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Steven Gorsky

"What is the functional service that cues perform in a platter setup?"

Another thing they do is help to confirm the proper break-down points. If you're not sure if a particular splice is actually the join between reels, you can look back a foot or so and see if there's a cue mark.

It also provides info about how many frames have been lost to artless build-ups and break-downs.

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If I calculated correctly, a SMPTE standard sized cue mark on a 1.85:1 35mm frame covers almost 1.9% of the projectable image area. I think masking typically covers more projectable image area than that.

The cue marks and their placement have been standardized for over sixty years. Granted there are many platter systems in use today but there are still plenty of changeover houses, review rooms, screening rooms, museums, and so on that use 2000' magazines and changeover every reel.

I certainly prefer a neatly printed cue mark over a scribed cue mark. I've seen plenty of "added" cue marks over the years, small circles in the upper right corner, small "X"'s in the upper right corner, small punched holes in the upper right corner, large "X"'s that cover entire frames, large punched holes in the center of the frame, and so on.

As others have mentioned in other topics in this forum, the printed cue marks are a handy tool to identify the correct reel change splice when one is restoring a print to its original reel configuration after someone has used the "fill the reel and cut" method of ship out.

Going back to the original topic, in the case of LOTR image quality I'd be more inclined to blame the production itself than the theatre. I've seen the movie or parts of it in several different theatres, including the Seattle Cinerama with its Kinoton 35/70 and actual projectionist, and thought that the imagery, live or CG, was disappointingly soft (including the end title crawl). This was a Super 35 production, was it not? Whether it's the Super 35 origination itself, or the labwork, or whatever, I feel that the quality of the final print really does suffer with this method. I thought "Harry Potter" was a soft print as well, although it seemed the sharpness varied (and that was Super 35 too, I believe).

In any case, compared to the best 35 I've seen, LOTR's sharpness was not very good. In fact the Star Wars trailer that preceded it seemed on par resolution-wise. While it's still more resolution than the DVD, I think some would rather see a TV-sized image that's apparently sharp (ie for its size) than a 70-foot image that's soft.

"All three films were shot in the Super 35 format, and Lesnie requested that the ground glasses for each camera have only 2.35:1 aspect ratio frame markings and center dots."

"Lesnie employed Kodak stocks EXR 50D 5245 and 200T 5293, Vision 500T 5279 and, for visual-effects work, SO214. He rated the 79 two-thirds overexposed at 320 ASA, and the 93 one-third overexposed at 160 ASA. Lesnie eschewed timed workprints in favor of one-light workprint dailies to avoid any ambiguity about what was going on with the various units' camera negatives, and the printer lights stayed in the low to mid-30s for the entire production. He chose the EXR stocks because he sought a soft image with decreased contrast. "The light in New Zealand can be quite hard and contrasty. There's very little pollution and the light has a strong amount of UV in it. However, we were looking for a more 'European' sensibility."

"The release prints are on standard Fuji print stock, because Lesnie believes that "the combination of Kodak negative and Fuji print stock has a slightly softer quality. To achieve the desired effect, we did tests taking the prints right through the process with The Film Unit and Deluxe in Los Angeles."

Interestingly, for this summer's "Stuart Little 2", cinematographer Steven Poster ASC insisted on scanning at 4K resolution, and recording back to film at 4K resolution.

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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

quote:

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The release prints are on standard Fuji print stock, because Lesnie believes that "the combination of Kodak negative and Fuji print stock has a slightly softer quality."

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I assume by "softer" he means softer contrast? It would be somewhat disturbing if a cinematographer intentionally meant to soften the focus.