Recently “Ulla T. from Asheville, NC” came to us with a unique story. Her film had been soaked in water during a recent storm and basement flood. Once the weather cleared, Ulla brilliantly responded to this predicament by literally hanging her films out to dry. Normally water-soaked film can be permanently ruined if allowed to dry again in their original containers. However, in this case the film was unspooled and hung up on her clothes line to dry. Once hang-dried, Ulla simply put the bundles of film into plastic storage containers and labeled each film and bin properly.
Several months later Ulla found us through a web search for “Wetgate Telecine”. She loaded the bins into her car and drove them 4 hours to our facility in Marietta, Ga. The films were in surprisingly good condition. We prepped the film onto 1200ft reels for telecine transfer and crossed our fingers. The resulting footage showed minimal damage from the water. In the many years CinePost has been in business we’ve never come across someone who salvaged their film in this manner.
