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Author Topic: Make-up/Break-down times Andy Summers Master Film Handler Posts: 397 From: Bournemouth Dorset United kingdom Registered: Jun 2005 posted 10-15-2005 02:40 PM                 Bruce’ I second that opinion I mean what is the rush, if a film turns up late I think it should be shown the day after arrival, after it’s been put together and checked with a projectionist viewing the prints conduction. And rushing the break-down, well I’ve seen some of the horror stories and the prints final demise in the can…which is in the Hey you suck !(AKA: outing bad film handlers). One other issue hear is dragging it across the floor like it where some dog, at around the last time I was working as a projectionist second hand prints where around £1,500.00 that’s still a lot of money, I mean I don’t even drag my Laserdiscs or DVD’s around on the carpet, and being told by my senior projectionist don’t worry about it, yeah I happen to care about, sure if the projection booth floor was carpeted in silk like fashion I still wouldn’t drag it on the floor. This is where all sorts of foreign objects can attach them self’s to the print, etc, etc, etc.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-15-2005 04:19 PM                        Assuming I've got my trailers ready and there are no "surprise" additional trailers pre-attached to the print and no "surprise" cues from the previous theatre, and the print is in otherwise good shape, it takes me about 40 minutes to make up the average used print and about 20 minutes to tear-down. Maybe a bit longer for a new print because the trailer reel has to be assembled at the same time. (Since we're one screen, I have to rearrange our trailer reel pretty much weekly.)  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 10-15-2005 04:38 PM                     I should've noted that I was referring to a new first run print in my times for buildup. And no Aaron, using a platter reel is NOT cheating any more than someone loading from shipping reels straight to an AW3 vs. a CFS platter. If that was the case, I would say anyone using a CFS platter is cheating since they will load faster if necessary. It's all a matter of what you have available to you. If you don't have any 6000 foot reels, or a rewind bench and slow-loading platters, then you simply have to work with what you have. Now allow me to flip that around on you. Anyone not utilizing the tools provided to them in the booth to do their job better and faster are crazy! (That includes anyone with a platter reel who isn't using it. )  |  IP: Logged Andy Muirhead Master Film Handler Posts: 323 From: Galashiels, Scotland Registered: Dec 2000 posted 10-15-2005 05:54 PM                     My fastest build was recently, 17 minutes for a 6 reeler on a CFS (+ all cues), although it was under special circumstances (print not turning up until 30 minutes before showtime). I certainly wouldn't recommend that kind of speed to someone inexperienced - you really have to know your equipment well and be pretty experienced to build as quickly without damaging the print or fucking up.  |  IP: Logged John Hegel Expert Film Handler Posts: 166 From: Lake Mills, Iowa Registered: Sep 2000 posted 10-15-2005 10:26 PM                        On a CFS I could/did break down prints in 20 minutes. (middle deck) Buildup could be done in the same amount of time, but I usually felt sorry for the platter system and backed it off.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-16-2005 11:22 AM                    Normally, build up takes me probably 30-40 minutes per feature, including assembling the movie and the trailers onto 6K reels, removing lab splices, applying cues, etc. That is while wearing white cotton gloves. Breakdown, probably about 20 minutes. But that does not include breaking down the trailers. That's usually done later, and takes about 10 or fifteen minutes for a pack of five or six trailers. No markings of any kind on our prints either. Even though we're taught to put silver paint on the print to mark the splices, we don't do that. Clear tape only. That's it. Which makes it funny when we send built up prints to other theaters. We hear it took them three hours to break down Eight Mile. My build up record is Gods and Generals, which was a 14 reel movie. All trailers that I needed for the front of the feature were in the can, which meant that I couldn't get that ready before the print arrived. We had guests in our theater for the 1 PM first showing on Friday by noon, but the print didn't arrive until 12:10 PM. When it showed up, our GM asked "What can I do to help?" My response was, "Go talk to the audience," which he did. All 14 reels were heads up, but I needed them tails up, because I build and inspect on 6000 foot reels on a rewind table prior to putting the film on the platter. The movie needed five cues applied to it, one at the end of show, one at the beginning of the credits, and one after the Feature Presentation snipe like normal, but also one at the beginning and end of the intermission, which was somewhere in the middle of the eighth reel. There were a total of three lab splices in different reels of the film, which I removed while building it. I had two muts going at the same time... one rewinding the 2K reels to be tails up, and the other loading the 6K reels as I finished them, and two rewind tables going at once building the 6K reels. The movie was done and on screen five minutes late. Soo... 55 minutes? What made that so sweet was that every other theater in our area cancelled their first show.  |  IP: Logged Dieter Depypere Master Film Handler Posts: 343 From: Deutsch-Wagram, Lower Austria, Austria Registered: May 2005 posted 10-16-2005 01:37 PM                     I build a typical 6 reel movie in 30-45 minutes (always splicing 2 reels onto a 1600m spool and considering the print is in good(!) condition). Sometimes it goes faster when the reels arrive tail up (haha). Due to changeover operation I can break down some reels already while the actual movie is still running so I finish about 5-15 mins later after the end of the credits, including cleaning work, packaging etc.  |  IP: Logged Paul Gordon Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 580 From: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Registered: Aug 2005 posted 10-16-2005 04:48 PM                        Regarding build up and break down...being a change over house makes it pretty easy, a build will take about 40 mins if the reels are in ok order. Of course they rarely come with heads or tails spliced together, and almost never with tails up and you always have to check all the change over cues, or make them with some foriegn prints. All our trailers are put on a sepearte reel, one for flat one for scope (3 trailers max). Breakdown takes no time as the film is taken up on the shipping reels if its going out the next day. All I have to do is tie on the id tag and put them in the can.  |  IP: Logged Rob Ferreira Film Handler Posts: 25 From: Conway, NH, USA Registered: Oct 2005 posted 10-17-2005 04:29 AM                        So many people on here talk of only using clear tape at reel changes, with no other markings. I am not blind, and I can see the reel coming up, but all the projectionists at my theatre are trained to make-up with the yellow edge-marking cue tape on the tail of each reel. Is this not something to get into the habit of doing?  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 10-17-2005 08:48 AM                    Start building up movies with one splice having clear tape instead of edge mark tape. After a few weeks, make it two splices. Then three.... They'll figure it out on their own. That's what I did. You should probably research on this site the various techniques used to find clear tape splices while breaking down so when they say "How the hell am I supposed to ....." You have a bunch of answers for them. Changing their ways won't happen over night. It will probably take a few months for everyone to be comfortable breaking down a print with all clear tape splices. Good luck! Splicing Tape Preferences -- Opaque or Zebra Putting together films with clear tape? Opaque Splicing Tape - Why? Silver Paint Pen for splice ID  |  IP: Logged Rob Ferreira Film Handler Posts: 25 From: Conway, NH, USA Registered: Oct 2005 posted 10-18-2005 01:24 AM                        Well generally even with edge marking you have to look at the print. I don't have a problem seeing the slight change in the color of the film reels that most prints have - so I can tell when a reel is coming and look for the change. I rarely miss a change over when it is coming through, even when the tape is not there. I am moving to work for a theatre that I know does not use edge marking, so unless they suddenly get some and start using it, I suppose I will have to be getting used to it anyway.  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 10-18-2005 02:12 AM                        For me it depended entirely on the print. My time in the booth was spent almost entirely in theatres which showed arthouse and rerelease titles, and there's a hell of a difference between prepping a one-of-a-kind tinted nitrate print from the 1920s and a new poly print of a feature on its release date. It also makes a difference whether or not you'll get a chance to run a rehearsal screening before the first public show. If yes, then I'd only look for physical damage that needed repair (e.g. lab splices or perforation damage): things like out-of-rack splices in the middle of a reel, showing a film in 1:1.85 which should be 1:1.66 or a track printed out of sync would show up at the rehearsal. If not, then I'd compare the positions of the start mark from the pic and track neg on the bench to check for sync, hold an aperture plate against various shots if I'm not sure what ratio that obscure Czechoslovakian B-movie from the 1960s is supposed to be, etc. etc - in short, do everything needed to keep the chances of an on-screen presentation error down to the absolute minimum. So really the job could take anything from half an hour to half a day.  |  IP: Logged Floyd Justin Newton Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 559 From: Phoenix, Arizona, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 10-19-2005 07:22 PM                     Bottom line here is that most popcorn whiz-kids, who are also calling themselves "projectionists", are on a hell-bent race to get everything done 'before their birth'. AND to hell with the product they're handling (which is someone else's property. When I was in the booth time and care was taken with everything that was connected with the job and no, "Let's see how fast I can make it out the front door" at the end of the shift. There WAS a time when pride and professionalism was a great part of this business... but, no more.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-19-2005 07:39 PM                     That's a problem that can sometimes be pinned on the management. I have worked for a manager at Cinemark who wanted everything done as quickly as possible, and people would get in trouble for taking too long. Not sure what the time limit was, but according to the guys that were training me, it was a ridiculous request. Her reasoning was of course, payroll.  |  IP: Logged

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