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Severely Damaged 16mm 50d


James Wachtel

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Hello everyone,

Like a lot of filmmakers, I was greatly dissapointed when my film came back from the lab. One of the 100ft roll 50d rolls was labeled "rejected. Roll heavily damaged. Broke perfs and rips." I'm really baffled considering the previous 6 rolls I sent in came back perfectly fine. One of those rolls was another 50d with this recent order, the other rolls were black and white neg. I really hope it's not my sr2 which is past it's 6 month warranty. I'm waiting to hear back from the lab. I'll post a few pictures. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jim

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I have an update on the situation! I just noticed on the packaging for the damaged roll it says 250d, mine was 50d. Also, I saw that halfway through the roll it had ripped apart and been stapled back together. I'm assuming when we were running the camera, if our film split in half,it would have been very clear at that time, that something was wrong. The camera was running perfectly and quietly the whole time, which is why I was so baffled when the film arrived today. I'm starting to think my roll got mixed up with somebody else's at the lab.

Jim

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Keep in mind that stuff always comes back from labs in different boxes.

 

But that definitely sounds odd.

 

I've laced film wrong and it's chewed out a bunch of perfs (at 120fps!!!), and I've jammed film in magazine doors, etc. As you said - it's pretty obvious when you've made a boo boo by the sounds the camera makes. Hope you find some resolution to your problem.

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Yes if you have broken perfs .. let alone broken film.. you will have known about it as you were shooting.. labs do screw things up every now and again.. I remember as a camera assistant labs in the UK tried too blame either me and or the camera..a few times with ludicrous excuses .. like this ..physically impossible things like I had broken the film in the middle of a 400ft roll unloading it..

 

Hopefully they sent you some other unfortunate persons film.. but they wont take responsibility thats for sure.. shoot digital ..

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How did you work out the film had been split and stapled in the middle? Are you examining it in a changing bag?

 

I feel like sending the section either side of the tear to another lab is the only way to really know but then you're going to start paying some dollars which sucks.

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The only labs I've dealt with in the US are Fotokem who couldn't even return an email, and Cinelab who were so fast and professional. I can't imagine either **(obscenity removed)** someones film up and not being honest about it.

 

Well in the 80,s in the UK they did a few times.. and only admitted guilt after empirical evidence had been pointed out them ..ie it was 100% impossible for me to have caused the damage.. after which there was a sort of apology.. but not after blaming me and the possibility ,for all they knew, of me losing my job.. no love lost on labs from me Im afraid..

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Brandon, I didn't take the film in a changing bag since I was told it was completely ruined, and it is. I could see scratches every other foot as well as rips. Also, it was stapled back together. I'm definitely sure it's not mine. So far my experiences have been great with cinelab and with Rob houlahan. Hopefully, I'll heat from him today. I'd think he would make good on a mistake, honestly. Thanks for all your replies.

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Typically staples come from the lab. When the reels are assembled to go through the processor, this is what they use to connect them together. It's fast, not fussy and can be done in the dark or while the film is wet. That is, if the film was to break in the processing machine, alarms start to go off and the tech has to get the film put back together as quickly as possible. A stapler does the job quickly and efficently. They're usually removed when the reels are spooled back down though, before shipping to the customer. That said, we've seen reels from multiple labs that still had staples in them, probably because someone was distracted and missed one.

 

In this case, if your film was physically damaged, it could have been weak and snapped in the processor, leading to the situation I just described. I mean, just a guess, but it happens.

 

Most labs put a sticker on the end of the film reel (in the darkroom while assembling) with an ID number. A corresponding sticker goes on the job order or the original film can, so they can be matched up later. To confirm it's yours, you should check to see that the one on the film matches the one you sent.

Edited by Perry Paolantonio
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Unfortunately,it was never developed. I talked to the lab, when they saw the film, and the damage it sustained, they didn't want to put it into their equipment. I talked to the lab today, it's not looking too good. I'm still trying to figure out if someone can look at a picture of the film, and determine if it is indeed 250d. Proving it's 250d would be concrete proof that it is not mine. Thanks everyone for all your replies so far.

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Well, if you had 250D and 50D next to each other, you could tell the difference. The 7203 50D is more gray then it is orange. However, if exposed to light for more than a few seconds, the color shifts quite considerably which means you can't have samples lying around to compare with.

 

If I had some 50D, I would gladly get a pix for ya, but sadly I'm all out at the moment :(

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  • 3 weeks later...
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HI

 

This was us, I talked to Joe about this roll and he said he tried to cut out the bad sections and splice them in the darkroom but that ultimately there were too many sections with bad perfs on this roll.

 

Remember that these are opened in the darkroom and we typically build 2000ft assemblies to put on the PhotoMec processor so there are often hundreds of 100ft daylight boxes in the dark so the bad roll went back into a random box with a note on it that it could not be developed.

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Well, if you had 250D and 50D next to each other, you could tell the difference. The 7203 50D is more gray then it is orange. However, if exposed to light for more than a few seconds, the color shifts quite considerably which means you can't have samples lying around to compare with.

 

If I had some 50D, I would gladly get a pix for ya, but sadly I'm all out at the moment :(

 

yes they are somewhat different color so could be easily distinguished that way if not exposed to light too much. I think they have slightly different surface textures as well but can't confirm at the moment (my leftover stocks stored elsewhere at the moment)

 

some film stocks can be differentiated by the SMELL of the emulsion as well. For example Fuji vs. Kodak vs. Agfa vs. ORWO smell very different. though the texture is different too and one would probably feel the emulsion differences in the dark as well. I think the smell of the 7203 vs 7207 is pretty close so would not be reliable method :lol:

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