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Topic: Breaking down the film....while it's playing!

John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 04-18-2007 07:37 PM

Again, I need to point out that this is the kind of thing theaters are forced into because of low income. I don't know the guy in the video, but perhaps his boss won't pay.

I do feel that prints should be inspected much more often, and critically. But when the "owners" (studios) won't do it, then what?

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 04-18-2007 07:46 PM

Theatres are NOT forced into that sort of thing...they choose to run crap operations.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 04-18-2007 08:04 PM

I work at one of those dreaded chain theaters and I have NEVER seen anyone try anything like this. I can't possibly see how anyone could be "forced" into needing to do this anyway. It saves, maybe 5 minutes? The only possible thing I could see if you absolutely have to have a specific trailer NOW. Even if you have no leaders left, you wouldn't have to do this; just take the film you're building up and tape some random film to it and attach a leader to it later.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-19-2007 12:14 AM

quote: Chris Slycord
I can't possibly see how anyone could be "forced" into needing to do this anyway.

I doubt that guy was forced into anything. He is just showing off, or he thinks he is. If he were to read this thread he might be a little red-faced. But as of right now, he's damn proud of himself...why else would that video be on the web?

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

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

posted 04-19-2007 04:22 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
He is just showing off, or he thinks he is...

I'd call it using a massive amount of imagination, self inititave, good sense of figuring things out on how to do things and to be able to pull it off in his own successful way - even though I agree with Mike: I'd never let what I do to be known in the eyes of the public ...as the old saying goes "action speaks louder than words"

Red-faced from a bit of embarrassment he might be if he only knew of all the reactions and comments that the majority of the lot of us are expressing on FT here, but he'll keep on doing this practice and still will have the last laugh.

(Makes one wonder on how many booth tricks this guy has up his sleeve then. If a contact could be made with this guy, filter out some of the bad with the good, then take the good and use it on FT here..)

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

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

posted 04-21-2007 09:28 AM

quote: Bastiaan Fleerkate
I know Dutch people are cheap, but trust me, I'm not... I will look into this Goldberg matter...

Very sorry - didn't mean that as a cheap shot at the Dutch at all. It was meant to point out that 'off the shelf' devices can be very expensive compared to what it costs to make the thing yourself with a little imagination and lateral thinking. I wouldn't worry about the Goldberg trailer extractor thing (or the ones sold by three or four similar companies in the US and Europe) because, as Brad points out, your 4" core glued to a plastic film can will do the same thing just as well, but for a tiny fraction of the price.

Far from the Dutch being cheap, the Netherlands' government's decision to invest 170 million euros in a full scale preservation project for its audiovisual heritage is a wonderful and far-sighted one, and a big part of the reason why the Nederlands Filmmuseum is rapidly becoming one of the world's leading film archives, setting standards for digital preservation methodologies that the rest of the world will soon be following. I was at the Filmmuseum Biennale the week before last, and those of us who saw the opening night screening of The Floor Below realised that the fact that plans are being made to preserve and/or restore 20,000 hours of material to that standard is an amazing achievement.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

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

posted 04-21-2007 02:26 PM

quote: Leo Enticknap
because, as Brad points out, your 4" core glued to a plastic film can will do the same thing just as well, but for a tiny fraction of the price

...and I would call this homemade device the most ingenious device ever conceived. Plus, it shows compatibility to work on any kind of MUT.

If someone can draft up something like this, it's not being cheap but showing value of creating something from anything available.

Besides, if the concern of scratching is apparent, one could easy wrap a few winds of scrap film around this device, then wrap the trailer in question over the scrap film. Then, upon removal which would include the scrap film, the scrap wind would be taking the brunt of the possible scratching when removed from this trailer winding device and keeping the trailer intact.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 04-21-2007 02:55 PM

quote: Monte L Fullmer
Besides, if the concern of scratching is apparent, one could easy wrap a few winds of scrap film around this device, then wrap the trailer in question over the scrap film. Then, upon removal which would include the scrap film, the scrap wind would be taking the brunt of the possible scratching when removed from this trailer winding device and keeping the trailer intact.

We did the same thing with some old metal house reels that we used for building up trailers. They had some sort of residue on them (think it was from someone using masking tape a few years ago). So now no reside comes off to whatever we attach to the reel because the scrap film is there.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 04-21-2007 05:56 PM

quote: Monte L Fullmer
If someone can draft up something like this, it's not being cheap but showing value of creating something from anything available.

Unless I'm way off, the thing looks like it's nothing but:
A flat, plastic trash can lid with an trailer core at it's center. Then with the center cut out to the diameter of the trailer core's attachment.

And with the worry of cinch marks couldn't the outer edge just be smoothed out with sandpaper as needed? Which would be a pretty easy job for anyone with hands and eyes.

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Monte L Fullmer
Film God

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

posted 04-21-2007 07:43 PM

quote: Chris Slycord
A flat, plastic trash can lid with an trailer core at it's center.

(can you see a typical booth clown come up with a device such as this? They're too scared to even think of going past the plateau of just doing what they've been told let alone of even attempting to figure stuff out on their own.)

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 04-22-2007 02:47 AM

No. Then again, in most situations, I really wouldn't see a big use for it. For me, this only will quicken 2 situations: When I'm adding a trailer to a movie or if I'm removing the entire trailer ring. Both of those situations are kinda rare since we get a mandatory trailer list and usually the trailers only change when a movie gets released so it gets removed from the list.

But, to make the main idea of the thing possibly simpler (and less likely to cause the cinch marks that were mentioned) is to:
1) take a plastic bucket (assuming you have an extra somewhere), which is as close to circular at the bottom as you can get
2) drill out a hole large enough for the trailer core to fit in
3) secure the core to the bucket

And obviously you'd first cut the bucket down to an appropriate size

This would work easy. And since you're using a pail of your choosing, it'll probably already be smooth on the edges.

[edit]I wasn't saying anything bad about what he came up with. I was just responding to your request for a draft of how to make one. I was just saying what the thing looked like it could be made from easily.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

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

posted 04-22-2007 03:39 AM

On the scratching issue, I'd always leave about 20-30 feet of black spacing between the end of the last trailer and the opening censor cert of the feature, with a coloured floodlight wash on the screen and the houselights gradually fading out during those few seconds, in order not to make the presentation look disrupted. There'd be a splice about half way through that spacing (which would never show on the screen, because the douser would be closed while the spacing ran through), which we'd unpick in order to remove the ads and trailers from the programme. The spacing meant that we could use a device such as Bastiaan's without any picture footage actually touching the rim.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 04-22-2007 04:11 PM

I don't see why any picture footage would ever touch the rim with or without that. Unless I'm mistaken you're gonna be attaching your clear leader/header to the rim then winding all of your ads/trailers to that and finally detaching them from the movie.

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