Today I spent my time working on an inventory of the films that we have been inspecting. It is not an easy task because many of the films do not have readily apparent title information. One has to hold the film up to the light and unwind the lead in order to find a title frame. When one (that would be me) has problems seeing tiny, tiny print, this task is extra difficult. The purpose of doing an inventory is so that we can keep all film elements together. When we first began the inventory, we discovered that we had two copies of a film called “We the People.” Both reels had been inspected but it wasn’t until later that we found a separate reel (magnetic sound element) for the same film in a different place. I wonder why there would be a need for a separate sound reel when both copies of “We the People” have variable sound tracks included with the images?
Finding that separate sound element made me think of how easy it is to loose track of the various film elements and the notion of the “model image.” It is certainly easier to keep track of a single reel of film, like the “one reelers” that were made in early days of film. Yet, it is a completely different situation when a film is comprised of several reels; and in the case of the “one reeler” we have, several image reels and then a sound reel. It is no wonder that pieces of film disappear and even reappear years later. The “model image” would certainly be a challenge if important elements fail to be present at viewing time.
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