Collecting anime film prints - Starzan!

The roughly mid-90's and earlier (generally pre-Toonami, pre-anime boom) era of anime & manga fandom: early cons, clubs, tape trading, Nth Generation VHS fansubs, old magazines & fanzines, fandubs, ancient merchandise, rec.arts.anime, and more!
cosmosamurai
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Re: Collecting anime film prints - Starzan!

Post by cosmosamurai »

Here's another piece of anime film history that I can't believe I now have - a 35mm print of Grave of the Fireflies! 35mm theatrical anime prints are nearly impossible to come across, let alone Ghibli stuff, and when this surfaced I had to have it. I got it from a guy in Russia for a great price - for comparison, someone has a German dub Spirited Away up for $2600 and the GOTF went for a small fraction of that :D. I'm going to next conserve it by acquiring some more hardware: 35mm archival plastic cans, 35mm rewind cranks and "split reels" so I can spool up the film onto cores/reels and inspect it, and I'll need to snag a 35 projector at some point. Russian audio, so will need to ultimately experiment with syncing the Eng dub/JP audio + titles (on a separate monitor). I read about Star Wars purists doing such a sync to watch a Spanish print of the original (with some sync drift but apparently just finding some sync point and starting audio playback there), and I've also done research on locking external audio to the film framerate with a sprocket tachometer or encoder projector mod and software to either vary the sound playback or perhaps the motor speed (found info on this from film makers shooting sync sound on a budget).

What an artifact - the real thing still in the analog domain with no conversion to video, no digitization, just thousands of feet of pictures. Estimates for resolution of a 35mm frame are 87 megapixels, something like at least 4k resolution, and it's an organic thing that's hard to quantify in many ways - a photochemical exposure few generations removed from the film negatives made during production.

Time Etranger DVD for comparison. An epic unboxing:
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Some frames taken by the seller:
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karageko
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Re: Collecting anime film prints - Starzan!

Post by karageko »

I'm amazed you got a good price (though I don't know much about the market for this stuff) on a Ghibli print, nice! Very surprising that someone would let this go. I'm also envious of all the space you must have to be able to engage with such a hobby :lol: ; I was thinking about a small vinyl collection until I realized this was just a bad idea and that I don't have the space for this right now. I really wish some of those older 80s soundtracks would be put on CD (or a larger CD print run), or sold digitally, sigh. Anywho, if I'm not willing to do vinyl then film is a definite no for me, but tons of respect to you.
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cosmosamurai
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Re: Collecting anime film prints - Starzan!

Post by cosmosamurai »

Yeah, I was really surprised when it appeared and for a price I didn't have to think about. Nice unfaded color, as it had to be struck some time in probably the mid 90s (guessing) and film stock by that point had the chemistry worked out so it won't fade to red. Very bulky! The 9 reels of film weigh around 40 pounds, not mounted on reels or in cans. 35mm projectors are even crazier - one Japanese made PJ "head", consisting of the intermittent gear/gate/lens turret/drive motor, I was looking into alone weighed too much for regular shipping and needed freight (and that's without a base, reel takeup arms, and lamphouse unit). Not super expensive machines tho, just the logistics of bulk, and things like light source (most want 220v, carbon arc is smoky and not good at home, and larger xenon lamps are scary pressurized). They made "portable" ones (still prob at least 100 pounds) but those are harder to come by.

Have a pile of laserdiscs adds to the space crunch as well - like vinyl records, only thicker and heavier with those amazing huge boxes (like my Ghibli Ga Ippai set). But yeah, a precious thing to come across in far off Russia - between the Totoro Troma dub print I saw literally last millennium on eBay, that Spirited Away up now, and my GOTF, you can count the chance to own a Ghibli 35mm on one hand. Even the shipping price was good: guy undercharged by like $10 based on the customs declaration and it was little more than the usual rate for heavy prints shipped within the USA, and all the way from Russia by EMS air. You couldn't even rent a copy of this on film from the distributor for one screening for so little. The fate for all too many film prints is to be shredded, and the pickings for the larger format in places like Japan are naturally slim because of space crunch.
gaijinpunch
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Re: Collecting anime film prints - Starzan!

Post by gaijinpunch »

Congrats -- that looks like an amazing find.
Yeah, I was really surprised when it appeared and for a price I didn't have to think about. Nice unfaded color, as it had to be struck some time in probably the mid 90s (guessing) and film stock by that point had the chemistry worked out so it won't fade to red
Don't be so sure. Tons of reversal film can color shift all sorts of ways if it's not properly stored, or if it's simply not that great, or both. There's no way you can really know that for sure, especially w/ a Russian production. If you love that thing, buy a small freezer and store it in there.
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llj
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Re: Collecting anime film prints - Starzan!

Post by llj »

Great thread.

Now if only we can find someone who has a 35mm theatrical print of Project A-Ko
cosmosamurai
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Re: Collecting anime film prints - Starzan!

Post by cosmosamurai »

llj wrote: Tue Nov 06, 2018 3:12 pm Great thread.

Now if only we can find someone who has a 35mm theatrical print of Project A-Ko
Thanks! Man, I would kill for an A-Ko print as well: I have fond memories of watching it back on the Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday Anime block. Made some progress acquiring equipment to work with my Grave print as well: got a pile of 35mm reels from a fellow film collector (he donated them for my project!) and a set of large pro rewind cranks so I can spool it onto the reels (was tough to find a set of rewinds in 35mm for cheap, but finally have them).
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