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Topic: Changing Ways

Scott Norwood
Film God

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

posted 08-01-2005 07:47 PM

Yes, bleach works fine. I'd recommend starting with 20' (or so) lengths of junk film. Use about 1/2-1 cup of bleach per gallon of water. Soak and agitate the film. With a little bit of "help," the emulsion will come off, leaving you with clear film.

Then, transfer the film to a bucket of clean water, with 1-2 capfuls of Kodak Photo-Flo (available inexpensively at camera stores which sell darkroom supplies). Hang up the film and allow it to dry. The Photo-Flo will help it to dry quickly without leaving streaks or water spots.

The only problem with this is that the resultant clear film has no emulsion and will tend to stick to itself, which can occasionally cause problems. If you have junk acetate-base film, I'd recommend using this if possible (since it will break under stress, rather than stretching).

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

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

posted 08-02-2005 02:10 AM

quote: Dominic Espinosa
-Picture formats change only once everyone is out of the theater and an RP40 loop is used to verify the settings.

So how do you do a format change during an actual performance (e.g. from 1:1.85 trailers to a 'scope feature)?

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Dominic Espinosa
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1172
From: California, U.S.A.
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 08-02-2005 02:38 AM

Leo, We don't mix-n-match. Even if we had turrets I wouldn't use that method, too much risk in something going wrong for my taste.

quote: Frank Angel
By this I take it you mean on new, uncut prints, correct? Surely you don't recut already spliced leaders, cutting off an additional frame to get an overlap, do you?

Absolutely not. The reason I don't leave reference frames on tail leaders is because I don't want to screw up someone elses performance if he's running chanveovers.
There's really no need to re-cut a frame unless it's so severely damaged it would cause more trouble playing it.
In that case the entire reel is probably trashed and should be replaced.

Besides, removing even 1 frame in some instances will cause a noticeable "skip" in the audio, very distracting. Imagine cutting 5 frames or something stupid like that. I've received prints like this. Totally unacceptable.

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Brian Hogan
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 119
From: Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 08-02-2005 08:05 PM

back when i was working in the states, we had multiple copies of both formats of trailers for individual titles. here in new zealand, however, we only use flat trailers and ads. its much cheaper to have two copies of a title in flat, rather than two in flat and two in scope. we can then place cues on the theatre logo snipe to change format if the feature is scope.

and dont even get me started on splices! this company i work for now makes it policy to label ad, trailer and reel joins with little round yellow stickers. im not kidding. put the two ends of film in the splicer and stick the sticker on the gap. T3|H4 gets written on it, for example, then pull the tape over it and splice. this isnt really that bad though... oh wait, yeah it is, because not only do you see a big, black dot at every splice and interrupt the audio, but you have to chop off a frame at the head and tail of everything cause the stickers do not come off clean at all. the reasoning behind this policy is so that if you do ad changes or tear down a print, you will know whats what. it doesnt seem to matter that we have a list of all the ads and trailers and their order in the print on a clipboard. it is quite frustrating to say the least.

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Dominic Espinosa
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1172
From: California, U.S.A.
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 08-03-2005 01:45 AM

quote: Brian Hogan
it doesnt seem to matter that we have a list of all the ads and trailers and their order in the print on a clipboard. it is quite frustrating to say the least.

Redundancy is only good sometimes.
In your case it's a bad thing. We have film inspections and a projectionist should by no means be blind.
I've never had a problem swapping trailers.

Something I forgot to add:
We cut our media into 3rds which fits just about every film under 9 reels depending on exact length.
It feels good to not waste precious media.

Something I was wondering: If one were to strip, say, a trailer to use as clear leader where should one take the dirty bleach-water with the emulsion in it?
I don't think pouring it down the drain would be a good thing.

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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 08-03-2005 02:28 AM

quote:
this company i work for now makes it policy to label ... joins with little round yellow stickers. ... put the two ends of film in the splicer and stick the sticker on the gap. ..., then pull the tape over it and splice. ... not only do you see a big, black dot at every splice and interrupt the audio, but you have to chop off a frame at the head and tail of everything cause the stickers do not come off clean at all.

i don't really want to condone the above policy at all, but one thing you could do is put the sticker on after the tape. then it'll come off with the tape and you don't have to junk 2 frames.

carl

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Dominic Espinosa
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1172
From: California, U.S.A.
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 08-03-2005 03:31 AM

You could also try trimming up the labels maybe?
If you're not using all the vertical image in scope you won't see it or as much at least and in flat, if it's centered you can hide cue tape just fine on a frameline, label too if so required.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 08-04-2005 12:44 PM

quote:
Also leaders or scraps of film with DTS timecode can screwup a DTS player at startup.

Brother, if that ain't the truth! Especially, with any of the STRONG automation units that are software based.

I tell people to either put a good 10 foot length of black film between the thread lead and the head of the trailer so when the dowser opens the timecode hasn't entered the reader.

For if the reader picks up timecode before dowser opens, the DTS unit will lock up thinking that it has already receiving timecode, thus the processor can only go into default optical and stay there.

-Monte

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 08-04-2005 01:05 PM

35mm leader is really not that expensive. Depending on the type and vendor, some cost less than $0.10 USD (ten cents) per foot. So 50 feet is only a five buck investment.

Polyester (Kodak ESTAR base) leader is very durable, and should last through thousands of showings. But do use an on-line film cleaner to keep it clean, and to remove the buildup of dust and dirt it will pick up over time.

Even print film raw stock can be used as projection leader (although it doesn't have framelines):

http://www.kodak.com/US/plugins/acrobat/en/motion/catalog/printfilm04.pdf

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