The
Wet Gates
Here is another potential
area you should be concerned with when reviewing film transfer websites.
Most home movie film that has been projected at home will probably at
some point have lines running done the film caused by a speck of dust
or dirt on the film. It’s also very common to see film that has lots
of intermittent lines or scratches caused by using a projector that
damaged the film during projection. It would seem that if a professional
transfer service offers to remove these scratches through a wet gate
process, they would really be helping you out.
Wet gate transfers hide
scratches and enhances the color of your film while it is being transferred.
By applying a special solution on the surface of the film, it fills
in the scratches and makes the color more vivid.
What they don’t tell you
is that true wet gate film transfers are done only on the most expensive
“Rank Systems” mentioned earlier. More importantly they don’t tell you
that it is NOT done on home movie film that is processed. Your film
is called positive film and if run through the transfer process “wet”
it becomes much more damaged then it was before because the films emulsion
is very easy to scratch when it’s wet. Avoid using companies that offer
to do a wet gate transfer on your home movie film.
As mentioned earlier it
is absolutely necessary to clean and lubricate both your film and the
projector before attempting to project or transfer your film to another
format. This is a well-established procedure that is the industry standard.
So, we were surprised to find film transfer companies that were admitting
on their websites that they did not clean or preserve your film because
they didn’t think it was necessary. Although this is a time consuming
and tedious process, we wonder how many other companies fail to perform
this vital service. When you choose a transfer company, make absolutely
sure they will do this for you!
|
