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Author Topic: Midnight Shows Dustin Mitchell Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1865 From: Mondovi, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 08-12-2005 06:48 PM                     Especially since they must be proximity cues. How can a proximity cue 'wear off' and if it is you certainly have more to worry about in the way of film damage than improper cueing.  |  IP: Logged Heath Dutton Film Handler Posts: 37 From: Montgomery, Alabama / United States of America Registered: Jul 2005 posted 08-12-2005 07:45 PM                     If you have more than one house, I would say it's ok to preview 2 films at once, especially if they are identical prints. I have done this several times by playing them at the same time in adjacent auditoriums. I would then jump from behind one window to the other every 5-10 minutes to make sure I saw the bulk of each reel. Usually if there is a reel defect it will be through the entire reel. Staying up all night to watch all prints by yourself is a bit crazy to me, you should at least train some ushers to stay and preview. As for the cues, what kind of cue-tape are you using? We recently switched to a thinner, less obtrusive cue-tape, but it ended up not holding up very long at all. So, we went back to our THICK cue tape which we wrap over the edge of the film. We have to splice holes in it, and it can interrupt analog sound, but the only place it's used on the actual print is at the beginning of credits so it's rarely noticable. And the thick stuff never stops working. Sometimes the cue-detectors aren't as sensitive as they should be and thinner cue-tapes will be ignored when they are only a week or two old.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-13-2005 02:24 AM                     quote: Dustin Mitchell How can a proximity cue 'wear off' and if it is you certainly have more to worry about in the way of film damage than improper cueing. If you have those FP-350's mounted below your Simplexes, and if I know that I'm running a show for quite a long time, I'll slap some splicing tape over the cue tape to keep the tape from "cracking" and wearing out. Cue tape does wear out over time for the simple reason that we are dealing with aluminum foil that has an adhesive material on the back side. Being aluminum and not liking to flex too much, and with film being so flexible, the foil will eventually start to crack and break down, espeically if foil is laid over the film lengthwise in the direction of the film. When the foil starts to crack, it's not a continual piece of metal, but "flakes" of metal that is held together by the adhesion of the glue backing material. This breakdown is what the FP350's can't sense very well. They need the line of continuity of the metal to function correctly. Christie units with the SPECO failsafe detector for the 3Q default automation, has the three sensors that reads the strip of metal that is position on the film. This failsafe will also need "fresh" cues placed after time-especially with houses that run the same print month after month. Now, some houses with the SPECO failsafe detector, will take a paper punch and make "punchout dots" from the cue tape to place on the film for cue pickup being that the SPECO is quite sensitive. Thick cue tape isn't the answer. Use the thin tape for better pickup and do the tape thing to cover it. I've done the thick tape and it's not as sensitive as the thin stuff. Just been there and done that too many times - replacing cue tape after a fashion. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Carl Martin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1424 From: Oakland, CA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 08-13-2005 03:46 AM                        with the rolls of foil cue tape (brand unknown) that we traditionally used, sometimes the cues would wear down and fail, necessitating replacement. recently, i've been using the aucuta II strips, and haven't had a failure so far. granted, we haven't really played a film to death in that time so it may happen yet. but it peels better than the rolled stuff too. i don't like putting tape over the cue as it shows on screen. whether it makes the cue last longer, i don't know. i experimented briefly with cutting the cue strips narrower to be less visible on scope films. that was a disaster. lots of missed cues. (of course it worked fine on the test screening.) i haven't tried it yet with the aucuta II though, so there's something to play around with in the future. carl  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-13-2005 04:51 AM                     ..a little tip: if you place the cue on the film where it doesn't carry over onto the picture, place the cuetape dead center of the side of the frame-inbetween the two center sprocketholes, then you can draw the splicing tape that will cover the frame completely from edge to edge so the tape won't be seen during presentation. Plus, with the covering of the cuetape with splicing tape, the punch set of the splicer will punch out the edges of the cuetape as well. Takes a bit of time to do this, but no problems occur with this method. Just some tricks that I've figured out over the years.... -Monte  |  IP: Logged Will Wheatley Uhl Film Handler Posts: 10 From: Manchester, NH Registered: Dec 2003 posted 08-15-2005 12:48 AM                    Just to clarify, by the cues wearing out, I mean they litterally peel off. They are there for a day and then are worn clean off by the projectors and end up in parts unknown. The reason behind this is that the solution behind every shaky print is to tighten the gate, tighter and tighter and tighter. I usually suggest that the gate parts are looked at and possibly replaced due to excessive wear and trenching, but I am ignored and yelled at for cleaning the gates and gate parts. Just to Clarify.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-15-2005 03:17 AM                     Man...tightening up the gate more tighter is beating the living HELL out of the prints, let alone beating the hell out of the projector. Like driving a car with the E-BRAKE still engaged... What kind of machine do your theatre have, and maybe some of us can help you remedy the overtightness problem that you have so you won't be losing cue tape off of your prints.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 08-17-2005 03:55 PM                        Bits of adhesive and foil from the cue tape getting caught in the hot gate will build up hardened deposits that can abrade the print. Add excessive gate tension, and print damage becomes much more likely. Lower the tension to the minimum necessary to hold good focus and keep a steady image. Clean the gate rails/bands (especially hardened deposits) between each show.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2005 06:20 PM                        quote: Will Wheatley Uhl Just to clarify, by the cues wearing out, I mean they litterally peel off. They are there for a day and then are worn clean off by the projectors and end up in parts unknown. You either must be using the world's least-sticky cue tape, or something in your film path must be scratching the living hell out of your prints.  |  IP: Logged Matthew Stevens Film Handler Posts: 37 From: Colorado Springs, Co Registered: Jan 2004 posted 08-17-2005 06:51 PM                        According to Technicolor, a good projectionist should be able to build a print in 30-45 min. Thanks jackass, but in the real world, I have other projectors to thread. Thanks technicolor for dropping off "Me & You & Everyone We Know" 30 minutes before the first showing.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-17-2005 07:47 PM                     quote: Matthew Stevens Thanks technicolor for dropping off "Me & You & Everyone We Know" 30 minutes before the first showing. ..something like that happens to me, I just drop that first show so I'm not in a fetching hurry and could have possible problems to build that print in time for that lst show-let alone with lacing up the other machines, especially if I'm the only one upstairs. The first show isn't that important where patience and correct procedures in print assembly is. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2005 07:52 PM                     Print arrives 30min ahead of show time isn't a problem for a changeover house  |  IP: Logged John T. Hendrickson, Jr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 889 From: Freehold, NJ, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 08-17-2005 08:19 PM                     Provided, 0f course, that none of the reels are missing.  |  IP: Logged Will Wheatley Uhl Film Handler Posts: 10 From: Manchester, NH Registered: Dec 2003 posted 08-17-2005 08:44 PM                    My theatre Runs Ballantyne (sp?) Pro 35 projectors. Thats about as far as I know about the model. 4 of them are the type where everything, rectifier, sound box, and automation are separate, but the other 6 are the big cabinet type where everything is enclosed. The theatre opened in 1983 and I know that the original 4 projectors are still there. As far as any other technical information, I really can't supply it because I'm not really told anything else. And yes, the gates do develop deposits on the runners. I have, multiple times, removed the gate from the rest of the housing to clean the runners and other gate parts only to find them pitted and very worn. No one at the theatre trusts me enough to replace these parts even though I've been shown how. I hate my theatre. It adds unnecessary tension to my life and my films...  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-17-2005 09:29 PM                        quote: Monte L Fullmer ..something like that happens to me, I just drop that first show so I'm not in a fetching hurry and could have possible problems to build that print in time for that lst show- We get many prints delivered on Fridays, especially the ETS ones because we are a two-day UPS trip from the depot. This, coupled with my day job, means I quite often have to build a print in 30 to 45 minutes. It's old hat here. If I cancelled the first show every time it happened, I'd be drawn and quartered by the fans! The bitch of it is, if a print is scratched, we're screwed until Monday. But we play films quickly enough that about 97% or more of the time it isn't a problem. The biggest problems we have these days are those damn fall-apart reels and smashed DTS disk cases.  |  IP: Logged

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