Mould unlike with cheese, is not a friend when it comes to film. Over the years we have seen a rise in mould contaminated tapes. While we have some tips which I will give in this blog, there is no way to completely remove the mould without a long, fragile and expensive process. Contamination on film comes in many forms especially on tapes. We see sticky substances, dust, powders and mould, some easier to deal with than others. With mould the fear is always that the contaminate will force the film to become brittle and allow the film to snap or tear. The deeper the mould the more times this will happen. Our number one piece of advice is to have your material digitalised. This ensures the footage is not lost however, if this is not an option for you at present, here are some useful tips to slow the spreading of the mould...
Keep the material in a warm place away from direct heat.
Store the material in an air tight container.
Add 'Silica Gel Bags' to the storage container.
Make a plan to digitalize the footage, one at a time or on mass. You do not want to wait until it's too late.
That all sounds a little 'doom and gloom' but we deal with cases of mould almost daily, severe and mild. It is rare that the quality of the footage or physical tape is so bad that it can't be rescued, but when it comes to something so precious it is never worth the risk of waiting.