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Topic: Indian prints are weird

Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-08-2010 09:32 AM

Also abandoned were editors who knew how to edit so that change-over reel ends were not made across important elements like critical dialogue and/or music crescendos. Use to be they would be careful to make reel end cuts at non-critical "sweet" points what wouldn't be marred by an imprecise change-over. Nowadays I find sometimes a real ends exactly at the breath between one sentence and another....not that I ever don't get those right on the money [thumbsup]

but the best manual change-over will be audible if foreground music is present across the switch point.

Choosing a clean end-of-reel c/o point seems to be an art that digital editors have lost.

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Geena Phillips
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 198
From: Norcross, GA / USA
Registered: Apr 2006

posted 06-08-2010 11:57 AM

Bah. Hindi films like Rajneeti are easy. It's when you get into the other languages in Indian film that the prints get... um, interesting...

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Danial Simmonds
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 107
From: Kota Damansara, Selangor, Malaysia
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 06-08-2010 12:14 PM

Very interesting...

Liquid paper ontop of 3 or 5 frames to mark the splice?
Normal selotape instead of splicing tape?

I had seen many weird things,

there was a hindi movie last year where the reel 4 repeated about 20 seconds at the end, couldnt notice it until the movie was played...

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Tony Bandiera Jr
Film God

Posts: 3067
From: Moreland Idaho
Registered: Apr 2004

posted 06-08-2010 01:49 PM

quote: Scott Norwood
Then there are the countries that make films intended to be shown at 25fps. I can count on one hand (with fingers left over) the number of venues in this state that can show those properly....

Add my original screening room at UC Irvine to your list. I have fixed rates of 18, 24 and 25fps, plus fully variable up to 30fps. Now that I have the dubber encoders installed with a rate display I can dial in any fps rate I want. (Kinoton FP38D's)

quote: Frank Angel
Also abandoned were editors who knew how to edit so that change-over reel ends were not made across important elements like critical dialogue and/or music crescendos. Use to be they would be careful to make reel end cuts at non-critical "sweet" points what wouldn't be marred by an imprecise change-over. Nowadays I find sometimes a real ends exactly at the breath between one sentence and another....not that I ever don't get those right on the money but the best manual change-over will be audible if foreground music is present across the switch point.

Choosing a clean end-of-reel c/o point seems to be an art that digital editors have lost.

Frank, I totally agree. But I think the problem stems from the fact that most editors are aware that the vast majority of cinemas are platter houses so the timing of reel changes doesn't matter as much.

And of course D-Crapema(c)Tony Bandiera Jr makes "reel changes" a moot point.

I have run many Bollywood films at UC irvine and share Joe's pain. Most prints were without cores, loosely wound, and a lot were coated with some weird smelly oil-like substance. Makes repairing splices a lot of fun.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-18-2010 04:39 AM

Tonight I received two prints for the hit movie Raavaaaaan. One print was in one language and the other in another. Both are moon languages. Anyway, I was super pissed upon building these up. I built the Hindu version first. Reels 1-16, all in numerical order. OK, now on to the Tamil print. Wait, reel 5+6 was tiny on the Hindu print, but it is supa-huge on this one. WTF? Oh look, reel 7+8 is combined with reel 15+16. How convenient! All 4 reels were less than 2000 feet. Oh, and for some random reason, two of the reels on the Tamil print came without cores, despite being brand new. WHY???? It's official, people who speak Tamil are more stupid than people who speak Hindi JUST BECAUSE OF THIS.

So despite coming brand new from the same lab (as indicated on the cans), the reels on the same movie were cut differently. There is no excuse for this. My only solution is to nuke all of India and be done with it. Phugging ridiculous.

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John Hawkinson
Film God

Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 06-18-2010 06:44 PM

Are you seriously saying they combined non-consecutive reels?

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Galen Murphy-Fahlgren
Master Film Handler

Posts: 405
From: Canton, MI, USA
Registered: Oct 2007

posted 06-18-2010 07:13 PM

I will just say a hearty "hear, hear" to the title of the thread and leave it at that.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-18-2010 07:53 PM

J-hawk.... yep! Straight from the lab.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 06-19-2010 03:20 AM

Tamil lab workers steal hubs to make ear-rings.

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Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 06-19-2010 11:54 AM

Raavan (Hindi) and Raavanan (Tamil) are actually two separate movies. Though they have the same story, producer, writer, director, they were shot separately with a different cast (though Aishwarya is in both and Vikram is in both, though he plays hero in one and villain in the other). This is why it would probably be cut differently. There is also a Telugu version, Villain, which is just a dub of the Tamil version.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-19-2010 01:35 PM

I will verify this with my Indian overlords tonight. Both prints say "Raavan". None say "Raavanan". From the poster, it looks like an Indian zombie movie.

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Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 06-19-2010 02:54 PM

Say hi to Mohan for me. I'm the one that books him with these films...

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-19-2010 09:22 PM

Ha ha I would, but he left for the evening. Nice guy.

Anyway, the movies are the same but different. The scenes are all the same, but many are redone with different actors. The movies have near-identical running times and the intermission is in the same spot, so I still cannot comprehend the reasoning for the recut.

Now where is my Tamil print off to? There always seems to be far more demand for those. Book me with better condition prints when they are not new, Mohan is going to be doing business with us exclusively for a while.

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Mike Spaeth
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1129
From: Marietta, GA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 06-19-2010 10:20 PM

Your Tamil print is off to Las Vegas for shows tomorrow. Typically, a Hindi film releases here with 100+ prints. For Raavan, it was 120. However, the Tamil release is only 25 prints, so the secondary cities like Denver get shared with other cities. Next week, there will be third-tier areas like Little Rock and Memphis to cover with the same prints.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 06-20-2010 12:34 AM

25 prints... in the entire world or just for the US?

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