Ending Sentences with Ellipses …

Tri-X Files #11: 84_06 (The Blank Roll)

This roll is a bit of a mystery.  There is no proof sheet for this roll.  Out of the first 13 shots, frames 2-7 are either overexposed or were otherwise damaged in the developing process, so there are only seven shots on this roll.  All of the shots after the first 13 were either not shot or the film was otherwise exposed because the film is blank.  These photos were taken between February 14 and 17, 1984 (more on how this was determined later on).  There were basketball games on those two dates, and I know for sure that there are two different games on this roll because the cheerleaders are wearing different uniforms (as will be evidenced in the following images).  The next roll (featured in the next episode) also features shots from the game on the 17th, along with photos from a middle school dance that was taking place at the exact same time, which might be the reason that I aborted this roll halfway through (although that sort of behavior does seem inconsistent with my photographic habits up to this point).

The roll starts off with this shot of Mr. Stephens, sitting in the balcony of the Shirley Kearns Gymnasium, baton in hand, waiting for the Junior Varsity Basketball game to end.  This was taken on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14, 1984, before the Boys Varsity game against Western Anderson.  I have never been able to successfully print this photo as it always reproduced too dark, and I could not adjust the contrast to make his face visible (until now, obviously) — I had no idea that he even had a baton in his hand!  Note the lines that cut across the image … this was not the first time, nor the last, that I would experience scratches on the negatives during the developing process, caused by microscopic foreign objects in the developing tank or the film not being properly wound onto the reel.  Also note the extremely washed-out area to the right: the next six shots after this one are mostly vaporized.  There are some faint outlines in the images, but none of them could be detected by the scanner.  I am not sure if the film was bad, if it was exposed (which is not possible without the photos after this spot being ruined), or if something just went wrong when the film was developed … or if I just had the wrong settings on my camera (which would not be the first time, either).  I really wish I could remember exactly WHAT I was shooting on those six frames … or maybe it’s better that I never know.

Frame #8 is this rather silly novelty shot.  Keith and I were watching the game (and the cheerleaders, heh) from our vantage position of the doorway to the gymnasium, right next to the row of bleachers.  Keith had the bright idea of composing a photo to make it appear that a gigantic hand was coming through the roof of the gym, reaching down to grab one of the cheerleaders.  Of course, in a shot like this, either the hand or the girl is going to be out of focus, and there you go.  Note the bright white area to the left of the photo — this is the last remnant of the ruined frames of film between this shot and the first one on the roll.

Next, we have a frozen moment in time, where a cheer routine is captured in the middle of the action.  The three girls in the front are halfway through their jump, the next three girls are about to take their jump, the two girls in the back will be jumping in a second (there are actually three girls in the back but I cut off one of them).  The image from left to right looks like a series of stop-motion animation frames, which was certainly completely unintentional.

And here we have a photo of … a wall.  It appears to be a wall from inside the gymnasium, probably in the entranceway to the gym floor or even the stairwell to the second floor balcony.  Judging by the angle, I am fairly certain that I accidentally hit the shutter on my camera while heading back to the Pep Band section.  My camera did not have a shutter lock and so this sort of thing was not uncommon.  What I would usually do in order to prevent this from happening was to not advance my film after taking a shot (because pressing the shutter without advancing the film would do nothing), but apparently I did not do so this time.  Interestingly, this shot is actually more or less in focus.

Every roll in this series has had at least one Peggy shot, and this roll is no exception. This streak finally gets broken in [SPOILER ALERT] episode #14, so keep that in mind. This is the sole Peggy shot on this roll, and it is the most important shot on this roll, because it helped to identify the proper date that these photos were taken.  Note the heart-shaped pendant that Peggy is wearing — I gave her that necklace the previous day, February 14, and so this photo must have been taken on or after February 15, 1984.  Originally, I had the two basketball games on this roll as taking place on January 13 and 24 (discussed in much detail in episode #9), but this was before I had scanned in this image and enlarged it and then noticed the necklace, which placed this photo as having been shot at least on or after February 14th.

Back to the basketball game.  With the Peggy shot acting as a separator, and since the cheerleaders are wearing different uniforms, this basketball game must take place on Friday, February 17, 1984, against Mercer County.  There are more photos from this same game on the next roll, featured in the next episode, which I know for sure were taken on February 17th, as it was the same date as a middle school dance at which I took some photos.

And here we have the last shot on the roll, number 13.  After this shot, everything goes blank for no apparent reason.  Looking at the frame, there do not appear to be any white-outs or washed-out areas that would indicate that there was something wrong with the developing process or the film itself (in fact, the whole frame is pretty much defect-free, making it one of the clearest shots on the entire roll).  It is possible that I decided to abort the roll and put in a fresh roll for the photos from the dance.  I don’t know.  I’m drawing a blank on this one.

IN THE NEXT EPISODE (July 23rd): Rock and Roll, 1984 Style!

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There were seven out of 13 exposed shots on this roll, out of a potential 21 (as far as I can tell).  All of the shots on this roll were featured in this episode, but you can see larger versions of them in the Flickr set, along with expanded explanations and more useless information.  Plus, all of the sets so far can now be found in one collection.

NOTE: You can click on any of the images above to get a larger view.

Facebook readers: Click on “View Original Post” to see the images formatted the way they were meant to be.

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