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Author Topic: Hey you, you suck! (AKA: Outing bad film handlers) Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 05-03-2004 12:38 PM                     Joe, just look at the Reel ID page and look at the heads and tails. Look at the seven or eight frames. Cover up all but one with your hand and you can still tell what its supposed to be. One frame is the maximum to be left off. Personal Rant: Its a shame that this thread has gotten to be this big.  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 05-03-2004 05:40 PM                     I rearely get used print at my theater, howeverI recently built up about 7 prints for a new theater opening in town. I had never seen prints in this bad of shape. Maybe they sent the worst prints they had becasue they would be test prints. I forget what movies they all were, but one had no heads or tails and the retard tearing it down jsut filled up the reel and then probably used a knife to cur the perforation and tore the film. All of the prints had masking tape splices. They had one piece of tape going longways across the film and then they wrapped about two layers of tape around the film. It would have teken 10 seconds to use a splicer. I feel sorry for you guys that do get used prints.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-03-2004 05:56 PM                     Joe, you are retired (or should I say "wetiwed" since you cannot spell and/or think that is somehow humorous). Things have changed and reel ends are no longer held on long static shots that can easily have a few seconds cut off of them during a sloppy changeover. Also, FOUR id frames? I can understand some people having a need for one id frame if they are incapable of using any of the various methods of identifying reels which has been discussed to great lengths elsewhere...but FOUR??? I would fire you so fast if you ever worked for me you wouldn't even remember entering the booth. Please don't bring any of your bad film handling practices here again.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 05-06-2004 01:15 PM                    "Twilight Samurai" / Empire Pictures Print number unknown but it came directly from the Washington, DC International Film Festival with leaders hung on with paper tape, some flopped. Nice operation they have out there. Prior users have chopped so much footage off the tails that on most reels the C/O dots were the last 4 frames, causing a later C/O operator to scribe a full set of new dots. Might be similar loss on heads but no way to tell without the dot reference.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-06-2004 01:42 PM                     Steve I got at print of "Zatoichi" from Washington DC International Film Festival about a week ago. With all the same problems with all reels. It left me the a few days before so they could play it, and I had to fix it again after it played at the Minneapolis/Saint Paul International Film Festival on April 10th at the Riverview Theatre. I ran the print fresh from the lab a few months ago. To Festival operators, don't leave a Festival program with the print. Its like leaving fingerprints at the crime scene if you do Film Wrong.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 05-06-2004 03:46 PM                        quote: Bill Gabel To Festival operators, don't leave a Festival program with the print. Its like leaving fingerprints at the crime scene if you do Film Wrong. In addition to the "Reel ID" photographic database on Film-Tech, maybe we should start a database of fingerprint images, so we can track perpetrators of "Film Done Wrong" from their greasy fingerprints on the film. : The FBI: Film-Tech Bureau of Investigation  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 05-06-2004 06:24 PM                     Those Festival Programs tell what date, theatre and the staff of projectionists. So you know were not to send your film prints to play.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 05-06-2004 06:44 PM                    It's like fighting a losing battle. Realistically the only satisfaction will happen when I can charge extra for the considerable extra work required to ready one of these prints. But I can't do that unless enough others start doing it to where it becomes a typical trade practice.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 05-08-2004 02:36 PM                     I should like to put on record my sincere thanks to the unknown projectionist(s) at unknown venue(s), who have so kindly in the last few years brought to my attention how totally inadequate standard cues are. For decades, projectionists have had to make do with those silly small dots in the corner of the frame; how ever did we manage? A much better solution is of course to scratch a wide diagonal line, maybe 3mm or so wide, across the corner of the frame, not too near the corner of course, you don't want to loose it on the masking. A pair of scissors, or a rusty screwdriver should be a suitable tool for doing this. To make these cues as easy to see as possible, you should put them on lots of frames, the best I have seen so far is seven, I think. If you are happy with the position of the original cues, just put the new ones in the same place, of course, the standard cues may well be in a position that doesn't suit your method of working; in this case, please add the new cues in whatever position you find is best for you. Another major problem with the traditional cues is that there are only two sets of them. A third set would obviously be very useful, and there are two alternative positions for it, either a second or two after the motor cue (the 'oops I've missed the motor cue' cue?), or a good two minutes before the end of the reel (the 'maybe it's time I laced up the next reel' cue?). These modified cues also address a third problem with the traditional ones, that while they can be seen clearly by the projectionist, they may pass almost unnoticed by most of the audience. The new system ensures that all cues will be clearly seen by all members of the audience, a major enhancement to the film-going experience. It is almost never necessary to add new cues to a print, even where frames are missing this can be allowed for when lacing up, but these selfless operators are prepared to go to all that trouble to add their cues. We all owe them our thanks.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-08-2004 03:09 PM                     Stephen I always appreciate the extra effort someone goes to to mark the changeover cues with enhancements Just think of all the extra effort someone went to, to paper punch those extra visable holes  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 05-08-2004 05:58 PM                    How about a little preview screen so many feet ahead of the projector gate (rotating prism or strobe illumination)? Cues would serve only as an early warning...just wait for the first black frame, hit a button and a pre-timed sequence is activated rolling the incoming machine and changing over so many seconds later. Add a brake to slow and stop the outgoing machine within a few frames after C/O. Masking tape prints would only need to be fixed on heads, no need to wind out to tails for inspection and repair. Junk splice on the tail might hit the upper sprocket and get as far as the upper loop but it would be just about as you're changing out.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Procyk Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1842 From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 05-10-2004 07:29 AM                     Stephen -- I've seen worse. How about a scratched diagonal line... THROUGH THE WHOLE FRAME!!! I've seen this on sooooo many Bollywood prints it's not even funny. And this is usually on the last 7-10 frames of the reel. I swear, if this is the ADA's way of enabling the blind to be projectionists... =TMP=  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 05-10-2004 09:11 AM                    quote: Joe Schmidt 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. If studios would just deliver the prints a day or two earlier (like some are reluctantly starting to do) it would at least eliminate the "need for speed" excuses from the booth operators, and *maybe* presentation standards would improve just a little bit as people could be encouraged to take their time and learn how to do things right. But that's also been discussed at great lengths before.  |  IP: Logged Angel Hultzsch Film Handler Posts: 16 From: Caracas, Miranda, Venezuela Registered: Nov 2001 posted 05-23-2004 07:50 PM                    When the film Spiderman came to the theater two years ago, i see something peculiar in the reel 2 and 3 a very BIG green scratch in all the center of the image, but im impress with the pictures of Brad, this people may not be called projectionist  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 05-24-2004 11:31 PM                     Well I stopped reading this thread after about the second page because if I don't stop soon I will never get to bed. So I hope I didn't miss someone else already addressing this issue. Brad, I can definitely understand your frustration and have plenty of first hand experience in this department. Nothing ticks you off more than a screwed up print because of a lazy projectionist. Although maybe I can shed some light on this issue. I used to work for Cinema World in my hometown when I was still in high school (90-94) and for a few years after. Cinema World.........hmmmmm.......how can I put this lightly....well they were very cheap! First we had substandard equipment to say the least. They built the theater 3 years before I started and installed a mishmosh of used equipment. 8 theaters and 4 different kinds of projectors, 5 different kinds of soundheads, 2-3 different kinds of sound systems, and 5-6 different kinds of automations. The automations were so bad we would have to open the cabinet every start to a show and turn the cams by hand to dim the lights. (I got shocked several times doing this). We eventually just started flipping the breaker off to avoid being shocked. There were also 4 different kinds of platters and everything was in dire need of maintenance. The platters were so bad that when you started the film you would have to race to the take-up platter to slow it so that the carriage would not hit the top of it's travel and break the film. I visited my buddy who still works there part-time 2 weeks ago and the projectors are in worse shape than ever. You probably couldn't even get scrap money for them. I usually got stuck with the thursday night shift. At that time we were paid $4.25 an hour with no overtime pay. Our normal rotation required 4-5 movies changing weekly (we only had two theaters in town and we got a lot of bookings). So after the shift was over I would start moving the films (by myself), changing lenses, masking, aperature plates,(all manually) changing signs, breaking down the prints and building the prints for the next day. The platters and make-up tables left something to be desired. The were badly warped and had no constant tension. As a result the rewind jobs were generally crappy. Now I am a person who likes to take pride in doing a good job, but I had enough! I got so sick of being the last one there till 5-6 am and not having any help and having to jerry rig everything to get it to work because they would not send us parts! After that my performance went in the gutter. I didn't give a rat's who got the print after me! Chances were that I probably owed them one anyways for sending me one the same way! Once I started working at Cinemark I thought to myself "Now this is the way that a projection booth is supposed to look". They had all newer equipment that was well taken care of and on a regular maintenance schedule. We had checklists every night of things to clean. All the equipment was the same. It was like heaven to me. I am not proud of my performance then, but I was much younger and immature and I had enough of the cutting corners by Cinema World. Maybe some of the bad breakdowns are due to laziness (actually probably a large part) but some might be because of people in the same situation I was in. I don't know just a thought. Josh [ 05-25-2004, 06:19 AM: Message edited by: Joshua Waaland ]  |  IP: Logged

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