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Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers)
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Jon Miller
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 973
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 09-18-2003 11:00 PM
Add this beauty to the "you suck" hall of shame: reel numbers scribed into the film!
I went to see "El Segundo Aire," the Mexican feature I mentioned in this thread last March, which returned to the Madstone in Hazard Center for a weeklong engagement as part of a special series. After the show I went up to the booth to check if it was the print I handled earlier (and complained about)...it was, since it had a remnant of the tail ID I put at the end of the feature (someone else broke down the print after the festival showing).
Anyway, as the reel changes went through, I noticed some scribed numbers briefly flashing on the screen one second before and after each reel splice, amid all the scratches and myriad cue marks. Apparently, someone who handled the print after I ran it last March and before it revisited the Madstone thought the reel changes weren't marred enough, and went ahead and scratched numbers on the frames to identify the reels. Granted, they were small numbers near the right edge of the projected image, but it was an obvious mutilation nonetheless.
I shudder to think of other prints that may have been mutilated in the same way. ![[Mad]](mad.gif) ![[puke]](graemlins/puke.gif)
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Barry Floyd
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1079
From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
Registered: Mar 2000
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posted 09-19-2003 12:36 PM
Until I actually had to work with prints, I always thought you guys we're "nit-pickers".... boy have I learned a thing or two in recent weeks.
I don't know which theatre had my print of Jeepers Creepers 2 before I did, but whoever they were... sucked!
No of the heads were attached to the prints, at the end of each reel, instead of using a single sided splice to re-attach the tail, they FOLDED the end of the print 4-5 frames and creased it so it would hold. I tried to no avail to straighten the crease, but I doubt it would have gone through the platter brain the way it was creased. On the last reel (Reel 5), they had cut the credits off, leaving about 1/3 of the last reel on the core. Since the part of the credits they did previously show were chopped off, folded and creased, I was going to cut off those four frames and splice the remaining credits back on the print and send them over to the platter. Since the credits are white letters on a solid black background, there were no frame lines for me to use as a guide.
So more than likely, when the credits hit the screen tonight they will more than likely be out of frame.
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Jon Miller
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 973
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 09-19-2003 07:02 PM
Mike--Which screen was dirty? I did not notice any dirt on the screen of #5, the auditorium which Aire was screened in. Also, AFAIK, #6 was OK as of last March (whenever I run festivals there, #6 is my home).
"Aire" was most likely made up with Zebra tape, as I did not see the tell-tale flash of opaque splices at the reel changes. Maybe someone used opaque when they made up the prints you saw. I'll know the splicing-tape situation when I return for Asian come the first weekend in October.
Carl--The print is from south of the border. And, yes, scribing reel numbers is mentioned Film Notes for the Reel People issues H-50-3 and H-50-11. I'm surprised Kodak made such a suggestion. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
(Edited to correct the title of Reel Notes, botched by an attack of lysdexia ![[Smile]](smile.gif) )
[ 09-19-2003, 08:54 PM: Message edited by: Jon Miller ]
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Lauren Fisher
Film Handler
Posts: 12
From: Dallas, TX, USA
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 09-26-2003 04:28 AM
here's a great one...
we recently receive the lost gospel of john, a 3 hour, ten reel print and the 6th reel had no sound line.
that's right no sound line, no dolby no sr no nothing. it looked a little strange but our gm said to go ahead and play it until the replacement came in for it.
so now there's this 3 hour movie with 20 min of silence in the middle of it.
and to add on top of that about a month and a 1/2 ago when American Wedding opened, i opened the first can of one of our prints, and a musty odor came from it. it was molded inside, damp and yucky, reels 1,2,3 had water damage not to mention the enclosed trailers... and the funny thing is they were sealed cans.
so whomever keeps blaming this junk on us because of damaged goods sometimes it comes from the makers of it all!
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Todd Pettigrew
Film Handler
Posts: 2
From: Montgomery, AL, USA
Registered: Feb 2003
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posted 09-26-2003 09:47 AM
Most screening rooms use the old style of presenting films. CHANGEOVERS!!! It is easy for them to change reels since they do not run the same prints over and over, but rather run several different prints only once or twice.
Without platters there is no need to cut the film. Plus most screening rooms specifically ask for a new print to be struck.
If I receive a bad print I may be forced to run it one night, 2 shows. But once a good print arrives the bad print goes on to shipping reels and out of my booth is goes.
Training is the key.
There is no use in training a person to present film who does not care about their work. If they do not care, management should get them out of the booth.
In my experience, the management of most multiplexes has never seen an "Excellent Picture" nor have they even built a print themselves. Thus they have no frame of reference for what is acceptable and what is not. Unless some one shows the film handler one on one in the booth how to correctly build and handle the film they will continue to think they are doing a good job.
You start by showing new film handlers what a well built print looks like. Then show them what a good screen presentation looks like. I believe that film handlers should be on hand when repairs are mad to projectors, especially lamp replacement and lamp focusing. This allows them to learn about correcting lighting problems. Other problems like mis-timed shutters, horizontal weave and vertical jumping, gate tension problems should all be shown to new film handlers. They should be able to recognize what it looks like on screen and how to make the appropriate correction to allow the sharpest picture possible.
Another problem with the industry is management. Most multiplex managers have never seen a good sharp picture. They usually think they have a good picture, until I point out the problem to them. Most of the time, I show them how to correct the errors.
To me complaining is too easy because you do not have to do anything. We should always expect excellence on screen and have the patients to teach others the skills necessary to do this very specialized job. This is one reason this web site is so valuable.
After all, our job is not to annoy any one. Isn't it?
Keep it in focus. RP-40
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