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Author Topic: To Bloop or Not To Bloop Michael Brown Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1522 From: Bradford, England Registered: May 2001 posted 02-17-2003 04:26 AM                     Plus digital sound people won't be blooping.  |  IP: Logged Lindsay Morris Expert Film Handler Posts: 233 From: Darlington, WA, Australia Registered: Sep 2002 posted 02-17-2003 04:59 AM                     Always for me as well. Main reason being that most of the stuff I get to work on with the platter at IFT in Perth are nearly always old rare prints so there is NO option to chop any frames. I have to make do with what I am faced with and any gap due to butchery previously performed on the print I bloop the optical sound (as we are ONLY optical) with a black fine tipped permanent marker over the top of the splice tape. I may hear it go thru but I doubt that the audience has any idea of what is going on and for my money it is far better to have a quick fade rather than a huge "BLUMP" in the sound system. When the print is broken down the bloop vanishes with the splice tape. Even quite wide joins go thru the Ballantyne with hardly a ripple... just the usual clack as it hits the gate. All joins are done both sides and never seem to be unduly floppy even if the gap is around 2mm. Any film repairs done on prints get a fine V shaped bloop and it is barely noticeable in the sound. Lindsay  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 02-17-2003 07:43 AM                    For those blooping with ink, what pen do you use? I don't think Sharpie ink is particularly opaque.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-17-2003 08:29 AM                     Frank, go back and re-read my instructions on making an overlap splice. There aren't "short frames" from that technique, plus no two splicers making butt splices will line up perfectly anyway. If both of us make cuts in a virgin print, your cuts will have a much greater chance that the next guy needing to assemble it will chop off the frames than mine will.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 02-17-2003 08:54 AM                        Remember, with "white light" analog readers, the material used for blooping must be opaque to infrared to be effective in covering any splicing gap in the analog soundtrack. India Ink was most commonly used in the past.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-17-2003 09:22 AM                     We use mark-tex filmopaquer pens. [Do we bloop? It depends. Generally for a mid-reel splice I will, at least if the film doesn't have all-3 digital formats.] mark-tex doesn't seem to have a web page that I know of, but here is one of their vendors' (Decon Laboratories) that seems sufficiently descriptive. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-17-2003 09:31 AM                     I could see those markers coming in handy for those older acetate prints with "on the frameline" cement splices. Where do you purchase them from? Do you have a phone number? Cost?  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-17-2003 09:43 AM                     I don't have a vendor to recommend at this time; the last people I bought them from had abysmal customer service, and I've no idea who we bought them from before that. I'd recommend you do a web search or check with your regular graphics product vendors. You can probably beat this price if you shop around, but Valley Litho Supply has them for $3.40/dozen. If it's not obvious, we use the fine line version. --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Bernard Tonks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England Registered: Apr 2001 posted 02-17-2003 10:34 AM                     The very best pen that I used for blooping was the BLACK N50 PENTEL PEN PERMANENT MARKER made in Japan. I always found them quick drying and remaining permanent, high density providing you do both sides. The secret was to keep them secure felt tip down, and before use, dab on paper first to improve the liquefy. Always keep packs or a spare pen in a fridge! BTW I never had to bloop with a correctly adjusted tape splicer with Dolby SR system. The marking pen was only used on the odd Advert or Trailer that had a neg mark etc.  |  IP: Logged Douglas Curry Film Handler Posts: 21 From: Garbutt, Queensland, Australia Registered: Nov 2002 posted 02-17-2003 10:48 AM                        In our box, we bloop every splice made, From leader to ads to trailers to feature. We run SR, SRD and DTS. For our bloops we use a small, very thin (usually half a sprocket hole width) cut out triangle of white sticker (can't remember what exactly it's called...) and cover the join from the SR track out to the edge.. The reason we do this is 'Just in Case' there's a gap in soundtrack we can't visually recognise.(as everyone in our box has sleightly different splicing proceedure.) Now, I've heard some of you mention that u'd never/should never bloop in a digital print? Why is this? Surely one sprockets worth of soundtrack being covered can't be worse than possible crack/pop in the sound from no bloop?  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-17-2003 11:02 AM                    quote: I find you don't need to bloop if you make all your cuts the same way..emulsion up. This ensures nice splices with a slight overlap that I like to run a thumbnail over. And wear at least one film handling glove to smooth the tape over the join, even clean hands have oils. Doofus film handler agrees with this. I know the recommended method here on FT suggests hanging the head and tail off the same side of the splicer when cutting, but I don't agree with that. If you have the head go one way, and the tail go the other way, and make sure the sound track is oriented the same way with both cuts (either toward you or away from you), then even if your splicer is misaligned, both cuts will be cut identically and should match up perfectly. On top of that, the heads and tails will line up again of course, and if the next guy or gal simply peels off the tape, they'll line up again when they put the reels back together. This is no excuse to have a misaligned splicer, of course. But having a misaligned splicer is no excuse for making a splice with a gap in it either. And remember, if it's a particularly loud dynamic scene with lots of light going through the soundtrack at the splice, then a black ("blooped") line might end up having a worse impact on the sound than leaving the white line. So I don't think anyone can definitively say to "always bloop". Either way, I can easily hear black or white lines on the sound track that aren't supposed to be there, and I find it extremely annoying, so we try to concentrate on making good splices so we don't have to bloop.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 02-17-2003 11:05 AM                        A digital track may default to analog if the error rates are so high as to be uncorrectable. I suspect covering bits with opaque blooping would make error rates worse, and more likely to default.  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-18-2003 09:56 PM                     John, The supplies I use for blooping analog tracks and lab splices are as follows: available at your local blueprint and engineering drafting supply Black Rapidograph Ink Universal #3080-F for paper and film 3/4 fl oz $2.55 Staedtler Marsmatic drafting pen .50mm tip Model 700 / 050 $21.50 This ink is permanent on film and the point is small enough to control the bloop in the sound area. I often place a black covering over the image area where there is no emulsion as I feel that a thin black line is less distracting than a clear stripe on the screen. KEN  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-18-2003 10:18 PM                     Mark, Please do not misquote a recommendation from here. Cutting with the film always on the left side ASSUMES you have made the necessary cutter alignment modification that is all detailed on the one page. Clearly you skimmed the page and did not read through it.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-19-2003 08:30 AM                    quote: Clearly you skimmed the page and did not read through it. I read it. I should have been clearer though. The intention of modifying the splicer cutter then cutting both pieces on one side is to create a slight film overlap. My point is that I just see no need for the overlap. Even with your modified splicer, if you cut one one way and one the other way, the two pieces should line up perfectly. Tell ya what. I'll modify my splicers as you suggest (which I have no problem with, by the way), and when you come in to make a splice, you can make one that overlaps, and when I come in, I'll make one that doesn't. And neither one of them will need to be blooped!  |  IP: Logged

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