Nitrate Film Combustion Test

EASmithV · Apr 25, 2009

Least graphic? What was it, a 1930's porno movie or somethoing?

Anscojohn · Apr 25, 2009

Kino said:
Bet it is footage of the Japanese subjugation of Formosa (Taiwan).

BTW: your footage was shot with camera with an academy aperture, so it was intended to be integrated into a sound production -- for what it is worth.

A lot of the early WWII footage is Full Aperture and shot with cameras of the Silent Era, so the maker was well-heeled.

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Formosa was occupied by the Japanese long before this film was shot. Of course, because the film was made in 1939 and 1942 does not, of necessity, indicate it was used in those years.

According to a relatively recent history of the Rape of Nanking in 1937, the Japanese gave considerable play to its attrocious acts at that time, in the home media market of Japan proper.

Stephen Frizza · Apr 25, 2009

forgive me but if the film was asian wouldnt they have used fuji stock? not kodak? just curious?

David A. Goldfarb · Apr 25, 2009

The Japanese occupation of the Philippines, which began in December 1941, better fits the time frame.

TheFlyingCamera · Apr 25, 2009

Fuji began production of motion picture film in 1934, so it was certainly around at the time of manufacture of these films. However, without knowing the history, it may not have been as high quality as the Kodak at the time, and if as a previous poster indicated, this film was shot by someone with deep pockets, they may have preferred to use Kodak product regardless of cost. It may well have been a private individual who shot this footage, and not a government entity - actually, in all probability, it was a private individual, as anything shot for the press or for the Japanese government SHOULD still be in some kind of archive in Japan.

Kino · Apr 25, 2009

Anscojohn said:
******
Formosa was occupied by the Japanese long before this film was shot. Of course, because the film was made in 1939 and 1942 does not, of necessity, indicate it was used in those years.

According to a relatively recent history of the Rape of Nanking in 1937, the Japanese gave considerable play to its attrocious acts at that time, in the home media market of Japan proper.

True, the initial occupation happened before, but they ongoing purges lasted for years. Yes, it could be Nanking or the Philippines.

Edge codes can only tell you the manufacturing date, not the shooting date, as you indicate, but the chance that a roll of film was manufactured in the early part of WW II and not exposed, it pretty rare, as raw materials were so hard to come by. There are plenty of examples of film manufactured AFTER 1945 that were not exposed, but I don't know of any before.

As to Fuji over Kodak, not necessarily; filmstock was so relativlely expensive that you used what was in the supply chain. Kodak was the dominant stock, even in foreign countries, for critical/expensive productions.

Anscojohn · Apr 25, 2009

Stephen Frizza said:
forgive me but if the film was asian wouldnt they have used fuji stock? not kodak? just curious?

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Someone would have to lukitup. I doubt Fuji was then what it is now.

Anscojohn · Apr 25, 2009

David A. Goldfarb said:
The Japanese occupation of the Philippines, which began in December 1941, better fits the time frame.

******
Yes, and to read Carlos Romulo's book "I saw the Philippines Fall" such atrocities were common. And, as I mentioned in a prior post, based upon the book I read about the Rape of Nanking, the Japanese military was quite active in publicizing to the Japanese public the kinds of things that were going on. I recall reading in that book copies of English-language newspaper stories about two Japanese army lieutenants in China in a contest to see how quickly they could behead 100 Chinese prisoners.

This film MUST be preserved. And it MUST get into the hands of people who can research it and use it. It is a sad, tragic, necessary record which must be used. Some good MUST comes from this.

John Shriver · Apr 26, 2009

That does appear to be a positive print on nitrate print stock. The clear margins indicate it's a print, rather than reversal processed film.

Stephen Frizza · Apr 30, 2009

Just to update everyone over the next few weeks I will be uploading images from the films to Flickr where they can be viewed. I Strongly warn that scenes in the film MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS but those wishing to view scenes within the films can do so at the link attached. I will be uploading more scenes when i get available time to do so.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29279649@N02/

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