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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Interesting Read on Film vs Digital
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 07-04-2014 01:01 AM
quote: Bill Gabel
...the editor of the film conforms the film as to how each reel should end and start, not the lab. The lab prints the reel only after the editor has signed off on the print and the picture is locked.
I get the impression that in the pre-long play nitrate days (i.e. when all movies were projected with changeovers), editors tried to configure their reels to make the changeovers easy. Show a '30s or '40s studio classic and the chances are that most if not all the changeovers will happen on a fade to black, so much so that you barely need the visual cues. From the mid-50s (roughly) onwards, however, they started putting them anywhere, reducing the margin of error in changeovers from fractions of a second to virtually zero. One that sticks in my mind is in Chinatown, right in the middle of a quickfire exchange of dialog. If you thread the incoming reel too far down the leader or are a millisecond out punching the buttons, you'll clip some words out.
I'm guessing that this is something that studio editors were trained to do in the nitrate/reel-to-reel days (make the reel ends projectionist-friendly), but then as safety film and platters/towers/double-MUTs became the norm, the old timers still did it but it just wasn't on the radar of the the new generation of editors, for whom this didn't factor into their decision-making as to where the reel breaks went.
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 07-04-2014 08:25 PM
quote: Frank Angel
Like everyone has already pointed out and we probably have decades of film viewing under our collective belt, a good portion of it as spectators in our youth and lots of it before the advent of the multiplex and platters, and while I can't speak for everywhere else, I watched almost every film title that I now consider beloved classics, all in NYC, in the great theatres on Broadway and I simply did not experience these anomalies this Alex Gordon guy talks about in his gripe-fest letter to the MPH, most of which just seems ludicrous and which the author of the article then uses to seemingly bolster some vague connection he's trying to make.
Totally agree. I also grew up in NYC and while some second- or third-run neighborhood theaters may have not had the best practices, I don't think I ever saw a bad show on Broadway during the roadshow era. Seeing such presentations as "How The West Was Won" at the Loews Cinerama and "West Side Story" in 70mm at the Rivoli was so amazing to me, it's one of the primary reasons I became a recording engineer.
And while it never projected in 70mm or 35mm stereo, the Loew's Paradise in the Bronx, one of the original "wonder theaters", was an experience all unto itself. That movie palace was magic and the presentation was pristine.
During the Dolby 70mm era, I did have to be a bit more selective by seeking out the best theaters, but the old Loews Orpheum Twin, the Ziegfeld and the Loews Astor Plaza all put on spectacular presentations.
And during the mid-80s to mid-90s, I found myself on business in Los Angeles and San Francisco and found many of the theaters there to have even better presentation than theaters in NYC at the time.
I'm sure there were plenty of bad presentations in plenty of theaters - worn prints, sloppy projectionists, dirty theaters, etc., but that's true for any type of business. If you sought out the best, you got the best.
Admittedly, that's a bit harder to do today.
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Martin McCaffery
Film God
Posts: 2481
From: Montgomery, AL
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 07-22-2014 08:35 PM
quote: Leo Enticknap
I'm guessing that this is something that studio editors were trained to do in the nitrate/reel-to-reel days (make the reel ends projectionist-friendly), but then as safety film and platters/towers/double-MUTs became the norm, the old timers still did it but it just wasn't on the radar of the the new generation of editors, for whom this didn't factor into their decision-making as to where the reel breaks went.
A Hollywood editor friend of mine sends along the following:
quote:
As an editor I was taught to be aware of where to "break" the reels, so the changeover wouldn't accidentally clip dialogue or action. Ideally I would end the reel at the end of a scene where there'd be a "beat" before the next scene, which would ideally start on an establishing shot, or a character entering a room. But as the film editing pace got "faster" this became more of a challenge - yet I tried -- still do. As changeovers are almost a thing of the past (with digital projection) it is not much of an issue anymore, but movies are mostly still mixed in "reels," so I try to end a reel at the conclusion of a scene, so the scene sounds uniform. Some movies are now mixed as 1 long reel, but not many - yet.
Another reason editors tried not to break scenes over 2 reels was for color consistency. Back in the film days different reels would come out looking slightly different, which would be jarring to the viewer's eye.
He's been an editor since the early 80's, so post nitrate and into the platter era, but still dealing with changeovers for most of that time.
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