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Recans and short ends


Jon O'Brien

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What is the going price for recan and short end 35mm, and can you get a much better price per foot for shorter short ends eg. 200'? Are recans much more expensive than short ends? Thank you. So far I've found a couple of businesses that sell short ends, one in UK and one in US.

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For 35mm, usually anything less than 200ft has a substantially reduced rate. However, it's all about supply and demand. 500T and 200T are the most in demand stocks, 250D is mid ground and 50D is low demand. So if you're ok with shooting on 50D, with 200ft loads, you can usually get pretty good deals. I've purchased year old 50D short end's in odd-lengths (over 200ft) for $.14/ft when they've had too much inventory at Reel Good here in Hollywood.

 

Most short ends's are more normal lengths between 300 - 800ft ish. You'll see prices range wildly depending supply. Reel Good advertises when they have a lot of a certain stock and they will give heavy discounts for bulk purchases. I've bought boat loads of 250D from them for around $.16/ft when they've had those sales and simply sold remains I didn't need to my friends.

 

The two stocks you will never get deals on are 500T and 200T. Right now the current rate is .48/ft for 500t and 200T for 400ft loads. I've seen the price fluctuate between $.42 - $.58 per foot, it all depends on inventory.

 

The other problem is the silver retention company here in Hollywood gives quite a bit of money for camera negative and they get the silver out of it and give you money. So most productions simply destroy their film because they get instant cash for it. Where a company like Reel Good may low-ball them and never get the short ends.

 

Ohh and Re can's are very rare. Most of the time it's short ends, where someone has shot a few hundred feet off a 1000ft load and what remains is a short end. Re can's where the camera is loaded and then unloaded, are rare. They also go for a much higher price for obvious reasons. All the pricing above are short ends.

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I've gotten in touch with Reel Good but they don't ship to Australia :(

 

However if I send labels and documents they will do it. I wonder how that works. Contact Fedex I guess and ask. Alternative is Frame24.

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The other problem is the silver retention company here in Hollywood gives quite a bit of money for camera negative and they get the silver out of it and give you money. So most productions simply destroy their film because they get instant cash for it.

 

I once met a guy who got the rights to an enormous 'tailings heap' as they're called, in the outback. It had been an old mine site about 70 years ago and the site had a truly gigantic dirt formation that in appearance was similar to a natural geologic structure. You could climb up it, and walk all over it and it was like a plateau. It was a small mountain. I got to know it as I used to do a lot of work in the outback. Anyway, it sat there for decades and no one cared about it. He saw potential in it and got the rights to it. He brought in a processing plant next to it, and started to put the dirt through it. He reclaimed the silver within it and made a fortune.

 

Took my camera out there and shot a film on it. I was about 14. It featured two immensely colourful local characters from the nearby town (er, that is, a literally one petrol bowser, one pub town) who I will never forget. Rodney and Spa. I can't remember why Spa was called that. Maybe it was from "spar."

Edited by Jon O'Brien
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