FOCUS!

maggie~hamilton · Oct 3, 2007

Y'all "old-timers" amongst us remember those film strips we'd watch in grade school, that had the audio on -- *gasp!* L/P RECORDS?!

The teacher would load the film strip into the little gray wrinkle-finish film strip projector with a frame-advance button at the end of a long cord, and then fire up the projector.

Then he would start the record. Each time there would be a merry "BLONK!" tone on the record, he'd press the button to advance to the next frame on the film strip.

Well, I am working on a project for a graphics client to restore a set of those old film strips and convert the frames into digital images. Over the years, the once-vivid color of the film strips has faded to dull-looking brownish, maroonish hues. Part of the big challenge in this project, along with cleaning up all the dings and scratches, is restoring the original bright coloring.

I have really gotten off on a nostalgic trip working on these film strips. I can hear the merry whir of the projector's cooling fan, smell the slightly musty scent of the leatherette cases of the phonograph and projector, and see the lint particles dancing in the beam of the projector's light as we students pushed in front of one another to make hand-animals (and the occasional naughty gesture!) on the screen before the show began.

Here's the first frame that I have completed restoration of. See if viewing it doesn't take you right back to 4th Grade in Mr. Warner's history class!

selectomatic · Oct 3, 2007

It wasn't THAT long ago, Ms. Hamilton!

That's a beautiful image! By the time I was in school, most of the filmstrips had cassette tapes for audio tracks, and our new-fangled projectors mostly had automatic tone detectors which would automatically advance the film when the circuit detected the 'beep.'

We did have a few projectors with built-in phonographs, but they didn't often get used.

And yes, I was an A/V geek, thank you.

-kevin

petek · Oct 3, 2007

You have to realize that Ms. Hamilton is old, why even older than me by a scant couple of weeks LOL, It was a very good year though.

laundryshark · Oct 3, 2007

Have You Ever Worked with...?

I remember, *in our middle through high school's library,* working with these combination cassette player/film strip projector units designed for individual or small groups of students with single or multiple headphone connection jacks. In fact, my favorite kinds of cassettes to listen to were these sports tapes of football, baseball, basketball, etc. Long before OJ's downfall, I even remember enjoying a film strip about him. Since my eyesight was already getting bad, most of the time, I did not bother to load the films, except when viewing with one or more other fellow students.--Laundry Shark

cadman · Oct 3, 2007

Let's not forget the washer related strips, either!

Swestoyz happens to have a set of Maytag strips with 16" records that are a hoot. One of them was a 12" LP IIRC so we were able to play it along with the movie. Now that I think about it, "hey Ben, still got that projector!?" -Cory

djmjlcst · Oct 3, 2007

Dukane Machines - Vintage A/V Equipment!

I was an A/V assistant/geek squad person too! Many of these devices had the record player mounted on the back of the filmstrip projector. I remember one of the first ones that had a 10" turntable that you had to pull off the side of the machine and mount it on the spindle. The later ones had a 5" or 7" turntable already mounted. The filmstrip could be either automatically advanced using an inaudible beep or you could manually advance it yourself with the beep sound intact! It also came with a remote control with a push button for advancing the filmstrip frames. Still later Dukanes had a cassette deck on the back of the machine instead of the record player. For the real way back machine, I remember advancing the frames on just a filmstrip projector (Viewlex) and having a classroom record player (Califone or Newcomb) play the record with the audible beep. I also remember one of the nuns at my catholic grade school playing Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album on one of these Dukane machines while looking at some slides on a Kodak Carousel slide projector (another technology that's fading away)! OK, I'm showing my age! What a cool memory!

tolivac · Oct 4, 2007

YES I REMEMBER THOSE FILMSTRIP MACHINES!!In some classes we took turns operating the projector and the record player with it for the sound-lots of budding "projectionists" in those classes.Yes those great old Newcomb and Caliphone record players-and the ones I used in those schools had TUBES in them-the smell of the warm tubes under the TT motorboard brings back memories-Would love to run into one of those old machines.somewhere I had a fimlstrip projector-in all of the moves I went thru guess it got lost-was A "Viewlex" unit.I have one filmstrip-the history and care of our flag-the sound is on a cassette instead of a record.Also on the Caliphone players-the big Caliphone "C" over the speaker grill.Nice machines-and sounded so nice-classroom hi-fi!

maggie~hamilton · Oct 4, 2007

Ah, the smell of it

Yes, it was the warmth from the tubes in the phonograph and the powerful lamp in the projector, that warmed up the housings of these machines and put off that wonderful scent that I can still smell so clearly! The projector was contained in a tall rectangular case, both sides of which you would unhook and remove so you didn't have to actually remove the projector from the base of the cabinet. There was a little "foot" on the front of the case that you could move up and down to position the image on the screen. (I can even remember the distinctive scent of the screen -- now how strange is that?!)

btw I guess I am in "Antique Row" vis a vis this equipment since the projector in our school did not have an attached phonograph. What they had was a phonograph in a gray leatherette cabinet - there was a large speaker box (with a single big speaker) attached vertically to the back of the case that you could remove and place at a distance. When the speaker was attached to the case and the cover was on top of the turntable, the cabinet made an "L-shape." That's about all I remember about it, except that the leatherette was gray and looked like the same leatherette on a Model XXX Electrolux, and that the turntable was covered with a brown fuzzy surface.

maggie~hamilton · Oct 4, 2007

Projector case - a clarification -- the case had those metal "eyelet" types of clasps to hold it on -- they were on the left side of the cabinet. You'd flip open the clasps, then open the top and right side of the cabinet which was one piece, then open the left side, a separate panel. They were held in place by those same sort of "pin-and-slot" things that record player lid and speaker also had. Some old manual typewriters had these as well.

Does this make sense? Not too good at describing it, I know, since I was not an A/V geek but I sure was a Mimeo geek! All the teachers loved me because I was happy to run off their handouts for them. We've probably talked about that here before but I don't remember -- remember us students "huffing" the purple-ink handouts, getting a slight buzz from the methanol "spirit fluid" used to produce the prints? When the paper was fresh from the duplicator and still moist, it smelled the best. I guess you could say my first drug of choice was ditto fluid!

tolivac · Oct 4, 2007

The tubes in the equipment did give the strange but nice smell as the equipment was run.same with the tubes in home type TV's and Hi-fis,and radios.Esp those in wood cabinets-the tubes warmth made the wooden smell.any of the projection screens I have had or used had a Vinyl odor.what most were made of.When I used my McIntosh amps-these need caps-the tubes made a warm odor-since there was no wood cabinet.I still have the amps--part of using the tubed gear-not only the sound but the SMELL?Never heard tube using audiophiles mention this.I too remember the duplicators and the duplicator fluid.Bet with todays safety standards the machines could no longer be used-much less be run by kids-the new safety regs spoil it for eveyrone!What baby boomer hasn't at least cranked out a few copies on the spirit duplicator machine?Now I have seen duplicators have a hard time being given away.There is a neat thrift shop out my way that has a couple HUGE duplicators and he can't give them away.they were given to the store owner by a church in the area.He has a REALLY old Victor 16MM projector I have my eyes on-its VERY old.Comes in two cases-the projector and the amp,speaker.The speaker part has a very long cable so it can be put near the screen.the cable matches the projectors "throw distance".The store had a newer model of Caliphone record player-not the tubed one with the big "C" I am looking for.also remember as a child-on the weekends we went to a place that had Square dances-the square dance DJ-caller had the largest and coolest tubed record player-mixer I had ever seen.It had two large speakers (this was a Newcomb)and it was stereo.You could see the tubes softly glowing under the TT amp unit.He plugged his microphone into the amp unit.As the square dance record was playing-he made the square dance calls.Was fun-and I loved listening to the music played thru that machine-Truely a real portable record playing Hi-Fi.Would love one of those.And another thing-the red and green "jewel" pilot lights on the unit.SS units just don't have it-the clean smooth sound and lastly-the tube and warm cabinet "odor"

58limited · Oct 4, 2007

Anyone remember the reading comprehension tests? We had a filmstrip projector that would flash a sentence on the screen and automatically black it out and advance to the next sentence. The speed could be adjusted. After viewing, we took a test to see if we had been able to read all of the sentences - kind of a speed reading type thing.

I have an old Dukane projector/turntable that works and I also have a Jam Handy Explainette with a case of Frigidaire filmstrips and 16" records. The Explainette makes a loud humming sound when turned on so I guess a capacitor or tube is bad.

gansky1 · Oct 4, 2007

Very nice work - BEEP!

I have four sets of Frigidaire filmstrips and 16" records that go with them. Everything from selling window air conditioners to a beautiful 1947 presentation on how the Unimatic washer is made. I would love to convert these to digital, how are you doing this Charles? Converting the audio to digital with the large records presents a bit of a challenge, but a simple microphone and player would probably work OK. I bought a Magnavox "Illustrovox" player and projector combo on ebay that was used for these sets, but the projector has no bulb and I've not had time to research and find another.

maggie~hamilton · Oct 4, 2007

"I would love to convert these to digital, how are you doing this Charles?"

---

I'm using a high-resolution flatbed scanner with a transparency adapter. I scanned the film strips, one frame at a time, zoomed up in size to 7" x 10" and a resolution (actual) of 2400dpi. That's the easy part.

The hard part is then cleaning up and color-correcting the frames. This is very tedious and meticulous work. When I go in today, I'll attach a couple of "before and after" samples as I proceed with this project.

The film strips will be produced as video DVDs with accompanying full-color print versions. I am doing all the scanning and the prepress work for the print versions. Then a video specialist will create the DVD, integrating the scans into his animated production.

btw, if y'all want to see some of what I do for this client, check out the BUCKLEBEAR web site. There's lots of fun stuff there!

bucklebear.com