|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers)
|
Brad Miller
Administrator
Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99
|
posted 03-30-2004 05:04 AM
Bryan, if you think that every reel that the labs turn out is perfect and without defects, you really need to wake up. A professional will pre-screen EVERY print in it's entirity so that the film may be evaluated for presentation quality standards before the paying customers see it. When defects are found, those reels should be ordered from the studio and replaced. There is no legitimate excuse not to do this. It's part of the job.
You may think you are some kind of superior projectionist because you can count to six, but I've got news for you, putting the reels in order and in frame is nothing. If you don't screen your prints, your presentation is simply not up to what it could be. I usually have to reject at least 1 reel a month, sometimes as many as several due to unacceptable sloppy lab work. I find it hard to imagine that your theater miraculously receives flawless prints every week. If you really believe that, then your quality standards need to be raised, because you won't have many friends here with that kind of attitude. It's not a race. It's about putting on the best presentation possible.
While I'm thinking about it, reattaching the leaders with a double sided tape splice is not the proper way to do it. This has been discussed to great lengths before and the vast majority vote is to single side tape splice the leaders back on. This way should that print end up running it's next performance in a reel to reel house, it *could* be ran straight out of the cans (although most reel to reel houses would lay a piece of tape on the other side of the splice just to make sure). However since almost every theater runs platters, the overwhelming odds are that the next theater will need to disassemble your double sided splice. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that peeling the tape off from a single sided splice is many times easier than peeling the tape off from a double sided splice. The result is that most people are lazy and/or rushed, meaning that your double sided splices will in all probability end up in another frame getting chopped off of the head of each reel instead of being preserved. You are not doing anyone a favor by making double sided splices upon shipout. Do a search.
In reference to Daryl's comment, I have received many odd things over the years. Everything from an reel that 3-4 minutes into it started over to having one subtitled reel within a normal feature (brand new print by the way) to a different language soundtrack on one reel (again, brand new print) to a menagerie of lab issues ranging from picture issues to a complete extended length dropout of digital audio. The labs are not perfect. You are there to catch their mistakes and there are a lot of things that simply cannot be caught on the bench 100% of the time.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 04-18-2004 07:12 AM
I've had the luxury of running single screens. I always try to screen prints before there is an audience, but I would say this happens less times than more. It is not so much because of late print arrival, but rather that the exhibitor cannot afford to pay me twice the time for the show he is running; so at best I get to spot checking a reel or two. On the other hand, in art houses, the need to see if a sound track is missing or one reel has some weird printing error that makes it un-runable is very rare because the print has been run before. Any lab problems that you might encounter in a first-run, right-out-of-the-can-from-the-lab print have already been encountered by the guy before you and, hopefully by the time you get it, have been addressed and corrected by the distributor. At the very least, there will be a projectionist's note in the can about it. Bottom line, I rarely get to do the prescreening run that you first run multiplex guys get to do. And from what you are saying here, prescreening is essential for good presentation, at least in first run houses. Brad says: quote:
A professional will pre-screen EVERY print in it's entirety so that the film may be evaluated for presentation quality standards before the paying customers see it.
But then I got to thinking about the various single screens I work in, and I realized that the biggest drawback is money -- none of my employers would ever agree to paying me for the extra time that a full prep screening would entail. So, you guys in a multiplex situation....if you have an average of say 12 screens and let's say the average run time of a print is about 100 minutes, then when do you get the time to prescreen all these prints? And do you mean to tell me that the cost-conscious (read cheap) exhibitor is willing to pay his projectionist for a complete throwaway show for EVERY new title that comes in? That adds up to a significant amount of hours per week he's paying for on which he gets zero return. And then more pointedly, when do you get to do these prescreenings? From what I have been reading here, many times you barely have time to get the print on the platter in time for the first show. So when does all this prescreening take place? It would have to be into the wee hours of the night, no? I just can't picture it, but would be happy if someone could explain it to me when you are opening 5 or 6 new titles on a Friday night and the prints all come in on Thursday.
And also, who does the evaluation of the print at the prescreening? Is it the same high school kid that runs the booth when the projectionist isn't there? What good will that do? Seems if you rely on that method of evaluation, you might get just as much helpful information from hand inspecting the print on the rewind bench....maybe more.
Oh, and PS, I have a few projectionist friends that work here in Brooklyn and Manhattan and not one of them to a person says he's ever been told to prescreen new prints and certainly doesn't know when this would be done if he did. The only exception being special first run sneaks where studio executives are present or for press screenings, and even then, many times the studio will not pay the rental time in the theatre for a prescreening as was the now-famous case of the press screening of STAR TREK in the Astor Plaza in Manhattan.
The projectionist who made up the print the night before put two reels out of order. The morning shift guy comes in and runs it....no prescreening ordered or performed. Needless-to-say he got the brunt of the firestorm that followed. A prescreening would have caught it, but Paramount didn't pay for one.
So clue me in on how prescreenings work.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Zach McQuaid
Film Handler
Posts: 37
From: Erie, Pennsylvania, USA
Registered: Sep 2000
|
posted 04-18-2004 09:10 AM
The following is an example of a high-end opening weekend, so we're talking a ludicrous amount (6) prints with this recent, real life example.
Thursday afternoon (noon-1:00ish) - 3 prints arrive. They are all built up usually before 6pm. 2 people work during this time, generally one to buildup and the other runs the booth. At closing time (around 1am after the last movie lets out) and everything else is done like prints moved, trailers reprogrammed, etc. the closing projectionists and certain competent managers, and myself begin screening the prints. Without problems, we're done screening around 3-3:30am.
Everyone except me and my Friday morning guy goes home, at which point we begin building up the three prints that have arrived while we were screening the first three. First show is at noon, so we have a good 8 hours to build and screen 3 prints. Done.
As far as the $$$ goes, well it costs on average of between $15 - $30 to screen each movie, depending on wage of projectionist and/or manager. Total cost from noon Thursday when the prints get there until noon Friday when the first show starts = $453.00. $249 of that is just screening. It takes 90 patrons to cover that at $5 a ticket. (Around here, anyway!)
-------------------------
Projection Manager
Cinemark USA, Inc.
Movies 17
Erie, PA
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Joe Schmidt
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 172
From: Billings, Montana, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
|
posted 05-02-2004 04:23 AM
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Of course Brad is right, above, but theory, even if correct, cannot work in this world of cheapskate exhibitors. I would very cautiously allege that if we are building up a brand new print from the lab onto a platter, which has original leaders & tails intact, we are probably safe in going without a preview, especially for major releases from distinguished directors, such as "Cannibal Girls From The Tar Pits."
My practice many years ago was to leave four frames at the leader & tail when making up a new print to 6000' reels, or 13,000' in the case of Cinemecchanica, which would be a platter equivalency today. This is a safety, and enables the next house getting the print to be sure reels aren't mixed up. This is more important than trying to project every single frame of the print. Remember, back in the changeover days the switch between projectors was a slightly imperfect process anyway because humans aren't machines. And yes, the leaders & tails should be reattached with just a single tape splice on one side.
At the risk of being flamed, I will even allege that putting them on with masking tape for mass-release features like Cannibal Girls will do no harm since platters have become nearly universal everywhere. Should the film go to a single dual-projector house, as a practical matter it's almost a certainty the projectionist here will check the film.
As to cheapskate studios that won't pay for the time to do a test run before invited guests at a sneak preview or important screening: well the matter is out of our hands and they deserve everything that happens to them. Given the costs to make a film this is insanity. I once invited a director to come up to the booth with me and double check with me to ensure we had all the reels in correct order. He was very appreciative, and a friend was made.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
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.
|
Home
Topic Closed
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
in reel 5 of a 70mm print of Branaugh's "Hamlet"..good thing I decided to inspect each reel as it was winding onto the platter..the chief projectionist was laughing at me for doing it till I hit those staples ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
..imagine the damage to the Norelco AA if those had hit..not to mention the additional damage to the print!
Printer-friendly view of this topic