This is topic best blooping ink? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-31-1999, 09:08 AM:
What do other people do to "bloop" optical tracks at lab splices or old, separated tape splices? Right now, I'm just using a black Sharpie, which is marginally effective. Is there anything better that is readily available? I have an old Neumade catalog from the 1940s which includes several types of bloop punches and something called movietone ink for this purpose, although I haven't seen either product available in any current catalogs that I have, and I doubt that the punches would be desirable on Dolby tracks.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-31-1999, 10:53 AM:
Kodak makes a black india ink that adheres well.
I usually cut a diamond of black tape and place it over the splice under the splicing tape and that is more than suficient for silent splices.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-31-1999, 05:48 PM:
One theater I used to work for just used electrical tape. I thought it odd, but they said it never wore off. (Just repeating what I saw...not necessarily endorsing it.) Personally I'd rather attempt to remove the tape (usually older prints are assembled with cheap tape) and remake the splice, cutting one frame off, off-center to make an overlap splice. I find the "thump" of the LF drivers from blooping tape more annoying than a one frame loss.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-31-1999, 07:22 PM:
A cautionary not on overlapped splices if you have a simplex Xl with the straight gate and the turret that opensitself before it rotates any overlap will cause the pressure bar on the straight gate to push the top of the bar into the perfs and it is game over. The same problem on Prevost P55's
It isn't pretty with estar film when that happens
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 08-04-1999, 12:09 PM:
A dye-based ink (e.g., Sharpie pen) may look opaque, but may be relatively transparent to infrared light. So it won't totally block the sound, except on a red LED reader. To tell if your ink (or tape) is effective in blocking all the light, coat a piece of clear film with the ink, and use it as a filter in the light beam of the soundhead. If you still hear some sound, the ink is not opaque to the sound signal.