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Author Topic: looking for an age of an old trailer Brian Zeisler Film Handler Posts: 39 From: West Chicago, IL, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 05-13-2003 12:12 AM                     i just started working as a projectionist at an old drive-in theater and found some old black & white advertizements. one of them is for the "circle R heater". 220 volts, 1000watts, length(im guessing) around a minute. i was wondering if someone could put a year to this trailer???  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 05-13-2003 03:04 AM                        If it's printed on Eastman, Fuji or Dupont stock, you can find the year in which the film was manufactured from an edge marking (usually found between the perforations and the edge of the film). If it's Fuji stock, the edge marking will be in the format XXYY where XX is the year of manufacture and YY is an alphabetic code - e.g. 79DH means that the film was made in 1979. Eastman Kodak and Dupont film use a series of symbols to identify the year of manufacture, and a table of stock marks can be downloaded from this website. You might find more than one stock mark, because if your element is continuous contact printed, the stock mark from the interneg used to strike your print will probably have been printed through. Black on a transparent background indicates the stock mark of your print; transparent on an opaque background is printed through from a negative. If you find stock marks of 1950 or earlier, you need to be sure that your element is not printed on cellulose nitrate, which is a highly inflammable and very dangerous substance. If it is, I'd think about depositing it with an archive which has the resources and know-how to look after it properly. An MPEG video of nitrate burning can be downloaded from the 'videos' section of this site.  |  IP: Logged Daniel Fuentz Expert Film Handler Posts: 230 From: Fresno, CA, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 05-13-2003 04:37 AM                     Thanks for posting that date code chart! I was able to date some intermission snipes (1969 and 1973) and a policy trailer I had (1984)! Mystery solved!  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 05-13-2003 06:55 AM                        More about date codes and Kodak KeyKode edgeprint: http://www.kodak.com/country/US/en/motion/support/h1/identificationP.shtml http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/dateCode.shtml For approximately the past five years, Kodak color print films have complete code-emulsion-roll-part-strip-date identification latent printed in magenta dye along the edge. For example: 2383 803 074 0 27 20 K.ODAK 2003 This edgeprint ID has enough information to track each roll to the exact time, equipment, and personnel involved in its manufacture: http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/h1/sizesP.shtml#p  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 05-13-2003 06:59 AM                        One thing to bear in mind with stock marks is that they only tell you the year in which the raw film stock was manufactured, not the year in which is was exposed/printed and processed, necessarily. It is quite possible for stock to sit on the shelf for a couple of years before being used. Only yesterday I was examining a 16mm element with a 1955 stock mark, which was a print of an instructional film which I know from other evidence was produced and first shown in 1951. So the only thing you can tell for sure from the stock mark, is that exposure or printing cannot have taken place before the year indicated on the stock mark. For example, if you're looking at footage of Hitler and the stock mark is 1946, you know that you cannot be looking at a camera original, because he died in '45. It has to be a copy of some sort. But if the stock mark is '41, then it could very easily be a camera original which was exposed at anytime between 1941 and May 1945.  |  IP: Logged

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