I think your idea could possibly work if everyone in the booth is as anal as most people here. But let's face it, most aren't. Unfortunately, at most theaters is just wouldn't fly. No one at my theater cares about film that much, as made evident by the fact that they still use whiteout on the film even though I told them not to and threw all the whiteout away!! (I guess they have a stash someewhere.) So do you think they're going to take the time to match up soundtracks when breaking down?

I absolutely agree with you! When I became a projectionist I was teached to keep 2 black frames for each side of reel to "preserve" the print.
However I didn't want that my customers saw 4 black frames between reels so that other projectionist can freely chop away up to 4 frames without damaging the print.
So I decided for HALF frame for reel: in this way I have ONE black frame where I put a little sticker with number of reels.

I saw a movie in a theater with at least 20/30 black frames between reels...

Why does it cost more to print one extra frame? Because the lab has to make a duplicate of that frame. It's not just a matter of 4 extra perforations of raw stock. John explained it earlier.

Hey John, what a great idea looking for the edgecode. Wish I would've thought of that about 2:34AM earlier today.

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Lab splices? Of course, we all see them. Personally I HATE it when theaters cut them out with a tape splice, for there will always be a noticeable splice and jump there. Removing them with an ultrasonic splice is the only acceptable way in my book, but very few theaters are going to have access to one. In that instance, I would say just leave them in. They are NOT going to break and a quick flash (to me) is better than having a jump with an obvious tape splice. However, for those who absolutely insist that they must come out for whatever reason, there is no excuse for not using clear tape. Your situation sounds like a managerial problem of which you will just have to work through.

What is a brainwrap? I don't have those.

Dave, zebra tape is *supposed* to make breaking down a print easier because there are yellow lines at the splice. I've never been able to see a zebra splice come flying off of a platter during breakdown, but I've never missed *feeling* for a tape splice, clear or not. The ridiculous part is that most people who use zebra tape use the alternating section where the yellow line goes across the frameline. While this may be fine for flat films, it looks horrible on scope films and will disrupt at least one of the audio tracks. It's just a stupid idea in my book. Every professional operator I know uses clear tape exclusively.

"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."

But, aren't the reel numbers coded into the DTS and SDDS tracks on the film? (I don't know if they are in Dolby Digital.)
Wouldn't it be neat if a reader/decoder could be made and mounted to the workbench so that when the question of, "Which reel is this?", comes up all you have to do is pull a few feet of film through the thing and the reel number would be displayed?

In regards to your letter about your GM and managers not listening to you, I can tell you that I've been in the same boat. If stuff is messing up and the GM thinks the floor is more important, let stuff mess up. Let it get to the point where they're going to finally notice and that should help your argument on keeping people in the booth and off the floor.
As for the projectionists that you're having problems with threaten to kick them out or just go talk to the management. I was an assistant too and even though I had very little authority, I had authority nonetheless. If your management has a problem with it have a talk with them to straighten any conflicts there might be, also bring evidence of foul-ups and any breaches of company booth policies that the employees have commited. If your GM still won't listen, just one-up him and talk to your tech.