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Topic: Homemade Platters for 16mm or 35mm

Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-25-2005 01:31 PM

quote: Brad Miller
Problem is that some people running films at home are running rare prints that often are the best surviving prints of a moviein private hands. Do you really want to see them ran on anything but the best equipment???

Since you brought it up...

My hunch is that people with rare prints would not want to platter them -- or could certainly afford to buy good equipment.

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Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-26-2005 07:51 AM

I've plattered lots of rare prints and don't have a problem with doing so, as long as the platter in question is trustworthy. I don't like plattering a film for only a handful of shows, but that is sometimes not an option, depending on the capabilities of the venue.

I had my first experience with a double-MUT last night for a mag interlock show (picture on platter, magfilm on double-MUT), and it worked fine. Like a platter, the payout is motor-driven, which means that it is actually gentler on film than a standard reel-to-reel system (where the feed reel is held by a friction device and the film is pulled off it by brute force). If you can afford to buy enough big reels to store all your films on them, it's probably a good option for home use, if you can find one for sale. It takes up much less space than a platter, and can be stored in a closet when not in use. You would not want one for a theatre, though, due to the time needed to rewind after each show.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 05-26-2005 10:07 AM

quote:
I had my first experience with a double-MUT last night for a mag interlock show (picture on platter, magfilm on double-MUT), and it worked fine. Like a platter, the payout is motor-driven, which means that it is actually gentler on film than a standard reel-to-reel system (where the feed reel is held by a friction device and the film is pulled off it by brute force). If you can afford to buy enough big reels to store all your films on them, it's probably a good option for home use, if you can find one for sale. It takes up much less space than a platter, and can be stored in a closet when not in use. You would not want one for a theatre, though, due to the time needed to rewind after each show.

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Double Muts are extremely gentile on film and I would be more inclined to run valualable film on a double mut than on a platter. The double mut is far easier on the film and is minus the payout head pieces so there is alot less to go wrong... hence alot lower odds of damaging film. Most folks are not aware but the double mut was originally designed for 3-strip cinerama.

Mark

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-26-2005 01:56 PM

I've known of situations with certain prints where plattering is not permitted. A theatre I used to work for actually considered modifying one house for changeover operation because they wanted to run classic repertory titles on one screen. Alas, they didn't for $$$ reasons...

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 05-31-2005 08:39 AM

It is the standard practice of most major archives not to allow their prints to be plattered at all, full stop. There was a panel on this at the 2003 AMIA conference at which the general consensus (with one dissenter) was that this is probably too dogmatic an approach, especially in cases where the venue doesn't have and for whatever reason can't install a two-projector system, but where there is a strong cultural case that the film should be shown.

There are also case-by-case variables, too: for example, if an archive holds an original '50s IB print or one struck directly from a nitrate interneg which has since decomposed, but which is classified as a viewing copy, I would be reluctant to allow that on a platter or tower/double MUT. This is because even though it's not a preservation master, it's still a one-of-a-kind element which cannot be replaced. But if it's a recent EK print and the archive holds an interneg from which it could strike a new one, I'd be prepared to allow a long-play screening as long as the venue was insured against print damage.

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