FEATURE: A face of our city from the final day of Kodachrome.

Duty, Dignity, Demonstrability. In Kodachrome 64.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 10:20a, on the Toronto Islands ferry Onigara, en route to Ward’s Island.

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Photo by Astrid Idlewild [©].
Kodachrome Toronto registry KT2011001, image #82–36.

UPDATE: on the 16mm Kodachrome film reel of the TTC Bloor streetcars from 1940

Here’s a slightly more animated excerpt from the 16mm Kodachrome reels I found at the City of Toronto Archives this week. This was captured from a primitive Zeiss-Ikon Moviscop viewing device, and the film transport is a homemade hand crank assembled by the now-retired film & video archivist (for whom there was no replacement designated):

SEEN: 16mm reel of TTC streetcar in 1940 on City of Toronto Archives visit

A sneak preview of an impressive verification: the opening frames from a reel of 16mm Kodachrome cine film. The reel was prepared by the TTC in 1940, making this (for now) the oldest motion picture reel of Toronto in Kodachrome.

The reel appears to be about 330ft, thus making it probably a 5–10-minute film. The subject denoted on its canister are scenes of the Bloor streetcar line. By the looks of it, I’m guessing later 1940 after a wet autumn had rolled in:

UPDATE: Eight listings now in the KT registry! Keep ‘em coming.

After two weeks of initial interviews with collectors, custodians, and photographers — and forays into existing institutional collections — the Kodachrome Toronto registry is beginning to coalesce!

Also, before you read under the fold, have some eye candy from a new film scanner I’ve just finished testing:

Saugahenge, 18:25 (in Kodachrome 64), 22 October 2010
(photo by Astrid Idlewild)

[view full size (note: 30MB file)]

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UPDATE: Database for registry is built; interviews for KT registry to begin.

So here’s a bit of good news:

The Kodachrome Toronto registry, database version 1.0, is now built and ready for conducting interviews!

The project’s participation consent form is also finished as of today. So in the order in which they have been received, I will be contacting and setting up interviews with people who have volunteered to participate in the registry. These interviews should ideally occur in one of two ways:

1. CUSTODIAN. If you’re the custodian or holder of a collection — say, for a deceased relative — an opportunity for us to meet in person will be required. This visit, with your permission, allows the best opportunity to describe and make inventory of the overall contents. The better the description of what the collection contains, the better the registry search results will be for future researchers.

2. OWNER. If the collection is yours — even if you know it well — the registry will still benefit far more to meet in person for an interview and, where possible, view the general scope of the collection.

Interviews should nominally take about 1–2 hours.