This is topic Unholy reels from HELL in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Tom Kroening (Member # 201) on 01-24-2000, 02:14 AM:
Has anyone ever had the problem of having no holes in the reels for the pins to go into? We've recently had to take a drill, throw a large bit on there, and drill right through the plastic just to break down some of the prints. It's insane. Dispite broken and "unholy" reels, it would just be nice to get these slop jobs on time for a change. This last thursday i told one of my managers that i would be late gettin in the next morning because of school. He said it was no problem because he projects that day and will tell the other manager. So i get home from school and see the theatre on my caller ID. I come in to work kinda pissed off (because he never told the other manager), explain myself, then ask where the other manager is. It turns out magnolia got there at 11:30 that morning! Its about 12:30 when i got there (which was the time the first showing was supposed to start). He had to start it with just the 4 reels he had built and finish the rest while it was playing. Well as it turns out the show ran seamlessly. The customers never knew that thier movie was thrown on the floor, laced backwards up the tree, and hurridly spliced back together. You know, even pizza places usually give you the pie for free if its late, shouldn't we be compensated for money lost because of late prints? *idea*
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-24-2000, 02:19 AM:
You can thank the wizards at New Line for that one! Their new reels have absolutely NO hole for a drive pin.However, with the other reels, if the flanges are disassembled (remarkably easy on Technicolor reels I might add) and put together PROPERLY, everything will line up and give you a hole for the drive pin.
Posted by Tom Kroening (Member # 201) on 01-24-2000, 02:40 AM:
Well I had put some thought into taking a pin off one of the older makeup tables and using a hacksaw to "shorten" it to fit the little recessed area that those reels do have. Might be the quickest solution to this new feature that new line is (or should i say isn't) putting on the reels.
Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-24-2000, 04:18 AM:
New Line reels fit just fine and dandy on my Christie MUT. Why is that? Because we ALWAYS make a modified drive pin that is about the same thinkness of the spindle itself (the small one). Then we can find the right place for it and it never moves again. With the FAT drive pins included with the Christie MUT, you have to constantly move them around from hole to hole and that is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! That is one of the reasons I hate the Christie MUT. But mine are better 
Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 01-24-2000, 11:20 AM:
When we got "Any Given Sunday" it came in on blue cores, in shipping cases. Also there was a seperate box. Inside the box were brand new 1/2 reels (for snapping together on the cores.) The reels had "Warner Bros." on them.I got a little pissed; First, I guess they were just too busy to put them together ("Let the operator do it, he has nothing else to do..") Then, I find that there's no separate "dog-hole" for the reel- you have to use the small keyway in the spindle hole. Which is OK for me, but I'm sure it will get stripped after a few uses.
These stupid plastic reels are a perfect example of where a designer never actually uses the thing he designed.
Posted by Tom Kroening (Member # 201) on 01-24-2000, 12:48 PM:
Yeah, thats exactly what i mean. There is just no need for all this. I mean how much money are they saving by not putting a hole in there? Comon a freekin hole. They probably have a specialized team working for them.. (now how can with think of another way to spite the operators for all the bitching they do about the broken reels) ; P
Posted by Chris Erwin (Member # 176) on 01-24-2000, 07:09 PM:
.. (now how can with think of another way to spite the operators for all the bitching they do about the broken reels) ; P Simple. Don't deliver it on time AND not on reels.
--Chris
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 01-25-2000, 03:52 AM:
"When we got "Any Given Sunday" it came in on blue cores, in shipping cases. Also there
was a seperate box. Inside the box were brand new 1/2 reels (for snapping together on
the cores.) The reels had "Warner Bros." on them."We got a print of "Smoke Signals" direct from Deluxe Toronto in a cardboard box, on cores. The cans and reels came about a week later via TES... Go fig.
Aaron
Posted by Stephen Jones 1 (Member # 114) on 01-28-2000, 03:12 AM:
My theatre also had Any Given Sunday delivered on cores from TES. Then, a week later came empty reels in empty canisters. I dunno.
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-28-2000, 05:05 PM:
I know why the N.L. reels don't have holes!They're too EXPENSIVE! 
Besides, if they don't COME with holes in them, they will certainly LEAVE with holes in them!
Posted by Tom Kroening (Member # 201) on 01-29-2000, 10:04 AM:
One of my managers found a piece of masking tape on magnolia that said "these reels suck my ass". That just brought me to the floor in a laughing fit when i heard about that. Although its not a bad idea! If you have a problem with the reels just leave a bitchnote to warn the next projectionist!
Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-03-2000, 09:43 PM:
Throwing trailers into cans for operators to splice on for the film company; getting rid of real exchange reels to save someone else the work; now they're not even sending the stinkin' REELS!!!How low are they going to stoop?
Posted by Joshua Lott (Member # 240) on 02-04-2000, 04:52 PM:
I recieved 3 prints of Scream 3 yesterday. One print was Head,Tails,Tail,Head,Tail,Head,Tail. One was First reel heads, the rest tails. And the last print Was H,T,T,T,H,T,H. Over half of the reels were complete JUNK. This of course is nothing new. The funny thing about this is watching the projectionist I am training trying to figure out how to use broken reels. But I finally showed him how to use the split reels that we have. It was kind of funny, I thought that I would share.
Posted by Chris Erwin (Member # 176) on 02-04-2000, 06:19 PM:
Joshua,I feel your pain. We got Scream 3 last night in 2 carboard boxes. One for the print,on for the DTS discs. I had to show the asst. manager the joy of cores. The reels and cans forthcoming?!
--Chris
Posted by Joshua Lott (Member # 240) on 02-05-2000, 01:10 AM:
Chris,I just don't understand why we get film in this condition most of the times. I was asked how we would break them down and I said they would be lucky if they even got back on the white cores again. When breaking down another print that night i had to use a hammer to get the film can to shut. Why is it that we get notes in the cans saying that we are the most crucial part in the film process. Do they not care about the film depot screwing up a majority of there films?
Just wanted to rant.
Josh
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 02-09-2000, 12:47 AM:
Our prints of Scream 3 (three of them) came in boxes too. The DTS discs came that morning in separate boxes. The prints came at about 4pm by Sky Courrier. Our regular window is 1-3pm.All but two of our prints came the same way. The first one was all HEADS. The Second one was all TAILS. The thirs was half-and-half. It looks like they mixed stuff up, though! The reels were all in different boxes!
Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-12-2000, 05:14 PM:
What I've been doing when they don't have holes is to screw the reel to the core, thereby making it a bitch to whoever has to take it apart to recycle the film, hopefully sending a message.
Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-12-2000, 05:16 PM:
What I've been doing when they don't have holes is to screw the reel to the core, thereby making it a bitch to whoever has to take it apart to recycle the film, hopefully sending a message.