torn film perfs, hydrolised videotape binders, why didn't I become a f**king brain surgeon, not much harder and one gets payed a hell of a lot f**king more!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
And what the f**k is with these glass negs, they've cleaned and scanned OK but looking at them now they look and feel like they're coated in oil, don't know what the hell is going on. Is one supposed to use distilled water? Nobody ever taught me this sh*t! I get so annoyed that there is so little information out there when one tries to fill in the gaps in one's knowledge of this sort of thing. I did have a good look around for information on handling glass negatives, I know a bit but things like 'use distilled water' if it is neccessary would have been helpful, as it is there's next to nothing (and one of my master's degrees is in librarianship so it's not like I don't know how to find information). If I wanted to know about diodes or the properties of iron oxide there are more websites than one can shake a stick at but glass negatives... F**king conservators, get some of that knowledge out there. Slipping your uncles and cousins in through the back door and teaching them on the job is all well and crap but what about those of us trying to make their way without any f**king nepotism?! Grrrrr...
Motors, glass slides, torn film perfs, hydrolised videotape binders, why didn't I become a f**king brain surgeon, not much harder and one gets payed a hell of a lot f**king more!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
More Little Things
It really is the little things that get one down. Like trying to convince my 16 year old sister that 99% of modern culture is rubbish (no chance!), wishing I could be bothered to find everything to set the N64 up so I can test how well my soldering the lead of the buster controller has gone. Or that said 16 year old sister would stop wailing like a banshee. Or that I could face going for a quick walk so I might actually stand a chance of shifting some of this paunch I'm cursed with. Or that I could be bothered to get everything together so I can test this sound mixer now that I have a DC supply for it. It's not so much that I'm lazy, more that the N64 and the sound mixer require actually finding things in all this clutter because this small armpit of a room really isn't big enough! Hey ho!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Monday, 2 August 2010
All The Little Things
Argh! Glass negs I've had to scan in two sections not stitching together properly, film without any kind of edge markings or where the markings have faded/rubbed away, learning to drive, broken Super Vox motors, trying to finish writing this book, typing handwritten notes up...
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Cost & Availability
Lets deal with today's topics one at a time.
The good news is that Network, one of the greatest companies ever, has released a 4 CD set of music from 'The Saint' to compliment their fantastic range (http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info.php?products_id=1154) . The bad news is I haven't bought one single one yet because they're quite expensive and I'm quite poor. The really bad news is I really want a copy of that set but really can't afford the expense at the moment, particularly as I will soon be in need of what little spare cash I do have to pay for having this Super Vox motor rewound (see posts below). Meh! On a similar note that Tondo Junior CT80 I've got my eyes on is also way outside my price range right now. F**king rich people- "I say Cecil, I just bought a new set of nickel plated titanium golf clubs with with Texas leather covered handles and I spent £20,000 having my coat of arms embroidered into the leather on each of them in 18ct gold thread", rich people haven't got a f**king clue!
And now for something money really can't buy short of being able to purchase the rights. I haven't mentioned it on this here blog before but my friends know I get very frustrated at certain TV programmes/pieces of music etc. not having been officially released by the rights holders. For example the BBC has a 16mm telerecording neg of a 1958 production of' 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' directed by Rudolph Cartier himself sitting on a shelf somewhere in the BFI's vaults and it's never been released/repeated. Not even a 'grey market' copy, just nothing. And that's bloody Shakespeare! And boy would I like to see it! It is with deep frustration then if not surprise that I sit here lamenting the lack of a copy of Delia Derbyshire's 'IEE 100' despite an immensely tantalising snippet being played as part of a documentary about her that was transmitted last year. There has been a recent CD of some of her works yet 'IEE 100' is irritatingly absent. THESE THINGS ARE NO BLOODY GOOD SITTING ON A SHELF IN SOME VAULT, GET THEM OUT THERE FOR F**K SAKE!!! And preferably at a cheaper price than the average Network release please! A piano score of David Lee/Hal Shaper's 'Adam Adamant' theme wouldn't go amiss either!
Di-da-di-da-di-da.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
The good news is that Network, one of the greatest companies ever, has released a 4 CD set of music from 'The Saint' to compliment their fantastic range (http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info.php?products_id=1154) . The bad news is I haven't bought one single one yet because they're quite expensive and I'm quite poor. The really bad news is I really want a copy of that set but really can't afford the expense at the moment, particularly as I will soon be in need of what little spare cash I do have to pay for having this Super Vox motor rewound (see posts below). Meh! On a similar note that Tondo Junior CT80 I've got my eyes on is also way outside my price range right now. F**king rich people- "I say Cecil, I just bought a new set of nickel plated titanium golf clubs with with Texas leather covered handles and I spent £20,000 having my coat of arms embroidered into the leather on each of them in 18ct gold thread", rich people haven't got a f**king clue!
And now for something money really can't buy short of being able to purchase the rights. I haven't mentioned it on this here blog before but my friends know I get very frustrated at certain TV programmes/pieces of music etc. not having been officially released by the rights holders. For example the BBC has a 16mm telerecording neg of a 1958 production of' 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' directed by Rudolph Cartier himself sitting on a shelf somewhere in the BFI's vaults and it's never been released/repeated. Not even a 'grey market' copy, just nothing. And that's bloody Shakespeare! And boy would I like to see it! It is with deep frustration then if not surprise that I sit here lamenting the lack of a copy of Delia Derbyshire's 'IEE 100' despite an immensely tantalising snippet being played as part of a documentary about her that was transmitted last year. There has been a recent CD of some of her works yet 'IEE 100' is irritatingly absent. THESE THINGS ARE NO BLOODY GOOD SITTING ON A SHELF IN SOME VAULT, GET THEM OUT THERE FOR F**K SAKE!!! And preferably at a cheaper price than the average Network release please! A piano score of David Lee/Hal Shaper's 'Adam Adamant' theme wouldn't go amiss either!
Di-da-di-da-di-da.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Computers and Glass Negatives
Yes I know, I'm a bad blogger, if one were as irregular in real life one would go and see the doctor. Still here I am and here's some stuff not being easy. Computers. I was having a crack at tracing the olde family tree back a bit yesterday. Couldn't get very far on the side I wanted to because I don't know my great grandfather's name but on the 'other' side I managed to trace back one relative's ancestry to about 1812! But I don't doubt I'd have done it a whole lot quicker if the family computer (pun intended!) wasn't playing silly f**kers! SO f**king slow! The only conclusion I can reach with that one is the network USB stick gets very hot and this is affecting performance. But even so how can it take quite so f**king long to load a simple webpage?! Even on my computer Firefox seems to take several years to load, it clicks and whirrs away, WHAT THE F**K IS IT DOING??!
So I get a message the other day at the archive, a lady has called and wants her collection of glass negatives digitised. With some trepidation I arranged to meet her today. The trepidation arises because the scanner we have at the archive that can handle glass materials can't handle anything larger than about 6"x4" ('standard' size). So I've been hoping and preying they're all 'standard' size. Now what do you suppose happened? That's right, there was a right mish-mash. About a third are standard, the other two thirds are larger and will have to be scanned in sections and stitched together. Now try as I might I cannot make the process work completely seamlessly, it is impossible to get the quadrants to line up pixel-for-pixel because it is impossible to line the negs up precisely straight every time by hand (which is what I have to do). Scanners capable of handling larger glass materials begin at around £500 so we can forget that! On the plus side. even though I have made it clear that the results will not be 100% on the larger negs, I am getting paid to digitise them. But this just means I have to work 110% to get them just as good as I possibly can, I guess that's the downside to having a sense of professional pride.
Once again the solutions are so simple, a better computer/USB stick and a better scanner, these would make my life SO much easier (and I'd get paid the same without having to do 4x the work). Better still couldn't the glass negs have all been 'standard' size? No, of course they couldn't, because that would be easy and, as we know,
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
So I get a message the other day at the archive, a lady has called and wants her collection of glass negatives digitised. With some trepidation I arranged to meet her today. The trepidation arises because the scanner we have at the archive that can handle glass materials can't handle anything larger than about 6"x4" ('standard' size). So I've been hoping and preying they're all 'standard' size. Now what do you suppose happened? That's right, there was a right mish-mash. About a third are standard, the other two thirds are larger and will have to be scanned in sections and stitched together. Now try as I might I cannot make the process work completely seamlessly, it is impossible to get the quadrants to line up pixel-for-pixel because it is impossible to line the negs up precisely straight every time by hand (which is what I have to do). Scanners capable of handling larger glass materials begin at around £500 so we can forget that! On the plus side. even though I have made it clear that the results will not be 100% on the larger negs, I am getting paid to digitise them. But this just means I have to work 110% to get them just as good as I possibly can, I guess that's the downside to having a sense of professional pride.
Once again the solutions are so simple, a better computer/USB stick and a better scanner, these would make my life SO much easier (and I'd get paid the same without having to do 4x the work). Better still couldn't the glass negs have all been 'standard' size? No, of course they couldn't, because that would be easy and, as we know,
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
More Film Orientation Issues
Forgive me for dredging up this theme again but honestly...
Today I was trying to catalogue some films that were originally all from the same collection. It's proving incredibly difficult however because every so often the film will not just change horizontal orientation (so all the lettering is suddenly the wrong way round) but switches direction (so one moment it will be running 'forward' then the next scene will be in reverse). I cannot begin to tell you the sort of evil this makes one dream of visiting upon the moron who put the film together like that. If Vlad the Impaler's victims had consisted solely of these people then I, for one, would consider him one of history's greatest agents of justice! Joining film the correct way round and in the correct orientation isn't difficult it just REQUIRES A BRAIN! But no, instead it's taking me ages to sort out and is causing much frustration. And I've got about another six reels to do. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Today I was trying to catalogue some films that were originally all from the same collection. It's proving incredibly difficult however because every so often the film will not just change horizontal orientation (so all the lettering is suddenly the wrong way round) but switches direction (so one moment it will be running 'forward' then the next scene will be in reverse). I cannot begin to tell you the sort of evil this makes one dream of visiting upon the moron who put the film together like that. If Vlad the Impaler's victims had consisted solely of these people then I, for one, would consider him one of history's greatest agents of justice! Joining film the correct way round and in the correct orientation isn't difficult it just REQUIRES A BRAIN! But no, instead it's taking me ages to sort out and is causing much frustration. And I've got about another six reels to do. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Super Vox 2
I had an email last night from the wizard. He informed me that after many hours of tinkering sorting out a butchered baring and installing a spare Super Vox motor he had my machine was living once more and was ready for collection. I went up and we started to run a film through it to test everything. Then just as we were coming to the end the noise from the motor disappeared and the whole thing packed up! What this means is that I will have to get my original motor professionally re-wound (our little attempt at repair not having worked in the end). On the downside this will cost about £70 and I could do without the expenditure at present but there we are. The major plus is it should 'future proof' the motor for some years, all being well. Of course the easiest thing would have been if our repair or the alternative motor had worked but once again life has proved that:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Friday, 16 July 2010
Super Vox
Well I took my Super Vox to my friendly local wizard today and we found out what had been causing the problem. Because it's 70 years old and has been over-oiled all the gunk has eaten away at the insulation (which, as it's that horrid old bootlace stuff, perishes over time anyway) and has caused a fault in one of the circuits. We (I say we...) cut back the wires beyond the fault (right up against where the wiring is very tightly packed- thankfully we didn't have to go any further back) and we (I say we...) have soldered on a new set. Then we added some 'gunk' (better gunk than what was on it before!) to help with the insulation and at that point I left since the gunk had to be left to set.
Best case scenario- we've (I say we've...) got it all right and the thing will work a treat, better than before in fact since we've (I say we've...) cured the rather worrying amount of 'play' in the main shaft with replacement washers which should cure that rather horrible and worrying metal-on-metal scraping sound it made when it was switched on.
Worst case scenario- it doesn't work for whatever reason and the motor windings have to be professionally re-wound. This will cost about £70.
I wonder which it will be, will it be the simple solution or the awkward solution? The cheap one or the expensive one? One thing you can be sure of it won't be the easy one because, as we know:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Best case scenario- we've (I say we've...) got it all right and the thing will work a treat, better than before in fact since we've (I say we've...) cured the rather worrying amount of 'play' in the main shaft with replacement washers which should cure that rather horrible and worrying metal-on-metal scraping sound it made when it was switched on.
Worst case scenario- it doesn't work for whatever reason and the motor windings have to be professionally re-wound. This will cost about £70.
I wonder which it will be, will it be the simple solution or the awkward solution? The cheap one or the expensive one? One thing you can be sure of it won't be the easy one because, as we know:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
F**king Projectors, Sodding Platters and 4 Hours Sleep
Was it really nearly a week ago I made my last post, how one gets distracted by the crud of existence. To start with I am now the proud owner of a Pathe Super Vox which means I have joined that rare breed within a rare breed of being not only a 9.5er but a sound 9.5er! At least I was until yesterday when I was giving a demonstration to the family and the thing packed up about a third of the way through the reel. Now when I try to start it the motor won't turn and it trips the electrics. Luckily I know a friendly wizard who's going to have a look at it on Friday so hopefully...
So last night I had four hours sleep because I dozed off in the evening, this is the one thing I try and avoid at all costs because it always means I sleep badly and it really screws me up. Nevertheless I had to be at the Trust and I consoled myself with the thought that my work was just checking through film prints so it wouldn't involve much in the way of physical exertion. I spent the day shifting boxes and screens and crawling around on the floor try to fit allen screws into a sodding film platter!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
So last night I had four hours sleep because I dozed off in the evening, this is the one thing I try and avoid at all costs because it always means I sleep badly and it really screws me up. Nevertheless I had to be at the Trust and I consoled myself with the thought that my work was just checking through film prints so it wouldn't involve much in the way of physical exertion. I spent the day shifting boxes and screens and crawling around on the floor try to fit allen screws into a sodding film platter!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Friday, 9 July 2010
Sleep
So I go to bed at 3:00 knowing full well I don't have to be up the next day. 8:30 in the morning there's a knock at the door. One of our rabbits has managed to get into next doors garden. A few minutes, some rabbit biscuits and after lunging forward quicker than I ever have in my life I manage to catch the rabbit and lift it back into our garden. I then block up the hole where she got through (tree root had shiften a paving slab creating a sufficient gap) and try and get back to sleep. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who, when they wake up, tend not to be able to get back to sleep again. So that was me awake.
Cut to about 20:00 and I'm totally exhausted. It's too early for bed but, despite the best efforts of my desk fan I doze off in my chair. Then I wake up about 00:00. Now I have the same problem I faced this morning, once I'm awake... this is why I hate dozing off in the evenings because it takes me forever to get back to sleep! So I'm sitting here typing this and wishing I was feeling as tired as I probably will in three hour's time. Luckily I don't have to be up particularly early again but if someone knocks on the door in the morning...
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Cut to about 20:00 and I'm totally exhausted. It's too early for bed but, despite the best efforts of my desk fan I doze off in my chair. Then I wake up about 00:00. Now I have the same problem I faced this morning, once I'm awake... this is why I hate dozing off in the evenings because it takes me forever to get back to sleep! So I'm sitting here typing this and wishing I was feeling as tired as I probably will in three hour's time. Luckily I don't have to be up particularly early again but if someone knocks on the door in the morning...
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Websites Down, Ignorance & Information
ARGH! Why is it the one day I need to send someone a link to a website that website is down?
And why have I got emails from people making stupid comments in ignorance about things which aren't an issue! I've said it before and I'll say it again ignorance is the number one worst thing in the world, so many of the world's problems and so much that makes nothing in life ever f**king easy is down to ignorance.
And why the hell has someone from a foreign archive emailed me for information on film date codes and identifiers! ME?! I'm just an unwaged ex-student with a master's degree in film archiving, I don't work for an international media archive who should f**king know these things anyway, if they're employing people who don't know what I know then why the f**k are they doing that? Particularly since this particular set of information is on the Internet for everyone to see, haven't they ever heard of Google?! Maybe this is where I'm going wrong, maybe I need to go and work for a foreign archive 'cause I sure as hell can't get a f**king paid job in my own country!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
And why have I got emails from people making stupid comments in ignorance about things which aren't an issue! I've said it before and I'll say it again ignorance is the number one worst thing in the world, so many of the world's problems and so much that makes nothing in life ever f**king easy is down to ignorance.
And why the hell has someone from a foreign archive emailed me for information on film date codes and identifiers! ME?! I'm just an unwaged ex-student with a master's degree in film archiving, I don't work for an international media archive who should f**king know these things anyway, if they're employing people who don't know what I know then why the f**k are they doing that? Particularly since this particular set of information is on the Internet for everyone to see, haven't they ever heard of Google?! Maybe this is where I'm going wrong, maybe I need to go and work for a foreign archive 'cause I sure as hell can't get a f**king paid job in my own country!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Kodacolor
Another absence I'm afraid- been cataloguing like mad.
I tried to make a Kodacolor filter today. I had a 2" round of perspex and coloured gels cut to at least roughly the right specifications. Unfortunately when I tested it I met with abject failure (as I predicted in my post below!) I'm guessing it's a question of scale- clearly the projector the system was designed to work with had a smaller lens diameter and this is quite critical. I now need to find out exactly which projector is required (a Kodascope of some kind I believe, but is it the A or the B?! - Fortunately I know who to ask) and try again. Luckily I have access to both models but whether they work or not... Probably not because:
Nothing's ever f**king easy
I tried to make a Kodacolor filter today. I had a 2" round of perspex and coloured gels cut to at least roughly the right specifications. Unfortunately when I tested it I met with abject failure (as I predicted in my post below!) I'm guessing it's a question of scale- clearly the projector the system was designed to work with had a smaller lens diameter and this is quite critical. I now need to find out exactly which projector is required (a Kodascope of some kind I believe, but is it the A or the B?! - Fortunately I know who to ask) and try again. Luckily I have access to both models but whether they work or not... Probably not because:
Nothing's ever f**king easy
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Where Have I Been?
My apologies, loyal readers, for not posting these last few days. Where have I been? Well Thursday I was at the archive and ended up swearing at an A3 scanner for not being able to handle book with 'rifts and dips'. Then Friday I just couldn't really get started with anything but I did convert a couple of LPs to CD (not literally!) Then yesterday I went to the Trust's 'outpost' at Duxford (and, because life's a b*tch I forgot my camera, luckily another member of the party didn't!) Then today I have been back at the Trust's homeboy turf doing some more cataloguing. I finished a batch of 35mm film I was working on an had a couple of cans of 16mm I wanted to do so I pulled out the 16mm projector I left ready for the purpose. Of course since Christmas when it was last used entropy has stuck it's smelly claw in with the result that the bulb wouldn't light when I fired it up. Thankfully I have... more than one of my own that do have working bulbs so more home cataloguing for me! In fact that's what I'll be spending most of this week doing since I've taken all days bar Wednesday off work for the purpose as various members of my family are at work/on holiday and the house should be pretty quiet so I can get on with it.
Of course on Wednesday I will be trying to make a Kodacolor filter using coloured gels and clear perspex and if there's one thing I'm anticipating is that it won't be f**king easy because:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Of course on Wednesday I will be trying to make a Kodacolor filter using coloured gels and clear perspex and if there's one thing I'm anticipating is that it won't be f**king easy because:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Tapes, Computers, Video Projectors - They're All Out To Get Me!
Soooo yesterday. Well job one was to start digitising some audio tapes. Good except the binder on two of them has hydrolised and they were squealing through and distorting the sound like nobody's business so now I've got to sort that out plus any more I find like that in the current box. Then I had to scan an oversize book with the A3 scanner but all the pages had 'rifts and dips' so they wouldn't scan properly, had to photograph them which, to do the job well, is no small feat without a proper rostrum setup. Then I thought I'd chuck a DVD in the computer and watch some stuff on the bigscreen through the video projector whilst I was doing all this but it wasn't picking up the computer feed (again) so I got a DVD player but couldn't find all the right leads and adaptors for feeding the sound to the speakers so I put it through the sound card of one of the computers and a quick few seconds job to bung on a DVD turned into a 15 minute lead-fest! Bloody hell!
And would you believe today was alright. Yes it was! The Steenbeck worked fine, the film was no more awkward than it usually is (very awkward but even that one I had to redo practically every splice in didn't cause me to use any words stronger than b*llocks!) The 16mm film I ran on the other Steenbeck was the right way round, the reel wasn't one of those with the STUPID F**KING ROUND HOLES in the bottom and even installing some software on a laptop went without a hitch.
However tomorrow I am back at the archive and I have some more tapes to digitise. And at least one of them will be sticky, and it will be sticky not because they've been stored badly for decades but because:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
And would you believe today was alright. Yes it was! The Steenbeck worked fine, the film was no more awkward than it usually is (very awkward but even that one I had to redo practically every splice in didn't cause me to use any words stronger than b*llocks!) The 16mm film I ran on the other Steenbeck was the right way round, the reel wasn't one of those with the STUPID F**KING ROUND HOLES in the bottom and even installing some software on a laptop went without a hitch.
However tomorrow I am back at the archive and I have some more tapes to digitise. And at least one of them will be sticky, and it will be sticky not because they've been stored badly for decades but because:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Monday, 28 June 2010
Memory Stick
Sorry about the lack of updates loyal readers. I've spent the last four days fretting about my lost memory stick. Thankfully I found it yesterday and joy and elation have been uppermost in my mind! Needless to say a complete backup of the data on it has gone from being 'must do at some point' to 'do it now!'
So to things in life that haven't been f**king easy. Well last night I spent some time editing a compilation video in Adobe Premiere. Everything went fine until I tried to output it as a file... whereupon the computer crashed and restarted itself. Thankfully I am the sort that saves his work as he goes along so I reloaded the project and tried again. It worked but when it was done I noticed a couple of things I wanted to change so I did and started again... whereupon the computer crashed and restarted itself. I tried again and it worked but crashed just after it finished! It's definitely to do with the programme because my computer doesn't restart randomly (usually!) and it was the same process that triggered it on both occasions. Of course what should happen is that one sets it to output the file and it outputs the file but that would be far too easy wouldn't it and, as we know,
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
VLC has been crashing too! C*nts!
So to things in life that haven't been f**king easy. Well last night I spent some time editing a compilation video in Adobe Premiere. Everything went fine until I tried to output it as a file... whereupon the computer crashed and restarted itself. Thankfully I am the sort that saves his work as he goes along so I reloaded the project and tried again. It worked but when it was done I noticed a couple of things I wanted to change so I did and started again... whereupon the computer crashed and restarted itself. I tried again and it worked but crashed just after it finished! It's definitely to do with the programme because my computer doesn't restart randomly (usually!) and it was the same process that triggered it on both occasions. Of course what should happen is that one sets it to output the file and it outputs the file but that would be far too easy wouldn't it and, as we know,
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
VLC has been crashing too! C*nts!
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
ARGH!
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh I HATE days like today. First the power trips out in our storage area so rather than cataloguing films on the Steenbeck I end up lugging tons of projectors around. Our messed up climate being what it is the weather goes from wishing I had a second jumper on barely a week ago to sweltering hot the day I have to lug said projectors around. The electrician's on holiday for two weeks and we're not sure anyone has got the key to the cabinet with the breaker in so I can't get on with anything 35mm. I can't find my f**king memory stick. Where the f**k is the case for my driving theory DVD and why on such a f**king hot day did today have to be the one time I forgot to take my water bottle to the Trust? I've been bloody gasping all day. I've agreed to look through some 35mm films for a friend, at least three of the ten or so cans I've looked in so far have been two sets of 16mm stacked on top of each other, not difficult to deal with but what the $£%*! None of the 35mm films are on cores so I have to sort that out as well and some of them, like ours, are covered in so much sh*t (metaphorically speaking)! This gets all over the winding bench, all over the Steenbeck, all over me! And it looks like I'm working the next two weekends in a row so that will be a whole month straight I've worked weekends! And lastly why the f**k did the phone have to ring the exact, very second I sat down when I came in!
NOTHING'S EVER F**KING EASY!
NOTHING'S EVER F**KING EASY!
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Disc jam
No not, as the title may suggest, jam made from discs but a disc jamming in the DVD recorder. I have a VHS/DVD/HD all-in-one machine and was having a problem with the new DVDs I bought (can only record on them in one 'mode' apparently and I want the 'other' mode but can't format them to it because nothing's ever f**king easy). I then thought I had got the machine to dub OK but couldn't stop the recording so I pulled the plug out, when I put it back in it tried to read the disc, couldn't, and would hang on the loading screen. For a short while I was worried I'd totalled my machine (which would have been a big problem because I really need it for my work at the moment and I haven't got the money for a new one). Fortunately I must have contracted a healthy dose of luck virus (see Red Dwarf for those of you who don't know what this is) as I discovered that if one turns the cog jutting out from the underside of the player one can loosen the disc from the clamp at the top and slide it out of the drive. I switched the machine on, everything worked as normal and my heart started beating again. So that was a bloody trying experience.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Monday, 21 June 2010
BNC Adaptors
Today my video corrector finally arrived in the post. Yay! Once I finally get round to sorting out a telecine system at the Trust I'll be able to plug this into the chain and do some basic colour correcting on colour shifted film! So I thought I'd give it a quick whirl and check it works OK. Trouble is most of my video equipment is either out at the archive or in the loft. The only thing I had to hand was my Betamax. Now the corrector only has BNC inputs and my Betamax only has a BNC output for baseband. So I'd have needed 3 BNC adaptors (as I have no dedicated BNC leads kicking around), two for the corrector and one for the betamax. I do have 3 BNC adaptors but only two here- the other is at the archive! I'm taking the corrector with me tomorrow so I'll get to test it soon enough but it couldn't be f**king easy could it because, as we all know,
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Bach - Orchestral Suite No.3, Air in G
F**king hell, who've thought it would be so damn difficult to find an arrangement of this for solo piano online, hasn't it been out of copyright long enough?! It took me nearly half an hour to find a decent arrangement, in the end I found this one here:
[Link removed: see edit]
Harpsichord but what the hell, I'm playing it on an organ rather than a piano anyway! Can't believe how difficult this was to find.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Edit: And would you believe that arragement was utter crap, we're not talking shifting the odd inversion here and there we are talking wrong notes. Some people are SO DUMB! What's more it means I need to go and find a proper copy, a task which should be simple but then
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Edit 2: STILL can't find a copy. Gonna leave it for now but if I don't find one tomorrow I'll need a f**king Hamlet cigar alright!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
[Link removed: see edit]
Harpsichord but what the hell, I'm playing it on an organ rather than a piano anyway! Can't believe how difficult this was to find.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Edit: And would you believe that arragement was utter crap, we're not talking shifting the odd inversion here and there we are talking wrong notes. Some people are SO DUMB! What's more it means I need to go and find a proper copy, a task which should be simple but then
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Edit 2: STILL can't find a copy. Gonna leave it for now but if I don't find one tomorrow I'll need a f**king Hamlet cigar alright!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Premiere
Being the forgetful soul I am I forgot to pack my can of PTFE lubricant for the archive today so was unable to put the last tape I have through the last stage of the process to get it to play. Well there's a little project I wanted to do in Adobe Premiere anyway so I thought I'd go and find that laptop I was using a few months ago with Premiere on it. I found the laptop and clicked the link, dead shortcut, turns out our tech guy uninstalled it a while back. So I had to reinstall it. No big deal but bloody hell, I couldn't just pick up the laptop and click and 'boff' there we go could I?
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Semi-Easy
Well loyal readers it seems some things can be semi-easy. I've learnt today that, although they are basically Fox holes (no real problem) the pitch between the perforations on 28mm and 35mm film is the same. This means we can fix the Premier! All we have to do is get our guest electro-mechanical genius to chop the end off a small 35mm sprocket, level the shaft so that the width of the sprocket is 28mm rather than 35mm, reattach the end, file away the excess pins on one side, find a new handle to fit to the shaft for the racking and deal with any other unforseen problems once we've got that far. Rather him than me!
(Edit: I have since spoken to our genius and it looks like there are no 35mm sprockets small enough for the job so it looks like he'll have to machine one from scratch after all, nothing's ever f**king easy!)
Speaking of removing pins I love tape splicers. I've been using one in my work that we had lying around, a fair splicer but the blades are a bit blunt so the tape doesn't always cut cleanly. Well I finally got off my backside today and dug around in our splicer box and found a better one. Then, spurred on by the delight at finding one with decent blades, I decided to dismantle it and remove the stupid guide pins at the ends (such a pain in the behind when dealing with shrunken film). Actually this was genuinely semi-easy! It made repairing the tears caused by the gummy splices in the latest film so much easier. Of course, as I've mentioned before, it's extremely annoying that the, erm, fool who owned the films before used standard sellotape to fix the breaks and now I'm having to deal with all the resultant crap rather than the film simply unspooling nice and easily onto the cores but, of course, this is because
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
(Edit: I have since spoken to our genius and it looks like there are no 35mm sprockets small enough for the job so it looks like he'll have to machine one from scratch after all, nothing's ever f**king easy!)
Speaking of removing pins I love tape splicers. I've been using one in my work that we had lying around, a fair splicer but the blades are a bit blunt so the tape doesn't always cut cleanly. Well I finally got off my backside today and dug around in our splicer box and found a better one. Then, spurred on by the delight at finding one with decent blades, I decided to dismantle it and remove the stupid guide pins at the ends (such a pain in the behind when dealing with shrunken film). Actually this was genuinely semi-easy! It made repairing the tears caused by the gummy splices in the latest film so much easier. Of course, as I've mentioned before, it's extremely annoying that the, erm, fool who owned the films before used standard sellotape to fix the breaks and now I'm having to deal with all the resultant crap rather than the film simply unspooling nice and easily onto the cores but, of course, this is because
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Videotape and French eBay
Can't remember if I mentioned this before but if I did here it is again anyway. My main project at the archive at the moment is transferring some 1/2" EIAJ open-reel videotapes that have lost their lubricant. To get them to play requires a process involving cleaning, re-lubricating and then transferring. I had three tapes ready and waiting to be transferred today. The first two were fine. The third had a thin band of noise in the lower quarter of the picture. One or two tapes I've done have had this problem and I have found a way to mask it- hold your (clean!) finger on the tape very gently just above where it touches the head. In theory one could rig up some kind of pressure pad to do this but since I REALLY can't be bothered I use my finger. The thing is after twenty minutes or so one's arm feels about ready to drop off. Thankfully these are half hour tapes and one grits one's teeth and gets on with it- I'd hate to have to do it for one of the hour long tapes though! But why couldn't life be a bit simpler and this not be necessary? The other two tapes played OK as have the majority of the tapes I've done, why do one or two have to be just that little bit extra awkward? It's bad enough one has to relubricate the damn things in the first place!
So just now I did what I so frequently do and popped over to French eBay to check for rare 9.5/17.5/28mm projectors. I won't detail my exact search terms since I've already given away a trade secret by telling you I do this and if you don't do this already and collect these things you're probably thinking 'Hey that's a good idea, I'll do that!' Since this increases my already sizeable competition you can find your own damn projectors! However I will say I always select "Enchères & Achat Immédiat" because Petites Annonces is about as much use as a chocolate 200B. Until today Enchères & Achat Immédiat was on the far left of the search box and from habit I selected the far left option. As of today that is now the new category "Tout eBay" and Enchères & Achat Immédiat is in the middle. The work of seconds to change category but again just one of those irritating little niggles that makes life such a pain in the posterior. Why couldn't they put the new category in the middle or on the right? Why couldn't that third tape play without a noise bar? Why couldn't the N1500 tape I finally found play more than a minute or so without clogging up the heads in a pretty big way? I'll tell you why:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
So just now I did what I so frequently do and popped over to French eBay to check for rare 9.5/17.5/28mm projectors. I won't detail my exact search terms since I've already given away a trade secret by telling you I do this and if you don't do this already and collect these things you're probably thinking 'Hey that's a good idea, I'll do that!' Since this increases my already sizeable competition you can find your own damn projectors! However I will say I always select "Enchères & Achat Immédiat" because Petites Annonces is about as much use as a chocolate 200B. Until today Enchères & Achat Immédiat was on the far left of the search box and from habit I selected the far left option. As of today that is now the new category "Tout eBay" and Enchères & Achat Immédiat is in the middle. The work of seconds to change category but again just one of those irritating little niggles that makes life such a pain in the posterior. Why couldn't they put the new category in the middle or on the right? Why couldn't that third tape play without a noise bar? Why couldn't the N1500 tape I finally found play more than a minute or so without clogging up the heads in a pretty big way? I'll tell you why:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Monday, 14 June 2010
Where Is That F**king Tape?
I am a very lucky man in some ways. Thanks to a eBay purchase I made a couple of years ago, striking up a friendship with the seller and two trips to a flat in Camden I have a working Philips N1500 (I've got an N1700 as well but because nothing's ever f**king easy I need to get it fixed again). Recently thanks to a contact in a regional film archive and a very generous man in York I have some more Philips tapes and one of them has N1500 material on it (at least according to the label). I threw it in my bag the other day (at least as far as I can remember I did) and thought I'd give it a whirl tonight. But try as I might I can't find where I put that f**king tape! Maybe I left it at the archive after all. If not I'll have to tear this whole f**king room apart to find it, no easy task let me tell you! Why couldn't it just be in plain sight so I could get on with it? I'll tell you why:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Standard Crap
Well loyal readers it's been a couple of days and the main reason for that is there has been nothing terrible particularly worthy of note. Yesterday in particular was actually pretty good. Today I've had a couple of films where some %&*! has rewound them back to front (one reel 'flipped' half way through, morons) but that's just standard crap. But don't worry loyal readers, if there's one thing I've learnt it's that things running as smoothly as this is an exceptional state rather than the usual and, being a pessimistic sort of fellow, not only will nothing be f**king easy pretty soon but it will probably crash spectacularly and things will be very not f**king easy! We shall see.
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Where's my f**king umbrella?
Found my umbrella today, it's been missing since Tuesday, that's because I left it at the archive, no wonder I couldn't find it yesterday.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
More gummy splices
Ooh if I could only get my hands on whoever previously owned these reels of film I'm working on at the moment. There are some sections between splices where the film has been torn in half on the horizontal for several feet, one has to peel off one half and then the other half and splice them back together along the tear, not impossibe but such a trial.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
P.S. We had a call today from a company wanting to borrow an Edwardian 16mm camera. Only thing is the Edwardian era ended in 1910 and 16mm wasn't produced until 1923, you'd have thought they'd've checked first!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
P.S. We had a call today from a company wanting to borrow an Edwardian 16mm camera. Only thing is the Edwardian era ended in 1910 and 16mm wasn't produced until 1923, you'd have thought they'd've checked first!
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Old Video Machines
Ah, old video machines, the bane of my existence. Basically the story is this, I'm transferring some sticky videotapes for a certain organisation and my contact there put me in touch with a man in Yorkshire who had two video machines he thought might be most useful to me- a Sony AV3670CE (to compliment my AV3620CE and potential replacement should the machine go tits up) and a Sony CV2100ACE, cool machine, different standard to the 3620/3670, rarer,... and almost always with slack belts and often with knackered heads. Well they arrived at the archive last week and I finally got round to checking them out today. Both machines have pros and cons:
AV3670CE:
Pros:
It powers on.
The heads aren't knackered.
The belts are fine.
Cons:
The heads were absolutely f**king filthy.
It took ages to get them clean.
Once I'd cleaned them I discovered the picture didn't reproduce properly, there's some kind of distortion over the picture that might just be fixable if I spent several hours micro-tweaking the head placement but probably isn't. That machine is staying at the archive to be used as a 'sh*t' machine that can be used for all manner of testing an experimenting as needed, then the proper transfers can be done on my AV3620.
CV2100ACE:
This doesn't really lend itself to pros and cons. On the plus side it powers up, the heads were f**king filthy but cleaned up just fine and it gives a picture with no distortion. The other bit of good news is that the belts aren't as slack as they usually are. That's also the bad news, they are a bit slack, the rewind belt is fine, it's the forward belt that's the trouble, it will give a picture with no distortion but only if you assist it by manually turning the take-up reel as it's playing. Doing this for an hour or so is no fun whatsoever. Replacement belts aren't readily available and I don't particularly want to fiddle about with a CV2100 that works as well as I've ever had one working of the three that have been through my hands. On the plus side I still have one of the other two which has much slacker belts so now I have a working one (albeit with a slightly slack forward belt) I can muck about with the other one and try and find a suitable replacement without particularly caring if my endeavours to find said belt completely screws the machine up. And I got a Philips tape with N1500 material on it so I can finally give my N1500 a proper workout!
However old video machines, the chances of being able to just pick one up and have it work are miniscule, usually because of the belts. The other reason of course is:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
AV3670CE:
Pros:
It powers on.
The heads aren't knackered.
The belts are fine.
Cons:
The heads were absolutely f**king filthy.
It took ages to get them clean.
Once I'd cleaned them I discovered the picture didn't reproduce properly, there's some kind of distortion over the picture that might just be fixable if I spent several hours micro-tweaking the head placement but probably isn't. That machine is staying at the archive to be used as a 'sh*t' machine that can be used for all manner of testing an experimenting as needed, then the proper transfers can be done on my AV3620.
CV2100ACE:
This doesn't really lend itself to pros and cons. On the plus side it powers up, the heads were f**king filthy but cleaned up just fine and it gives a picture with no distortion. The other bit of good news is that the belts aren't as slack as they usually are. That's also the bad news, they are a bit slack, the rewind belt is fine, it's the forward belt that's the trouble, it will give a picture with no distortion but only if you assist it by manually turning the take-up reel as it's playing. Doing this for an hour or so is no fun whatsoever. Replacement belts aren't readily available and I don't particularly want to fiddle about with a CV2100 that works as well as I've ever had one working of the three that have been through my hands. On the plus side I still have one of the other two which has much slacker belts so now I have a working one (albeit with a slightly slack forward belt) I can muck about with the other one and try and find a suitable replacement without particularly caring if my endeavours to find said belt completely screws the machine up. And I got a Philips tape with N1500 material on it so I can finally give my N1500 a proper workout!
However old video machines, the chances of being able to just pick one up and have it work are miniscule, usually because of the belts. The other reason of course is:
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Broken Perfs and Gummy Splices
To my mind there are two key things that make checking unknown film fun, firstly finding out what's on it, the other is seeing how well the condition has borne up over time. Conversely one of the most frustrating things is when the picture is fine but the perforations have been torn to shreds, usually by some idiot who should never have been allowed within a million miles of film. Luckily the one film I found today that was in the most appalling of conditions was a stray reel that's only fit for ditching anyway but for goodness sake!
The other problem I found today was a reel that had gone a little sticky, this can largely be treated with a healthy dose of film cleaner and lubricant but it's such a pain, particularly when the self same fool mentioned above has snapped the film a good many times and has used ordinary sellotape to 'repair' the join (I use the term repair loosely, from what I could see it looks like he simply taped the two bits together and let the projector punch out the perforations which, by some strange kind of poetic justice, can't have done his projector much good!) The trouble with ordinary sellotape if left over time is it either looses all its stickiness and just flakes off (quite common) or it turns to goo (as happened in this case). This makes cleaning a major pain in the a*se since you turn the handle on the winding bench, hit the goo (or a split perf) and, as happened so frequently today it's unreal, the tissue with the cleaning fluid respectively jolts out of one's hand as it gets stuck on the goo or it gets shredded by the split perf. So a quick cleaning and lube job that should only take a few minutes takes absolutely bloody ages.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
The other problem I found today was a reel that had gone a little sticky, this can largely be treated with a healthy dose of film cleaner and lubricant but it's such a pain, particularly when the self same fool mentioned above has snapped the film a good many times and has used ordinary sellotape to 'repair' the join (I use the term repair loosely, from what I could see it looks like he simply taped the two bits together and let the projector punch out the perforations which, by some strange kind of poetic justice, can't have done his projector much good!) The trouble with ordinary sellotape if left over time is it either looses all its stickiness and just flakes off (quite common) or it turns to goo (as happened in this case). This makes cleaning a major pain in the a*se since you turn the handle on the winding bench, hit the goo (or a split perf) and, as happened so frequently today it's unreal, the tissue with the cleaning fluid respectively jolts out of one's hand as it gets stuck on the goo or it gets shredded by the split perf. So a quick cleaning and lube job that should only take a few minutes takes absolutely bloody ages.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Kodacolor
Bloody Kodacolor (yes like Kinemacolor the correct spelling is the American spelling of 'color', establishing that for certain wasn't f**king easy to start with!) I've got two 100ft films shot using this. The footage is in superb condition and would be fantastic in colour... except that I haven't got the required tri-colour filter to project it properly. They're very rare and my only real option is to try and make one.
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Nothing's ever f**king easy!
Thursday, 3 June 2010
Outing
The original plan for today was to go with two film collector friends of mine to visit another collector who lives somewhere near Somerset. Unfortunately both my collector friends are feeling under the weather so the trip has been cancelled. I suppose this is the price one pays for having friends far older than one's self!
On the plus side it means I can do some of the other thousand and one things on my list of things to do, on the downside it's already 12:55 and I haven't really started yet.
Nothing's ever f**king easy.
On the plus side it means I can do some of the other thousand and one things on my list of things to do, on the downside it's already 12:55 and I haven't really started yet.
Nothing's ever f**king easy.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Er... 1
Howdy folks. Well here it is, the first post. In homage to one of my favourite blogs (hell, one of my favourite places on the Web) I've gone with the same theme used by Nannyknowsbest. Down with the Nanny state. So, I suppose you want to know the point of this blog. Well I've noticed lately that nothing is ever f**king easy. Actually that's not true, I've noticed this for some time but recently it's been getting to me. For myself I hope this blog will be a useful outlet for venting my frustration at the fact that nothing is ever f**king easy and maybe I'll notice a pattern over time that will help me combat this fact, here is where I start fighting back! For you, the reader (this blog has a reader?) I hope my posts will be entertaining and amusing in the same way that you watch a Road Runner cartoon and smack your forehead at how dumb the Coyote is. Anyhoo all this whittering isn't really giving you much of a flavour of this blog's (soon to be) regular style of post so let's catch up on the last two days: (just before we do that you should know that I am an unemployed ex-student, qualified librarian and film archivist and do two volunteer jobs, one at The Living Archive in Wolverton, the other and The Projected Picture Trust at Bletchley Park, I am the Trust's archivist)
Yesterday:
Had a call at the end of last week at the archive from a guy who wanted to view some film, the idea being to see what he wanted to get put onto DVD. The conversation went well and I arranged to meet him on Tuesday. One question I asked is what type of film he had. Standard 8 he said. Darn, we've only got a useless, clapped out P8 at the archive, better bring my Siemens in. Arrange for mother to drop me at the train station, arrange to call ahead to be picked up at the other end. Realised I didn't have the archive's number in my new-ish phone so flashed up the website pronto just before I left and copied the number. Got to Milton Keynes and rang through, no answer, 7 times no answer. Was getting a bit annoyed but thought I'd walk it, not impossible with the projector it just feels somewhat heavier by the time one gets to the archive.
Got to Wolverton and the road to the high street was shut (turns out it was a gas sub-station that had caught fire.) The only other way is to walk miles around the other way. Called again and finally got through- turns out I'd copied down the fax no. by mistake. Anyway got picked up, the guy arrived and I went to put the film on the projector. JUST as I lifted the reel to put it on the spindle I noticed the spool's rather large centre hole and checked the perforations. SUPER8 not bloody standard 8. Now we've got a super8 projector there that can handle reels that size so I didn't need to bring the bloody projector in in the first place! Then the films turned out to be about four hours worth of holiday film, countryside, flowers, car journeys... YAWN! Nothing's ever f**king easy.
So today. I had one aim today, get to the Trust, clean lots of film and re-can them. Got there and found that finally the new magazine has arrived, only six weeks bloody late! So 10:30 to 11:30 was spent shoving copies of Rewind into envelopes. When that was done I went off with a view to cleaning the films. Juuuuust as I was about to start I heard voices coming along the corridor (shouldn't happen in our storage area in theory). Stuck my nose out and it was two members of staff from the Park. Lovely ladies they were (particularly one of them!) and they seemed most interested in our stores and what I was doing so I was only too happy to chat and show them round. They went off and I began cleaning the film. About an hour later Ken (our curator) came in looking rather worried and said he wanted me to get some particular reels of film together that he knew we had. Since I haven't catalogued the 35mm films yet this was quite a tall order but after two and a half hours of swearing at film cans and poor labelling I managed to find the reels he wanted. However, juuuuust as was about to start looking I had another visitor, another person from the Park responding to a security alert, some twerp with a ladder trying to get into the building (not me I hasten to add!) Had a quick look around with them but couldn't find anyone. By the time all this was done there was only about half an hour left so I went back to the workshop and finished up for the day. What annoyed me was that all I wanted was to get in there and clean film, I was so damn determined to do that and only that today and not get sidetracked, maybe I should have called this blog 'nothing ever goes to plan'? Ah well, it's called what it is and it's here to stay. So there.
Nothing's ever f**king easy.
Yesterday:
Had a call at the end of last week at the archive from a guy who wanted to view some film, the idea being to see what he wanted to get put onto DVD. The conversation went well and I arranged to meet him on Tuesday. One question I asked is what type of film he had. Standard 8 he said. Darn, we've only got a useless, clapped out P8 at the archive, better bring my Siemens in. Arrange for mother to drop me at the train station, arrange to call ahead to be picked up at the other end. Realised I didn't have the archive's number in my new-ish phone so flashed up the website pronto just before I left and copied the number. Got to Milton Keynes and rang through, no answer, 7 times no answer. Was getting a bit annoyed but thought I'd walk it, not impossible with the projector it just feels somewhat heavier by the time one gets to the archive.
Got to Wolverton and the road to the high street was shut (turns out it was a gas sub-station that had caught fire.) The only other way is to walk miles around the other way. Called again and finally got through- turns out I'd copied down the fax no. by mistake. Anyway got picked up, the guy arrived and I went to put the film on the projector. JUST as I lifted the reel to put it on the spindle I noticed the spool's rather large centre hole and checked the perforations. SUPER8 not bloody standard 8. Now we've got a super8 projector there that can handle reels that size so I didn't need to bring the bloody projector in in the first place! Then the films turned out to be about four hours worth of holiday film, countryside, flowers, car journeys... YAWN! Nothing's ever f**king easy.
So today. I had one aim today, get to the Trust, clean lots of film and re-can them. Got there and found that finally the new magazine has arrived, only six weeks bloody late! So 10:30 to 11:30 was spent shoving copies of Rewind into envelopes. When that was done I went off with a view to cleaning the films. Juuuuust as I was about to start I heard voices coming along the corridor (shouldn't happen in our storage area in theory). Stuck my nose out and it was two members of staff from the Park. Lovely ladies they were (particularly one of them!) and they seemed most interested in our stores and what I was doing so I was only too happy to chat and show them round. They went off and I began cleaning the film. About an hour later Ken (our curator) came in looking rather worried and said he wanted me to get some particular reels of film together that he knew we had. Since I haven't catalogued the 35mm films yet this was quite a tall order but after two and a half hours of swearing at film cans and poor labelling I managed to find the reels he wanted. However, juuuuust as was about to start looking I had another visitor, another person from the Park responding to a security alert, some twerp with a ladder trying to get into the building (not me I hasten to add!) Had a quick look around with them but couldn't find anyone. By the time all this was done there was only about half an hour left so I went back to the workshop and finished up for the day. What annoyed me was that all I wanted was to get in there and clean film, I was so damn determined to do that and only that today and not get sidetracked, maybe I should have called this blog 'nothing ever goes to plan'? Ah well, it's called what it is and it's here to stay. So there.
Nothing's ever f**king easy.
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