Brad Miller

Andrew - I have seen this EXACT issue on a film we received that arrived in cans on cores with "Film Title > soaked in FilmRenew date ______" on the cans. The general consensus was that FR was put in the cans with the film and likely stored in a hot environment. In fact there was a tiny bit of liquid still in the cans (maybe a teaspoon's worth) and it was an almost blood red color, which made a lovely stain on the carpet where a few drops fell. When we inquired to the owner he said the print was absolutely in lab mint pristine condition and he had intentionally soaked it in FR to make sure it stayed like new. (I don't think we ever got an exact answer as to if he put the film in the cans with the FR and then put it directly into storage, or if he soaked the reels for X days and then emptied the FR from the cans and THEN put it into storage.) He did however admit it was stored in a non-air conditioned space. If anyone is going to use FR remember it should not be used as some sort of preservation chemical / storage. Just use it it per the manufacturer's recommendation for a day or whatever, NOT an extended period of time and definitely NOT in a hot environment. "More" of anything is not always "better".

Should there be anyone considering a DIY rewash, I stress that you need to really think twice. If the rewash is not done absolutely exactly right, you will end up with embedded hairs and dirt in the emulsion that was not there before, plus possible smearing, cracking or burning of the image, water spots and you can even trigger VS with it. This is absolutely a "lab only" process. Yes I realize this is my first post here so the first thing people are likely to say is that I am full of crap because they don't know me, but I likely have more experience and expertise with this process as well as variations on it of anyone not retired or dead at this point. Also the Kodak "recipe" that was published in the 60s is simply not ideal for modern film stocks. From a scratch perspective, at best you will only see the most minor and lightest of thin black lines disappear from following the recipe. FYI the rewash machines built by Debrie, RTI, etc are junk. I've looked through all of them and none of the designs are acceptable. With a rewash you get exactly one shot, and it has to be right. The ideal settings and mixtures vary between acetate and polyester, as well as between different stocks themselves. There IS a science to it if you want incredible results and if you don't want to send your film to an early grave. For ultrasonic cleaning, HFE is a joke in my opinion. Perc definitely does a better job, but sadly some locations simply don't have a choice and cannot use it. We have 9 machines which have been gutted and upgraded to our own modified design and have been fully automated right down to the entire reclaim process. All of them are perc-based. I would have stuck with trike if it was still available though.