A question about Transparency/Slide film masking tape.

[wonderlustking]

I'm working on a project for school in which I slice up pieces of 35mm motion picture film leader/scraps which resemble (mostly) famous abstract paintings (Rothko, Barnett Newman, etc.) and put them in slide mounts so that I can project them onto the walls of a gallery, giant sized using a carousel projector. The problem is that obviously the way I want to compose each slide does not always fit perfectly within the (approximately) 36mm x 24mm frame of the slide mounts. I therefore need some way to mask off certain parts of the slide. This is a piece of fine art, which I hope to add to my portfolio etc. therefore longevity is extremely important. Obviously most types of tape are off limits for archival purposes, heat sensitivity, etc. (like electrical tape and black hockey tape). My professor insists that there is a specific tape dedicated to this purpose but I'm thinking it's a thing of the past after unsuccessfully searching B&H's and Printfile's websites. I figured APUG would probably know best. I'm thinking if such a thing ever existed it was probably just a re-branded aluminium foil tape. Recommendations/advice would be much appreciated, please and thank you!

I've attached some pictures to explain myself if this^^^(above) was not clear enough (I want to turn image1 into image2).

 

[DarkMagic]

3M Litographers red tape

 

[rbender]

check this. I think there are different widths.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/271586-REG/delta_1_30610_mylar_tape_1_4_.html

 

[Vaughn]

This is what you want:

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/4147-3M-Scotch-850-Silver-Tape-3-8-in.-x-72-yds.

Vaughn

Added: or the stuff above from B&H...

 

[MartinP]

You can use aluminium foil, cut with a scalpel, to give a good hard edge. This also enables irregular shapes too of course. Combine the mask with the transparency inside the glass mount.

 

[Steve Roberts]

I tried proprietory slide masking tape and found it a) expensive b) hard to use and c) not very effective. Much better was aluminium baking foil, but rather than cut it with a scalpel for straight edges, I folded it carefully to give a clean, straight, crisp edge, securing it in the 35mm mount with the adhesive masking tape. I take no credit for this technique - it was recommended to me by Margaret Salisbury FRPS several years ago.
Best wishes,
Steve

 

[wonderlustking]

AMAZING, thanks! That is most definitely what I am going to do.

 

[richard ide]

I would be very wary of using any kind of masking tape. Some will dry out and some will become a gummy mess. These days there are far too many tapes being made by the " Lucky Golden Rat Excrement Extra Sh*tty Chinese Tape Company. Some of which would be far better if the adhesive was on the other side. The roll of silver mylar tape I use is (3m) over forty years old and has not changed properties at all. It is made that way for a reason.