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Author Topic: Do you feel cheated when you get a used print for a new release? Damien Taylor Master Film Handler Posts: 493 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2007 posted 01-17-2009 06:49 AM                     We get re boxed prints. We sometimes get the preview prints after the big cinemas. Don't want to threadjack, but one of our 2nd hand prints had big magenta splotches about 4 foot lengths every few minutes through one reel. Does anyone know what caused this, it's a lab defect/exposure right?  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 01-17-2009 10:27 AM                     I think maybe this thread should have been titled, Do you feel cheated when you get a damaged print for a new release?, to which the answer is of course unanimously yes. Do you feel cheated when you get a damaged print 3 months after the break? At that point, I just feel sad, not cheated. And 3 years after release? More like resigned... I bet you guys who open new prints in first run but not on the break have the most interesting cases. Damien: magenta splotches every 4 feet? That's a new one on me. Does the print have a cyan soundtrack? Are the splotches coming in from the soundtrack area, or are they somewhere else? In a non-cyan (conventional silver-applicated or high-magenta) soundtrack, there's a chemical that's applied over the soundtrack area (soundtrack redeveloper) and if everything isn't lined up right, it can spill over into the image and make it look purple. But it doesn't sound like that's what you've got. But yes, that definitely sounds like a lab defect. 4 feet seems weird though. If that's a circumference, then you have an outer diameter of 15", which seems just a little big but still perhaps plausible. Do the splotches get closer together as the reel goes on? --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Jonathan Althaus Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: Bedford, TX Registered: Dec 2008 posted 02-06-2009 07:01 PM                     We opened Slumdog Millionaire today. It arrived at 1:50 pm today with the first show at 2:20. I thought 30 minutes was perfect. Unfortunately the theatre we got it from is RETARDED. Non of the heads and tails had matching frames and they decided to cover reel 6 with the labels of 5 and 5 with 6. Also had about 10 secs of film where the bottom (opposite soundstrip) sprocket holes were folded over and we had to bend them back into the open position. Luckily we only lost 1 show. Could not believe this crap.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-06-2009 08:14 PM                     Sneaking 'Ghost Town' this weekend and they're all second-hand US prints. Whoever had ours needs a lesson on loop sizes. Intermittent scratches all over the emulsion. Looks like a liberal lathering of Film Guard is needed as there's no hope of another print. I doubt I'll be able to get rid of them entirely, but almost.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-06-2009 09:23 PM                     AFAIK, film-guard can only help with base-side scratches.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-06-2009 10:42 PM                     Not true. As long as they're still black (which they are) you can get rid of most of them. Even the really bad ones will be substantially lessened.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-06-2009 11:24 PM                     Just about anything that doesn't damage the emulsion.  |  IP: Logged Janusz Antkiewicz Film Handler Posts: 40 From: Wroclaw, Dolny Slask, Poland Registered: Jan 2009 posted 02-07-2009 04:36 AM                     As long as people who watch a film are satisfied with what they see and hear I'm happy too. Really, there's not much I can do (I cannot order a back-up copy etc.)apart from making sure a copy I run is more or less in the same condition as it came. The funny thing about the common cinema-goers is how much they can stand without as much as a word of complaint: there were some cases where a film was severly scratched and noone had this idea of trying to get his/her money back.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-07-2009 10:43 AM                     The sad thing is they might have not even noticed. An old coworker said he saw a movie at another cinema with his wife. He described it as looking like a some animal had clawed at the screen with black scratches going every which way, he'd be embarrassed to show the print, and wanted to head into their booth to ask "WTF did you do to make THAT happen?!" When they left, he said to his wife "Did you see how scratched that movie was?" And she was like "What do you mean? I didn't notice anything."  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-07-2009 02:21 PM                    quote: Chris Slycord And she was like She was?  |  IP: Logged Tony Bandiera Jr Film God Posts: 3067 From: Moreland Idaho Registered: Apr 2004 posted 02-07-2009 02:40 PM                     quote: Janusz Antkiewicz The funny thing about the common cinema-goers is how much they can stand without as much as a word of complaint: there were some cases where a film was severly scratched and noone had this idea of trying to get his/her money back. Years ago when working an 8-plex we had a print of "Jagged Edge" where reel 4 had NO soundtrack at all, it just had the purple area without any of the SVA lines at all.. That print ran 5 shows a day for over a week before someone finally complained, and that's when I found out what was wrong. (I didn't build any of the prints the day that one arrived and it was the only problem we had.) Policy change after that event was that ALL booth monitors were to be left on the entire show and that the operators were to walk thru each booth every half-hour. Another, but deliberate test I rigged was to turn all my "No Smoking" snipes upside-down on all four screens of my theatre...it took over two weeks for someone to notice..and it wasn't staff or my relief operator. It was one of the regular customers.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-07-2009 02:57 PM                     quote: Mark J. Marshall was the last to post She was? Are you making fun of my grammar or something? Because I'm recounting what the guy's wife had told him.  |  IP: Logged Laurie Higgins Film Handler Posts: 45 From: Norcross, GA, USA Registered: Jun 2008 posted 02-07-2009 05:13 PM                        I do feel a little cheated I must admit. But if it doesn't come with ques and tape still on, I do appreciate the fact that the heads and tails are already cut etc. My only exception would be when some ijit winds them up backwards or inside out and sends them to me.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 02-08-2009 08:28 AM                    quote: Chris Slycord Are you making fun of my grammar or something? No, I don't think your grammar was bad.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-08-2009 11:07 AM                     Then I really have no idea what you were hinting at. All I was saying is that a projectionist saw a movie that was scratched to oblivion and his wife didn't even notice when he asked her about it.  |  IP: Logged

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