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Author Topic: Mystery Crackle in Analog Track Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-23-2018 04:51 PM                        Testing a 35mm, analog track print today. Haven't done 35mm in months. Reel 1 on projector 1 sounds fine. Reel 2 on projector 2 has a crackle that almost overwhelms the dialog. Sounds like someone crumbling cellophane into a microphone. Put Reel 2 on Projector 1 and the crackle follows. Reel 3 on Projector 2, some crackle, only really audible in the quiet scenes. Print is in good shape. No splices. I check the track very closely and see no emulsion or base scratches. Look at it under a magnifying glass and there are little dots in the track emulsion, but I'm never looked that closely for a problem before,so have no idea if that is normal, or if they are big enough to cause noise. Any ideas as to what caused this? Thinking of trying some film guard, maybe it will darken the dots enough to help. If I have time tomorrow, will check the other reels.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 04-23-2018 05:02 PM                     > under a magnifying glass and there are little dots in the track emulsion I have seen this before. That is indeed the problem. It will probably get worse as the print ages. I am not sure if this is caused by improper processing or later damage, but I do not believe Film Guard will help. Are you using a red reader, or an exciter lamp?  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-23-2018 05:51 PM                        Red reader.  |  IP: Logged Paul Shuttleworth Film Handler Posts: 11 From: Stockport Cheshire UK Registered: Sep 2015 posted 04-24-2018 06:23 AM                     Have you tried Reel 1 on Projector 2?  |  IP: Logged Richard P. May Expert Film Handler Posts: 243 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jan 2006 posted 04-24-2018 10:03 AM                     This has occurred occasionally with archival prints having conventional optical tracks. It seems that sometimes aging causes almost microscopic dots on the track, which reproduce as the described crackle. If you run into this, report it to the distributor. Nothing can be done except to replace the print.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-24-2018 11:05 AM                        Paul: Tried Reel 1 on Projectors 2. The first five or so minutes is clean, then the sound gets more like Reel 3. Light crackle and a regularly repeating "shush shush" like paper being torn instead of crumbled. Richard: I reported it yesterday. They said they haven't had any complaints, but didn't say how long ago it was last run. We're already going to lose money on this, so even if they have another print, it's not worth it at this point. Ironically (or annoyingly) this is the film where the rights holder wouldn't let us show the 4k restoration because we only have 2k. BTW: mono track,bilateral area, slight fading, very little dirt. Just to be sure, I also tried Reel 6 on both projectors, has the shush sound. The dead leader at the end of the reels has no crackle or shush. Ran some optical loops. No problem. Ran a reel of cyan track trailers. Nothing. It's gotta be the film.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-24-2018 01:32 PM                        Would it help to slightly de-focus the sound lens?  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-24-2018 01:59 PM                        The sound is bad enough, I think it would just make it worse. I've ordered the bluRay. The show must go on, and all of that.  |  IP: Logged Donald Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 131 From: Lincoln, DE Registered: Sep 2009 posted 04-24-2018 05:11 PM                     A number of years ago, I had what may have been a similar issue with several reels of a print. There were bubbles in the emulsion which appeared on screen as if they were snow. What I believe had occurred was that the print absorbed humidity, and the heat at the aperture boiled the moisture and lifted the emulsion as it passed through the gate. Although the lamp was equipped with an IR filter and the head was water cooled, several reels of the print had absorbed an inordinate amount of moisture while threaded off of a 6,000' reel prior to the start of the show. On screen, the result appeared as white dots or small circles in the center of the picture. To prevent further lifting, I backed the lamp focus off slightly, and the snow effect immediately disappeared, although the print remained laden with moisture until the relative humidity of the atmosphere dropped. I would be very curious to know if moisture caused your issue as well. After 35mm print services were transferred from Technicolor to the domain of FotoKem, moisture absorption became a more noticeable problem. One can only assume that this was a byproduct of cost cutting measures associated with processing.  |  IP: Logged Paul H. Rayton Expert Film Handler Posts: 210 From: Los Angeles, CA , USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 04-24-2018 10:06 PM                    We have also occasionally encountered this problem with prints of "a certain age". For example, we had a print from WB of the 1975 show, "The Man Who Would Be King" back in about 2007 with the same problem. The print stock was dated in the late '90s, which is consistent with the others that have exhibited the same issue. (I have a photo of the troublesome track, but for some reason this computer is being refused permission to load the photo here; will see if I can get someone to do it for me.) In our case, the print was (as was your experience with your show) deemed too noisy to run. BTW: Could you please tell us what show (and print number) it was in which you were experiencing this problem? Might save some of us some troubles down the line if the distrib. "forgets" to retire the print and it gets sent out again. Thanks!  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-25-2018 11:10 AM                        Added it to the Feature Info Forum.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-28-2018 08:57 AM                        Postscript: Turns out the distributor does not allow blu ray presentations of their features. But they did send a new print. That print was in very good condition AND the sound was good. The show went on. What audience there was was entertained.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-28-2018 01:14 PM                     This is how the dots look when projected with the aperture removed. The dots are not on the image area, only the optical soundtrack area and they do get worse with time on these prints. (Ignore the keystone here, I was taking a photo from the front row looking upward at the screen.)  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-28-2018 07:51 PM                        Yup, that's them.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-29-2018 09:28 AM                     Processing splatter that is a silver based track that requires a second processing and the applicator sometimes splatters that area  |  IP: Logged

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