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Author Topic: Splicing Tape Preferences -- Opaque or Zebra Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-01-2005 06:41 PM                    Rhys, Just TRY IT! Make the LAST splice in a few prints using clear tape. Watch the shows. See the difference. When it's time to break them down, it's only one splice, so it shouldn't be much of a headache for you. Then when you figure out that it looks better, and breaking it down isn't that bad, then you've taken your first step to a better presentation. But, do it a few times before you decide to give up. I'll grant you that finding the splice will suck at first if you're not used to it. But once you figure it out, you'll be breaking them down with no problems, and your presentation will be that much better. Trust us. Try it, then give us a report in two months. My guess is that by then, you'll be ready to help the next guy who asks what kind of tape to use.  |  IP: Logged Rhys M. Blavier Film Handler Posts: 13 From: Richardson, Texas, USA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 02-01-2005 07:11 PM                     Brad, I know all about Mye... she was the one I inherited the booth from... and she never cleaned ANYTHING. No, she did not use opaque tape between reels, she used zebra tape because that is Landmark's standard... using opaque tape was one of the first changes I made there. If you approve of the splicing tape which she used I assure you that you would not have approved of pretty much anything else about how she ran the booth. I was literally appalled by the condition of the equipment when I took over, hell, the projectors didn't even have oil in them, they were all dry. The aperture plates are still badly cut from her tenure (one of the things I am still trying to get redone there that I acnnot get approved). And NOTHING about the booth or the equipment was in any way clean or taken care of. If you thought well of how Mye ran the booth then I don't think you must have ever been in there to look at it while she was there. She was popular and she may have known movies, but she was NOT a good projectionist and did NOT run a good booth. Reagrding the Inwood, I agree. Again, before I did anything there, nothing was taken care of. When I cleaned those booths and equipment it was the first time in I don't know how long since they had been cleaned. In fact, my efforts to elevate the projectioning standards at both theatres have gotten me relegated to insignificance and I am not even asked about anything to do at the Inwood any more because of my vocal efforts.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 02-01-2005 07:36 PM                        quote: Brad Miller Blah blah blah blah Mye Hyong blah blah blah no complaints from me blah blah blah blah sexy blah blah blah don't squeeze the Charmin blah blah blah blah... The highly coveted Mye Hyong. All I know is that I saw cases and cases of Filmguard and cleaning media when I broke into the booth.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-01-2005 07:56 PM                     Ok she looks cute so she must be okay if she stocks filmguard  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-01-2005 07:58 PM                        rhys, we work for the same company. i can sympathize with your frustrations from your last post. any time you try to improve something, shit flies at you from every direction. i figured things might be better in texas due to the proximity of the owner, but i guess not. i hope you keep up the good work that you are doing. (and use clear tape!) carl  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-01-2005 08:36 PM                     quote: Rhys M. Blavier If you thought well of how Mye ran the booth then I don't think you must have ever been in there to look at it while she was there. She was popular and she may have known movies, but she was NOT a good projectionist and did NOT run a good booth. Just out of curiosity, do you think I care how a booth is ran so long as a print that comes out of there that I end up playing is in pristine condition? Do I care what color the walls are, or what posters are hung, or what the projector maintenance was like or even how much movie trivia Mye knew? Nope!!! I don't care if they were ran on a platter, or changeover, or a tower or some homemade concoction either...just so long as the prints leaving that theater leave in equal or better condition than when they arrived. THAT is what matters to me, and THAT is true professionalism. Mye always provided that end result, and for that I have a lot of respect for what she did. Yeah I remember the cheap zebra tape that they had there because on a couple of instances I got a print from her on 6K reels, but at least zebra tape did not project a big black BLOB to the screen like opaque tape does. (Sorry for the slam, but it's true.) Still, pointing the finger at her for that is pretty low since she was extremely well stocked with that stuff by the installing company when the theater opened. It's really hard to have a company buy more splicing tape when you have 200 rolls of it sitting on the shelf, you know. The aperture situation is also not her fault. The original installers did not properly line up the turrets before they cut the plates. As a result, they went out of frame whenever the lens change occured! Not only that, but the projectors were not optically aligned with the projectors worth a flip either (probably a fault at the Strong factory, but the installer should've checked it). I know she had the service company come back in and recut some of them, but they were reportedly just as bad. I did go in for her once and cut a plate for a special 1.33 show a few years back because they didn't have masking to pull in to that format and nobody else she could find was able to get a straight clean cut on it. She wanted me to come back and cut the rest of them, but I was too swamped. So while I sympathize with you on the aperture problems, that wasn't her fault just like it isn't your fault now. It might also interest you to know that the equipment in that booth was USED when the theater opened. Yes it was "factory refurbished" by Strong, but I certainly wasn't impressed by the job done, and I saw the place a couple of weeks after it opened, as well as multiple times after that. Your last post seems to be blaming all of the problems on Mye, but really, she is not the problem. That equipment was not in great condition when the theater opened, and the problems you are citing are either installation related or Strong related. The end result is still the same. The PRINTS there left in very good condition when Mye was at the helm. They are no longer leaving there in good condition anymore. So you tell me, what changed? Do you no longer run the film cleaners constantly like Mye did? (There is nothing better you can do for your presentation than to use them religiously.) Do you have an operator up there that is seriously screwing up? Is the equipment really falling apart such that film can no longer leave that booth without damage? Don't misunderstand me, for I am not accusing you personally of any of this. Seriously though, something happened down there over the last year or so. Clue us in please so we can sympathize. By the way where is Mye these days? Didn't she move to another state?  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-01-2005 09:15 PM                     Ultrasonic print assembly is still an issue as 2 frames are lost if the next theatre (after a theatre with an ultrasonic) tries to reassemble it with one just like with cement splicers Ultrasonic splicers are really for use where disassembly isn't planed  |  IP: Logged Rhys M. Blavier Film Handler Posts: 13 From: Richardson, Texas, USA Registered: Jul 2004 posted 02-01-2005 09:18 PM                     Brad, When I got there no one even knew how to put the media on a film cleaner... I had to show them. My favorite was the "experienced" projectionist who I came in after when he had put the full media rolls on the take-up spindles and, as a result, ran the film across media which did not rotate but instead sat there and gathered dirt, etc. while running the film over it like sandpaper. No one knew how to use Filmguard either (I had never worked with Filmguard before getting to the Magnolia but I read what I could about it when I found it there and have made an effort to learn). Yes, there was a lot of media here and all of the boxes of it were full and unused. I was the one here who started using the film cleaner on a regular basis but I still can't get anyone else to do much, if anything, with it. If you say that prints are no longer leaving the Magnolia in good condition, I would like to know any specific instances. I can only speak for how I send them out because I am not given any authority to make any insistances of standards for anyone else here but I sure so everything that I can. As for how Mye may have sent out prints, I don't know and I don't care... she left right before I started working there. What I know is what I walked into and it was an unbelievable mess and what passed for training of the others who ran the projectors was minimal. As for supplies, what there was at the theatre was little used and difficult to locate since there was no effort to have any system or order to how or where things were stored. Now, I would like to say that I do not think that this thread is the proper place to discuss this, but if you would like to discuss Mye, I will be happy to do so in a way that does not put it all out in a public discussion. I did not bring her up, but I will tell you that what I found caming in behind her was a booth that was as bad as any I have ever seen. If you think that is is "low" of me to point this out when you mentioned her, I'm sorry, but I stand by my criticisms of her and how she ran the booth there. But as for others besides her who have been running the projectors here, I have gotten in serious trouble for trying to teach them anything or for trying to get them to do more than simply thread up and bush start buttons. Unfortunately, I can not be there all of the time or even as much as I want or when I feel I would be most useful so I often come in after not haveing been there for a couple of days and find new scrtaches and damages to prints. It does not seem to be a concern to others here. Some sympathy from people who know ANYTHING about projectioning would be nice as I get none from anyone I work for. It has been like beating my head against a brick wall. Maybe when Mye was still here with Rita, she was able to get some things done which I have not been permitted to do or have authority for but Mye is gone, Rita is gone and Tearlach is no longer City Manager (he has been moved up). If no one has anything else to add regarding the topic of this thread, maybe it is time to lock it to keep it from going down the road it seems to be heading. I almost missed your question... yes, Mye moved out of state... New York, last I heard.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 02-01-2005 09:30 PM                     Your theater has shipped prints to other theaters where I know the operators or service. I don't keep track of titles or print numbers, I just remember hearing the "what the hell happened at the Magnolia, I just got a shitty print from there" questions from people I know. No one ever had any issues with prints from Mye that I have ever heard of, and you dodged the question of "what changed". Perhaps the key here is Tearlach leaving??? By the way, you are the one who took this thread into a tangent. I am in agreement with one thing you said though, that this thread needs to get back on track. Let's everyone please keep all future replies to the subject of splicing tape.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-01-2005 10:11 PM                        Landmark's standard is zebra tape? I've never heard of that. We always use Neumade clear at the Embassy (which always puts on a great show). They used to use zebra tape for trailers, but never between reels of a feature. The full-time operator there is extremely fastidious and the booth floor and equipment are clean enough to eat off of.  |  IP: Logged Rich Ferrando Film Handler Posts: 64 From: Royal Oak, MI Registered: Nov 2003 posted 02-01-2005 10:52 PM                       I work for Landmark as well, and as far as I know (I could be mistaken here) there isn't a standard for splicing tape. We've bought both zebra and clear, and never had a problem getting it approved. Major fixes are, naturally, hard to get approved, but I think that's true anywhere. The changes I've made during my tenure in the booth have always been accepted (of course, I usually just change things without informing anyone, and then say "Hey, look at this, ain't it cool?" and they usually agree.) While I'm at it (way off-topic)- thanks everyone for the advice on installing multichannel external inputs on our processors. I tested them last week (played that cool Pixar THX/Cow Stampede logo from my "Finding Nemo" DVD) and the sound is awesome. I doubt anyone renting our theatre will ever use anything but left and right, but hey- the option's there. :-)  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 02-02-2005 12:58 AM                     I like the Splicemark 3/4inch splicing tape, for the size makes the draw much easier. Plus, with this size, the worry of SRD dropouts is eliminated. Great stuff for use in the megaplex world. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Thomas King Expert Film Handler Posts: 119 From: Sheffield, Yorkshire, England Registered: Oct 2004 posted 02-02-2005 09:07 PM                        When making down Scarface (10 reels: played to death) in the dark today, an excellent reason for marking splices visibly came to mind: when you've got on average 25 or more instances of splicing tape per reel, doing it by feel can take a very long time  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 02-02-2005 09:14 PM                     quote: Thomas King in the dark today, an excellent reason for marking splices visibly.... ..you, then need some LIGHT in that booth to see what you're doing, for safety reasons, besides seeing the splices on an old print like that. I modified a MUT (Strong) with an outlet to attach a light bar on the roller pole so I can see my work area around the platter when doing the "make and break" time-being that I had such a dimly lit booth, plus a bit on the cramped side. Dark booths are unsafe and dangerous at times, esp. for newbies. Whereas the newer complexes require certain lighting arrangements to satisfy the insurance people, the way lawsuits are growing these days. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Thomas King Expert Film Handler Posts: 119 From: Sheffield, Yorkshire, England Registered: Oct 2004 posted 02-02-2005 09:44 PM                        Sadly we have a booth that's right at the back of the auditorium (no elevation) and with a wide window, so we can't have much light inside! Being technically a student society we don't have to pay quite so much attention to health and safety regulations; my caveat is that when in the dark; I do everything really slowly. And I have my trusty lightbox so that I don't have to ruin my eyesight (more) by squinting at clipframes. I'm working on constructing an white LED array for my platter and MUT, which might make things much easier.  |  IP: Logged

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