The Material History of a Nitrate Film, Part 1: Exhibition - Text 6
There is a lesson to be drawn here: film format is important, but its generation also counts when comparing different elements of the same title. Non-theatrical prints may represent the best available materials for some silent films, and be in much better shape than beaten or incomplete 35mm duplicate prints made several years later.
When searching for the best existing elements of a film, collecting institutions pay attention to both print quality and print generation. Camera negatives are generally the most coveted objects, but they give no indication of how the films were tinted, toned, or stencilled, something which can only be gathered from release prints. Curators are justifiably excited when they find copies struck directly from the camera negatives, because their images are sharper. In many cases, print generation can also be inferred from the frames’ right and left margins, where the printed-in profile of sprocket holes from previous negatives and prints is sometimes partially visible.
