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Topic: 70 mm test materials - help wanted

Florian Pausch
Film Handler

Posts: 11
From: Wien, Austria
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 09-20-2000 05:24 AM

Dear collegues out there,

for the installation of 70mm in our cinemas, I am searching for 35/4 track and 70/6 track-magnetic test films to align the heads / adjust the preamps. I am sure, that some film-techer knows, where to get those....
To all european film-techers with 70 mm-experience:
Since the last installations of 70 mm-equipment (that played well) were made 35 years ago in Austria, any helping hand and brain would be a pleasure for us, when it comes to the fine adjustments of our new installations (2 DP 70/CP 200/MPU 1; 2 Bauer U2/CP ???/Klangfilm MP)(setting up the "hardware" will not be a problem...)
Looking forward to hear fine 6 tracks,

best wishes from Vienna
Flo

------------------
Florian Pausch
projectionist and technician
Filmarchiv Austria,Vienna
www.filmarchiv.at
fpausch@aon.at

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-20-2000 07:06 AM

Florian,
Todd-AO Studios can sometimes make them up for you. I have gotten 35mm mag test films form them before, but its been a while. I don't know if they can still do it though. Contact them at 1021 North Seward St. Hollywood, Ca. 90038
Phone number is 323-962-4163
Mark

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Bill Purdy
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 139
From: Seattle, WA
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 09-20-2000 09:41 AM

Florian,
One of your largest problems will be that there has never been only one standard. Over the years each studio has developed their own idea of what the recording and playback characteristics should be and they have not been the same, nor have they been the same from one studio's release to the next one. My personal opinion is that corporate and personaly ego have played a large part. This practice continued even when Dolby tried to standardize and later THX did the same---it didn't work.

As one who spent several years running around the US tuning theatres for different releases, I have an extensive library of old pink noise and Dolby tone material, and they are all different. Equally important is that I would no longer trust a single one of them because there surely has been some high frequency response loss. Even though they are stored in steel cans in a cool location, they will not be what they once were. (I wish I knew why I still keep them.)

This doesn't help you a bit, but I mention it to suggest that you be suspicious of the quality of whatever materials you might find. It is a very real problem for those wanting to properly show fine old films.

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Bill Purdy
Component Engineering

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 09-20-2000 12:00 PM

Bill send them here I probbably have one of the largest collections of test films in canada but some titles are still mssing (usually the one needed for a specific screening)
I was thinking of getting a source of a standard tone and noise thatw as available in quantity and make comparision files on the R2 for each title so that they are preserved and available if a engineer needed one in a hurry

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