Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Things in Movies that PISS OFF projectionists!!!

my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

»	Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE » Community » Film-Yak » Things in Movies that PISS OFF projectionists!!! (Page 2)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Author

Topic: Things in Movies that PISS OFF projectionists!!!

Matt Gardner
Film Handler

Posts: 15
From: Charleston, S.C., USA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 02-05-2001 03:37 PM

Did anybody run the film "GO". In the film a certain scene replays itself 3 or 4 times throughout the film. We had people come out of the theatre and say we placed the reels in the wrong order. It was fun though telling customers that it was part of the movie and that they are missing an important part of the film as we speak. Then watch them run back in to see what they missed.

| IP: Logged

Jesse Skeen
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1517
From: Sacramento, CA
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 02-05-2001 09:57 PM

"Pulp Fiction" was a favorite for people to tell us we had the reels in the wrong order, since the entire movie is shown out-of-order.
Did anyone get to see the Screenvision ad for Wrigley's Polar Ice gum that was shown last November thru December? It started out with an old "An Now Our Feature Presentation" trailer looking like the projector is chewing it up- I had that on as the first thing when I was training a couple new people how to run the booth, telling them not to let that scare them!

The only time I came close to freaking was the first day "Spawn" was showing and I noticed out the window the end credits were chewed up real bad- they were of course intentionally printed that way.

| IP: Logged

Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 02-05-2001 11:33 PM

Or the opening credits in 'Suicide Kings' with the tons of nasty green emulsion scratches, etc... I wanted to KILL the previous handler of the print until I realized it was printed this way.... aggh...

Aaron

| IP: Logged

Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-06-2001 05:30 AM

The opening title for "Run Lola Run" had printed-in scratches as well. Same for the "newsreel" sequences in "Citizen Kane."

| IP: Logged

James R. Hammonds, Jr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 931
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 02-06-2001 07:53 PM

What I hate is the frames of flat movies themselves.
They are almost always full-frame.
Is there not a way to film in 1.85....like a 1.85 lens or do you hve to film in full-frame and use the viewfinder to frame for 1.85?
And if you have to shoot in full-frame, why cant they just letterbox the film to eliminate poor framing due to guesswork?
It's a pain in the ass to have to watch a movie for a few minutes to make sure you have it perfect.
The letterboxing would make it so much easier.
And what's with Sugar & Spice being released in scope when looking at a flat trailer would make it obvious that it was filmed in full-frame?

| IP: Logged

Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 02-06-2001 08:05 PM

Personally, I wish all 1.85 movies had a small amount of black bars printed at the 1.85 line proceeded by mostly a clear wide frame line. That would REALLY prevent people from running the films out of frame, but the small amount of black would prevent a sloppy aperture from displaying on the masking.

| IP: Logged

Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 02-06-2001 08:57 PM

And, it would certainly put the Kabosh on running flat .446 previews in the scope format..

| IP: Logged

John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 02-07-2001 07:44 AM

Standard SMPTE 195 specifies the projectable image area for 1.85:1 "flat" as 0.825 x 0.446 inches.

Standard SMPTE 59 specifies three different 35mm Camera Aperture Image areas:

Style A 0.864 x 0.63 inches ("Academy")
Style B 0.864 x 0.738 inches (Scope)
Style C 0.981 x 0.735 inches (full frame)

Most "flat" productions shoot with the full frame aperture, to reduce the risk of "hairs in the gate", while composing for the 1.85:1 projectable image area. So if contact printing is used for all printing stages, the image height is 0.735 inches, even though only 0.446 inches is intended to be projected on the screen. "Hard Mattes" are rarely used in the camera, to give later flexibility when the images are transferred to video. Good practice "protects" the top and bottom of the image, so that mike booms or other production hardware doesn't show up on the screen, even if the projector is poorly framed.

A "hard matte" can be introduced during optical printing, either to force correct framing, or as a consequence of some scenes having optical or digital effects. Digital effects often are output with a matted frameline, since it would cost extra to "render" image area that is not intended to be projected. So that is why you sometimes see prints having a variety of frameline thicknesses, and need to frame carefully to avoid showing the framelines in some scenes.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

| IP: Logged

Scott Norwood
Film God

Posts: 8146
From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-07-2001 08:40 AM

I tend to be against hard-matting a print to anything wider than 1.66. It's important to allow for a margin of error, particularly since every hard-matted print that I've seen has been slightly different, with the matte sometimes changing within a scene (for example, something that might have been shot with both an "A" and "B" camera simultaneously, with slightly different gate dimensions in each camera) or reel (presumably due to bi-directional printing).

The concept of matting to 1.85 is nice, but there's too much variation in practice. If the labs can't even follow the SMPTE standards for head and tail leaders and cue marks, why should we expect the optical houses or camera rental facilities to follow the standards for aperture dimensions?

| IP: Logged

Jim Bedford
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 597
From: Telluride, CO, USA (733 mi. WNW of Rockwall, TX but it seems much, much longer)
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-07-2001 11:36 AM

The 1971 film "The Projectionist" has a film break depicted on screen which makes the actor projectionist Chuck McCann jump to his machine as it does every projectionist who ever showed the film.

"Mimic" is a very dark picture, so dark that it's about the same dark as the cues are. If you're doing reel to reel changeovers, you'd better know the image you're looking for since the cues are almost invisible. Then there are two reels of frantic action, in the almost dark, where you're distracted by both the action and the dark. I was almost ready to auto this print so I wouldn't have to pay any more attention to non-plot issues and not FU the changeovers.

| IP: Logged

Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 02-08-2001 10:30 PM

"Holy Grail" got me, the first time I showed it. There was also a scene in one of the "Airport" movies, where they were watching a movie and it broke. That got me too.

------------------
Better Projection Pays!

Bill Enos
Film God

Posts: 2081
From: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 02-10-2001 07:25 AM

If the cues are too dark too see reliably, why not just get out the cue cutter. With a extremely light touch very faint green circles can be made and they won't be too bad in a dark scene, and a lot better than missing one. I have occasionally filled in gross white cues with a fine tipped felt tip marker.

Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-10-2001 11:01 AM

OOH! I just remembered one:

Deconstucting Harry

There's a scene where Julia-Louise Dreyfus (sp?) is getting out of a cab and there's this funky series of back-and-forth jump cuts It happens a couple-three times in the movie. It drove me nuts!

(Okay, more like a short putt... )

Rachel Carter
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 248
From: Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 02-10-2001 12:58 PM

Ok, we just started running State and Main, the beginning credits looked like a head or tail going thru the projector....I didn't exactly run upstairs when I saw it but it did confuse me for a second before I saw words on the screen. Then I just started laughing...

------------------
"Blood is thicker then blondes" - From the movie, Save the last Dance.

FUNNY!!!!!

Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 02-20-2001 08:47 PM

Here I go with yet another anime example. This one is "Kochira Kameari Kouen Mae Hasshutsujo--The Movie" (lit. This is the Police Box in Front of Kameari Park). The film is a whacked slap-stick cop comedy set in present-day Tokyo. It has a false ending complete with the beginning of a credit roll--it then cuts back into the action for about another twenty minutes! I've only seen it on video so I don't know exactly where the last reel change is, but wouldn't it be Make Up Hell if that false credit roll was at the break?!?

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Printer-friendly view of this topic

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.