Topic Closed

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) (Page 18)

This topic comprises 100 pages: 1  2  3  ...  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  ...  98  99  100

Author Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-08-2003 09:50 AM                        [puts on asbestos suit] I don't remove cue tape. It's the only thing that I regularly do "wrong" when shipping out prints, and it's not an issue of effort or laziness. The only automated houses I run use platters; when breaking down from the platter, the film winds best on the reel if the speed and backtension are constant throughout the roll. Stopping the MUT to find and remove the start-of-credits cue tends to cause an inferior wind which might end up damaging film. If I were the next theatre to get the print, I'd rather have to find and remove two pieces of good easy-to-peel cue tape in the obvious places (start of credits and 4' from end of show) than have any sort of film damage to the last reel. Neither cue is visible on screen, so there should be no issues if the print goes to a non-automated house and the cues aren't removed. I'd prefer to ship out prints with cues removed, but I'd need to rewind the last reel twice on the rewind bench if I were to do that, and there just isn't time for that with 11:45pm print pickups.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 08-08-2003 10:25 AM                     When I was still working in the theatre area of the business. I worked a Saturday & Sunday double at this theatre in Westwood, Ca.. We got a move-over from another theatre of this film. The operator that worked Monday - Friday, built-up the show. Half way though the film the house lights came on to half then to full. He had no idea of what happened, he told the manager it was the automation. It ran 5 shows that day. So the next day I came in and the asst. manager told me about the problem with the automation. The other operator never leave a note on the problem. So I ran that first show and saw the problem happen. So I looked at the cans, it was the EK from the Avco Theatre. As this story goes at that time the Avco was an auto-changeover house. So the film was built-up on two 6K reels for the run at the Avco. My automation was picking up the change-over cues on the tail of reel 3, which handled my light cues in my theatre. On the second show the problem was fixed. But on cue tape removal, you never know what that cue tape will trigger on someone elses automation. The other operator did not know to look at the tail area of reel 3 for those cues. I had worked Avco, so I know what could be a cause of the problem. So I remove all the cues from prints when I do a ship-out. Now I only run change-overs and see many prints that have been screened from around the world and all the different places cue tapes can be placed. Some Good, Some Bad and Some Just Plain Ugly.  |  IP: Logged John Spooner Expert Film Handler Posts: 186 From: South Australia, Australia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 08-08-2003 11:09 AM                     Dear Mr Odell. Can fully agree with your comments on Film Tech re the poor condition of your print. We have the same thing in Adelaide whereas the 16 yo choctoppers at the multiplexes just quickly throw the print in the box. They do not care, or even not realize that the print goes on to other theatres like ourselves. No point mentioning these matters to our exchange personnel, they do not care and play video games. Regards. John Spooner. South Australia.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-08-2003 12:47 PM                        I don't mind removing someone else's start-of-credits cue tape, but what I hate is when they improperly place the cue tape OVER the perfs so it gets punched by the sprockets, and then won't come off except in microscopic bits. The worst cues are the ones that are made of reflective tape and are placed in the middle of the frames. Usually it's just three or four in a bunch, but I once had to remove "ten" of those bastards in a row from a print. Does that type of automation really require THAT many cues?  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-08-2003 03:12 PM                     Let's see...ten cues? Sounds like Big Sky automation to me. Must be programmed to flush the toilets.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 08-08-2003 04:14 PM                     I removed ALL cue tape- the next place getting it might want it in different places, or use a different type altogether. If you place cues that are visible on the screen AT ALL, you suck. If you use the edge-tape and don't cut it, causing it to shift the image to the side and/or drop out the Dolby Digital sound, you suck. You REALLY suck if you had a say in what kind of automation the theatre got and you chose one that requires placing cues on the picture area- what the hell were they thinking when they developed these systems??? We had a new theatre open in the area a few months ago that is mostly pretty good, with the glaring exception of their automation system- they put VERTICAL tape on the film, apparently in the center of the film for lights-down, on the right-hand side for lights-up, and on the left for show-end- I have never been in their booth or handled any prints coming from this theater, so I should not be able to tell what type of automation they are using!! I've sent the company a few comment cards and got the usual "Thanks for your feedback, your comments have been forwarded", but last night I went back there and they still aren't even TRYING to at least hide the cues as best as possible. This is enough to keep me from coming back to a theater, as the lites-up cues really spoil, and sometimes RUIN, the ending of a movie.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-08-2003 06:16 PM                     The Kelmar single proxy cue detector (used with the magnificent CA21) can be easily modified to scan the picture edge SDDS track for a cue. You will never see the cue pass on screen, it doesn't disrupt any of the sound formats, and the whole 1/2 inch strip of cue tape peels off effortlessly even after being on the print for a few years. Is Big Sky the only manufacturer who makes that stupid automation that puts cue after cue after cue after cue on the film, "counting the cues" to determine what to do? I could've sworn there was another manufacturer doing that same stupid thing. I agree, any automation that has that kind of cue system has no place in a professional booth.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 08-08-2003 07:08 PM                        No. Neumade does as well. At the Mann Bowles Crossing 12 theater (now Colorado Cinemas) they have Neumade Maxi-Pad automations. It requires 80 or 90 cues in a row just to turn up the lights. And they all "absolutely have to be on the frameline" as if the automation knows where the frameline is. But projectionist Jeff Skallan raised hell and shook his fist about this, so he and some of the techs moved a few things around internally so there wouldn't have to be such a barrage of cues. I am not sure what they actually did. If Jeff sees this, maybe he can explain. Note: Mann used these same automations in 3 new installs. When the built they Chinese 16, they switched to CA21's. We lucked out big time.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 08-08-2003 07:58 PM                     The first theater I worked at used a Xetron automation system with reflective tape placed on the framelines, we called them "Opticues"- before I'd even been in a projection booth I could see those damn things on the screen and figured out what they were for real quick. One of the first things I did when I got to start making up film was put a stop to them being onscreen- I found out you can cut them in half and they will still work, so they're completely invisible on flat movies, you do have to work on hiding them on scope films though (had to have the show-end cues come up during the 'vacuum cleaner scene' at the end of Scary Movie). After I left there they've since gone back to using the full-size tapes though, as I was treated to seeing them flash on the screen at the end of Lord of the Rings BTW why don't the producers make a big deal about these things?? Films come with tons of notes saying "Please use only CLEAR splicing tape!" but nothing about keeping the damn cues off the screen!  |  IP: Logged Chris Markiewicz Expert Film Handler Posts: 209 From: Glenaviegh, County Tipperary, Ireland Registered: Aug 2002 posted 08-08-2003 09:24 PM                     I've used the Xetron Maxi-12 automation, and it can run in two modes; individual address, where the number of Opticues in a row tells the automation which cue buss to pulse; and sequential, where one Opticue will advance to the next cue buss. I used one cue for houselights to half after rolling commercials, one for feature start, one for house up to half for credits, and one for show end. Even the full sized cue tapes were not visible on flat films, but did show on scope. You CAN slice them in half for scope use; you may need to adjust the threshold on the cue detector. Ours were all set too sensitive to start with, so every now and then they would trigger off a tape splice.  |  IP: Logged Jon Miller Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 973 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-08-2003 09:34 PM                     This beauty was included in the rant I posted last March (way back on page 12 of this thread)... Which automation relied on this brand of film defacement? I don't suppose it was for one of the aforementioned Xetrons, was it?  |  IP: Logged William T. Parr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 823 From: Cedar Park, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 08-08-2003 10:16 PM                     Jon there are only two automations that come to mind when I see that. The Christie 3Q used a center cue for early houselights and the outboard cue for dowser closer slides on. It looks like that particular cue set up may be a Bring house lights up right at the close of credits sequence. The other automation would be the TA 10 that used a center cue also but not that long of one as most of the cueing done for it was on framelines.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 08-09-2003 03:24 PM                        Regarding Big Sky and Neumade automations, they do have two modes of operation--multiple cues per event, and single cue per event. From what I've seen most people use these automations in the "multiple cues per event" mode. Probably because once the automation is set up for that, it never has to be touched again (very important when using minimally trained staff in a booth).  |  IP: Logged Ron Lacheur Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 650 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-09-2003 06:00 PM                     The theater I worked at used that cue tape that is shown in Jon's picture. It was a CineQ touchscreen automation. The cue detector had 3 rollers that the film passed through. On movies with content during the credits, the show end cue was very visible, causing a black " bar " to come up for a split second.  |  IP: Logged Jason Burroughs Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 654 From: Allen, TX Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-09-2003 07:55 PM                     The Christie 3Q automation does indeed use a "center" que, however all that is required is a small "dot" of queue tape. We used the SPECO queue aplicator. The automations that Cinemark used in their CFS lamphouses also used a center que, but again only a small amount of tape was needed. NO decent automation would need to use that amount of tape. I have to agree the Kelmar proximity detectors (modified as Brad has done), paired with the CA-21 is fantastic. I always HATED those optical queues, they were obvious on screen and were a pain to peel off.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 100 pages: 1  2  3  ...  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  ...  98  99  100

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.