Topic: Universal film vault currently burning!

[lyonsden5]

Holy Hot Flashes Batman!     Story link

I wonder just what's in the "vault"   

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. --  Two helicopters and about 200 firefighters were trying to protect the film vaults on Universal City's back lot, where a huge predawn fire broke out on a sound stage during a production, authorities said.

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Raw Video: 6:55AM | Images

The blaze was reported in a sound stage on the studio backlot at about 4:45 a.m., and about 200 county firefighters were helping studio firefighters quench the blaze, which reportedly spread to the New York City streetscape.
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At 6:45 a.m, it was reported that the film vault at Universal Studios was burning. Firefighters reported about a third of the building was in flames as they poured on water.

Firefighters at Universal Studios also reported that the King Kong exhibit was in flames, as well. Firefighters said the King Kong exhibit building was going to be a total loss and was expected to collapse, with flames more than 100 feet tall are shooting through the roof.

Several other buildings have been lost since the fire broke out on the back lot.

No injuries were immediately reported, said fire Inspector Darryl Jacobs.

County firefighters were hampered by explosions from propane tanks as they fought the fire, Jacobs said.

Two helicopters were dropping water, he said, adding that firefighters were attempting to keep the blaze from the film vaults.

The fire began during a film shoot, he said.

At least one sound stage and several other buildings were believed to have been lost within about 30 minutes.

Some park attractions have reportedly been damaged.

Firefighters were working to ensure the flames don't spread to nearby brush.

Check back for updates.

[Touti]

Every studio has a vault where they keep the unused film.  Most people don't think of that but film contains a layer of silver sulfur, this is worth a lot of money.  I worked for AstralTech in Montreal about 10 years ago in the duplication division which is where they make copies of the film rolls for cinemas.

I never saw the vault but I saw the door and someone explained to me that this is where they store the new rools of unused film.  They also recovered every piece of wated film and stored it there to sell it back where the Silver would be recuperated and recycled.

I sort of laughed at that because I thought they were screening for pennies but I was told we were talking about 100,000$ a month.

That may be the vault they are referring to, in a big studio it's probably worth millions.

[Najemikon]

Nothing like Americans for detail! Goes on a bit, but this video I found at the BBC explains it a little more. BBC

[Touti]

That was 2 hours ago.  It's still burning.

http://www.knbc.com/videostream/10954229/detail.html

[Tom]

It seems, the famous Courthouse Square has been destroyed. Mainly featured in movies like Back to the Future and Gremlins.
Currently it is used as the main outdoor set in "Ghost Whisperer". I wonder how this will affect the series.

[addicted2dvd]

I been concerned about the Ghost Whisperer set as well. Hopefully they will be able to fix/rebuild anything they need to before filming has to tart again.

[Touti]

I been concerned about the Ghost Whisperer set as well. Hopefully they will be able to fix/rebuild anything they need to before filming has to tart again.

Someone from the studio was at a press conference with the fire dept earlier today.  He said the show has 8 different shooting locations and that it will not be affected by this fire.

[addicted2dvd]

That is great to know... Thanks Eric!

[Achim]

I hadn't heard about this...

I hope Eric is right andf the vault is just the place with unused film.

In my mind though I always thought the vault is where they store old movies (...and that's where there term "restored with materials from the vault" comes from). If that is the case, such a fire my destroy some old films, like, forever.

[Touti]

I suppose that generally speaking a vault is a place where you store something to protect it so it could be anything.  In this case however it turned out to be the videos vault, the film vault hasn't been touched.  As for the videos, nothing has been lost since they have duplicates of everything that was there and it can be replicated.

Bad news for those who tried that King Kong was still on life support.........it burned.

[Jimmy]

In my mind though I always thought the vault is where they store old movies (...and that's where there term "restored with materials from the vault" comes from). If that is the case, such a fire my destroy some old films, like, forever.

It's rare that just one copy of a film print exist, but it's possible. By exemple "London After Midnight" was destroy in a fire and no other print seems to have survive, many non studio movies have vanished because of the little number of print made (The Mermaids is one exemple, all the 5 copies are lost).

Many time a movie print is found at a weird location. If you take some exemples from my movie genre : The Pick-Up (1968) was discover in a basement in Finland, The Bushwhacker (1968) just reappear last year on an ebay sale by a private collector, ...

One thing that could be lost is the outakes, alternate endings, etc... But don't worry for the print. 

[MEJHarrison]

In this case however it turned out to be the videos vault, the film vault hasn't been touched.

Well, that's a huge relief.  Everything used to make the movies can be re-built.  But it would be horrible to loose the movies themselves.

[Achim]

In this case however it turned out to be the videos vault, the film vault hasn't been touched.

Well, that's a huge relief.  Everything used to make the movies can be re-built.  But it would be horrible to loose the movies themselves.

You can say that again... 

It's rare that just one copy of a film print exist, but it's possible.

That is true. They can use prints to restore movies and have done so in the past. But the best quality is usually achieved with the original negatives and there is always one of those.

Of course, modern movies often exist on hard drives I guess...

[Jimmy]

That is true. They can use prints to restore movies and have done so in the past. But the best quality is usually achieved with the original negatives and there is always one of those.

I'm used to that. It's rare that the source of my movie is the original negative, since the genre of movie that I buy the most is not really respected. Many was not stored in a vault, even when they were a lot of negative was thrown in the garbage because the location fee was not paid. So a very damaged print found in a theater basement is the norm for my collection, but on the positive side this is the best way to experience the feeling of watching a movie in the 42^nd street. Sometimes, I think that the movies are restorated too much (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a good exemple of that).

[richierich]

I reckon they should create a poll of the film masters that people want thrown INTO the fire....

Gerry
Torque
Reno 911
etc etc