Reel 2-Reel 1
Notice how the soundtrack is virtually silent. Now compare that to the other reels. The only other POSSIBLE reel that it could be is reel 7, but upon closer examination you will see that reel 7 starts with a bit of background noise whereas the start of reel 2 is almost dead silence. If that isn't enough to match up the leader to the reel, look at the magenta edgeprint and make sure the codes match (see pictures "Reel 3-Reel 2 or Reel 4-Reel 3" for examples). Finally, reel 7 ends in credits, so that's pretty obvious too.

Reel 3-Reel 2
This is a classic example of why people should NOT leave an ID frame on the leaders. Pretend that the frame of audio on either side of that splice is missing and mentally join the far left frame to the far right frame. See a problem with audio continuity? That would sound very bad.

Reel 4-Reel 3
Notice how the soundtracks follow a pattern, yet each track is different. There is a lot of stereo separation going on here, and there isn't a consistent pattern. This shows there to be a lot of background ambience noise with wide stereo separation. No other reel starts with that.

Reel 5-Reel 4
We've got a loud section of film here, judging by the width of the tracks. Also taking into account the difference between tracks tells us this is most probably more "noise", like the sound of a car racing by. Again, no other reel starts with this pattern.

Reel 6-Reel 5
This could be a musical passage. There is just enough similarity in the tracks to suggest this, as well as the pattern is not random, like the example above. Still, no other reel starts with this pattern.

Reel 7-Reel 6
As discussed above, this *could* be confused with the first reel, but the quality of these pictures is not that good. A good eye can easily tell the difference between this and the picture "Reel 2-Reel 1". Also, there's always the edgeprint code for absolute verification.

So as you see, there really is not a need to leave ID frames on the leaders at all. The only time this *could* get confusing is if there are substantial frames missing on the Reel 3-Reel 2 changeover, but again that's the entire point of NOT leaving ID frames on the leaders.

Also, in addition to the edgecode for absolute identification, almost every reel has a different tint to the film. Some reels have a "fake SRD" track, some reels have a "fake SDDS" track, some reels have a green, grey, purple, etc. tinted SDDS track, and some other reels have various densities of SRD track. So the optical soundtrack is not the only way of identifying prints without ID frames. You've got the optical soundtrack, the SRD (or lack thereof) soundtrack, the SDDS (or lack thereof) soundtrack, as well as the film stock edgeprint id.

The magenta Kodak edgeprint ID provides another way of positively matching the leader to the proper reel. Each 4000-foot or 6000-foot roll of raw stock Kodak supplies to the labs has a UNIQUE edgeprint identification number, printed about every three feet along the edge of the film (you can see examples in Brad's photos of Reel 3/2 and Reel 4/3 splices). Check the magenta edgeprint of the leader and the reel, and be sure the entire number matches.

Usually, the lab uses only one or two emulsion batches for a release, so the first two sets of numbers will likely remain the same (e.g., 2383 353). But the following numbers refer to the roll, slit and machines used, and will be unique on every roll used by the lab.

BTW, I still really like Brad's idea of posting photos of the frames either side of the reel change, perhaps in the "Feature Info & Trailer Attachments" section of Film-Tech. I discussed it at last January's meeting of the Inter-Society for the Enhancement of Theatrical Presentation, and none of the members objected, but there was some concern that images from the copyrighted films could be misused if posted on the Internet.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Matching up a soundtrack might work, but sometimes you can't tell if how many butcher projectionists have cut off how many frames. The print I received in the aforementioned state had a fair amount of damage to the heads (as they were not even taped down) and it would have been even more difficult to discern reel order by the soundtrack.

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As Gordon notes, that was suggested, but would involve the cost and complexity of having to make a duplicate negative of the film to get that "reference frame" to insert into the leader.

Likewise, printing the title and reel number along the edge of the print 6 to 8 feet after the head leader and 6 to 8 feet before the tail leader is already an SMPTE Recommended Practice (RP 152), but is usually not being done because of potential interference with the SDDS tracks.

The green laser printers Kodak uses would be prohibitively expensive to put on all release printers at the labs.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Well, if they won't print anything on the film, and we all know they won't send out a technical notice with every print, then I'm fresh out of brilliant ideas.

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I recall someone also suggested replacing the Dolby "Double D" trademark symbol in some of the Dolby data blocks with the reel number. You would need a magnifier to read it, but it would be printed through the entire length of the reel.

Maybe one of the Film-Tech participants from Dolby could see if this was feasible? Lonny Jennings? Ken Jacquart?

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion