3106.photography
Created 16 October 2005 ... Updated 25 December 2005
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the Celluloid Film Collection
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After having bought, cleaned and lubed a movie projector, it was time to try it out. Next question: where to get old cellloid movies. Well, this was as easy as going to eBay and searching for "16mm" and "9.5mm". Of course having no clue on what to buy, what would fit or anything else 'movie', I bought and read some old books on the subject and surfed the web. The following is a discription of what I've found, learnt and liked.
Concise history of film formats Early last century, standard 35mm film stock was made from highly flamable material. Cinemas and cinema projectors therefore had to be secured thoroughly so that in case the film caught fire, it wouldn't spread. Even under normal circumstances it was easy to start the film burning, when the film got stuck in the projector, the light would not only burn one frame but set the entire film on fire. The film spools were put in metal boxes so that when the film would start burning, it would stop at the metal box, or even when it reached inside the box, it would soon stop burning due to lack of oxygen. That this was a real threat can be seen at the numerous movie theater fires at the beginning of the 20th century and the resulting rules and regulations. Meaning that the film stock for 35mm is not what you want to use at home. So industry started looking for new material and anything they'd found that was not inflamable, was also more expensive and less durable. But for home cinema use, the second issue was not of importance as with the new material, the film can be projected well over a thousand times, a number a normal home user would never be able to reach. The first issue was more important and to prevent film copiers to use the less expensive 35mm stock when copying their films and then cutting or splitting it into the smaller format, the 16 millimeter format was developed. Cutting perforated 35mm film in half in order to get 2 films was now impossible and since the main film factories agreed to use only non-flamable material for 16mm film, it would always be safe to use this new format at home. This has proven to be a very good sales pitch. |
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neuf-cinq
Ppathé developed the neuf-cinq format (French for nine-five) as home cinema format in the early 1920s. They initially sold a range of projectors, from the cheap, hand-cranked, model to the fully motorized versions. Films were usually short animations or short versions or small parts of standard-length feature films. The format's main advantage over 16mm is that although the actual frame size being close to that of 16mm, it's cheaper to produce. The perforation is actually a single wide hole between each frame. This is a small disadvantage as splicing the film is not as easy as with double perforated film and it's easy to get a twisted film when a single frame burns away. But these might be more theoretical that practical issues. This film format was popular until the late 1950s after which is was taking over by the 8 millimeter format in popularity, simply because the smaller format was cheaper in use. Unfortunately the 8mm went through a number of changes, confusing many people on which format to use during the late 1960s period. As is the case with other formats, there are also some versions of the 9.5 mm format. The main formats are 'silent' and 'sound', which actually both work on any 9.5mm projector. The so-called "notched" format, is meant to be projected by special projectors. With this format film length is saved by having only one frame for written text. There is a white notch on one side of the frame which makes these projectors stop for a certain amount of time to allowed the viewer to read the text before the movie continues. A clever system but it only works on a few projectors. When such film is viewed using a normal projector, text will only appear for a very short time, too short to be read. As it turns out, on eBay France and eBay UK are still many 1920s and 1930s Pathé 9.5mm films for sale. These have the disadvantage that they come on closed reels which means you'll have to stop the projector just before the end of the film or you risk tearing the film out of the real. Pretty fiddly to get it back in. Later 9.5mm films usually came spooled on open reels, a lot easier to use. The old black and white Mickey Mouse films in your home, projected on a loud, nearly 70 year old projector are really something special. Closed reels came in limited sizes and popular versions were 30, 60 and 100 feet (9, 18 and 30 meters). In 1955 some new versions of the format came out. As the wide screen pictures also became popular, or had to become popular, Pathé introduced 9.5 mm-Duplex. The film was split into two halfs, therefore measuring 4,75 mm. The film was then projected 'on its side' with a frame format of 6,5 x 4,2 mm as opposed to the standard 6,5 x 8,5 size. Being projected on its side, a new camera and a projector had to be developed too. |
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sixteen millimeters
At the same time Pathé France introduced it's 9.5mm format, Kodak USA did the same with their sixteen millimeter format. This 16mm format remains popular until today. Designed as home cinema format, many public institutions, such as schools and smaller cinemas, had discovered the advantages. Quality is good enough for smaller audiences while the cost is not as high as that for 35mm. The initial format was perforated on both sides and silent. Soon one perforation side had to give way to optical sound. This in return was replaced by magnetic sound by means of a magnetic strip (like audio tape) glued on the film material. After this innovation, optical sound was brought back. When looking for older 16mm films, make sure it works with your projector. The Ditmar Dual Gauge projector for instance only works with silent 16mm movies. Of course you might be able to remove the notches on the sprockets on one side of the projector's film path but that would be a shame in my opinion, better to by a non-silent projector instead. They come very cheap nowadays as most schools have abandoned 'celluloid' movies and are using DVD and VHS video instead. |
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film formats compared
The sizes of the various film formats (height x width):
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my collection Yes another boring list of films, there are so many (DVD, VHS, CD, whatever) lists on the web but this one is different, is a list of old celluloid films. Since many people who are interested in old fashioned celluloid movies seem to be interested in finding _the_ special film they've been looking for for years, they might find it here on my site. You can always drop me a line and I might be willing to swap / sell or whatever just ask me. Contact details are on the main page.
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Celluloid Film web links
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This site's main purpose is to feature / promote the Pathé 9.5mm home
All photos copyright of M. Koning 1997 - 2005
Note: Using the text or images on this site in an auction such as eBay without permission is a violation of your ebay Terms of Service. I will report you to ebay if I discover such a violation taking place. This may result in your account being cancelled. I also reserve the right to file claim for civil penalties.
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