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Tim Sherman
Aut-O-Rama Twin Drive-In
North Ridgeville, Ohio

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http://www.autoramadrivein.com

Properly set up MUT with the roller as close as possible to the platter deck.

Properly aligned MUT roller. Note the film does not actually touch the platter until it has turned completely vertical.

Incorrectly aligned MUT roller. While this alignment will not scratch the film if there is no bounce from the reel, most MUTs do in fact have a certain amount of bounce to them. Thus, this roller is positioned too low against the platter for common safety. In this picture, the inboard edge of the film is touching the platter from the outer edge all the way to the center. This should always be avoided.

Incorrectly twisted film loading onto platter. (Note: this is the correct twist for breakdown.) This puts the emulsion at great risk of severe scratching if the film bounces during the loading process.

Incorrectly positioned MUT. This MUT is way too far away from the edge of the platter. The more distance there is from the center ring to the roller on the MUT, the more any inherent bounce will be increased and thus as the film pulls tight and then slackens scratches can result. (Pic taken at slackened point of the bounce.) Always position MUT as close as possible to the platter to minimize the bounce and to force the film to twist more quickly from the point where it leaves the roller.

This final pic is a closeup shot for anyone who still does not see a problem with the warnings above on how "platter scratches" can happen. Note: the rollers on the platter tree should be checked for this sort of thing, as many makes of platters come from the factory aligned too low to begin with. Couple that with the bendability of some of the brackets used and those horizontal and diagonal scratches can easily happen. Always make sure the film does not touch the platter's deck until it is standing straight up against the film roll on takeup and never take up the film soundtrack down against the surface of the platter if it can possibly be avoided. Running soundtrack down puts the emulsion at a greater risk of scratching if a roller is not aligned properly and puts the emulsion against the brain (many platters not quite tweeked to their "optimum" performance drag the film around the brain).

Also, the practice of holding backtension on the reel of film while loading to the platter is very much undesirable. If done with too much tension, the film can become cinch-mark scratched and regardless, the film roll will not be wound with the same tightness as simply letting the MUT do it's job without human interference. Erratic payout is very common with a roll of film wound with varying tension, which is also why reels of film should always be spliced together onto the largest reels possible before loading onto the platter.