Okay, on Wednesday we're doing an advance screening of The Beach. It didn't come with any trailers, so I went ahead and made it up onto the platter, with nothing but mylar before reel 1. The district supervisor called and said there's 3 trailers that have to run on the print for the screening. So the trailers have been ordered, but here's my dilemma:

How can I add the trailers to the print without running the whole thing through? Normally I'd just put them on the takeup platter and then run the movie for myself, but a group of moronic employees smoking pot in a staff screening ensured that nobody's allowed to do after hours screenings anymore.

I've done this with smaller corporates by just unwinding them by hand into the middle of the reel, but how can I do it with 3 full length movie trailers?

If there's no way, the manager is going to have to go in early Wednesday afternoon and do it herself (run the movie through, etc), but frankly it scares me to have anyone but me mess with the prints -- too many mishaps...

Any ideas?
 

Secondly I have had this same problem before. Build the previews up on the other empty platter. Run them through then shut off the projector and quickly run through the movie itself without the mylar of course, then do a quick splice and you are on your way.

I was able to do this rather easily and there was only a 45 second drop. the customers barely noticed that the feature had not yet started and then there it was.

You have to be able to thread up in about 20 seconds and splice in ten or it wont work.

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"If it's not worth doing, I have allready been there and done it"
 

I think Dave's idea is much better: Make up the desired trailers and run them to check. Then, pull some extra slack and splice the end of the trailers onto the beginning of the feature. No one will see the trailers on the first show, but this method is fairly easy. Don't rush though: That's how mistakes happen.

I made a platter takeup ring that is about 1/2" smaller then the ones that came with the platter. I can make up a trailer "core" on that, and fit it inthe center. It just clears the swinging feed arm.

First of all you need to tell your bosses they are insane for not allowing screenings. How else can you ensure a flawless print? Don't make the very first audience have to suffer if something is wrong just because some pothead screwed it up. Secondly I have had this same problem before. Build the previews up on the other empty platter. Run them through then shut off the projector and quickly run through the movie itself without the mylar of course, then do a quick splice and you are on your way. I was able to do this rather easily and there was only a 45 second drop. the customers barely noticed that the feature had not yet started and then there it was. You have to be able to thread up in about 20 seconds and splice in ten or it wont work.

 

Get a trailer, drop ring from Goldberg Bros in Denver for about $75.00 and you will be farting through silk. All the mega-plexes use them as they usualy have to change all the trailers on the films Thursday night. We used to do it in one show rotation.

That reminds me, I've got to order one of those, myself.
 

Johanna, you didn't say what kind of platter you have. I'm going to assume it's not a Christie (meaning it will be more difficult), so here's the deal:

Remove the center ring and your mylar leader from the center of the film roll. Take that mylar leader and use it to make up your leader, trailer 1, trailer 2 and trailer 3 on a reel. Load that reel of leader and three trailers onto a center ring like you normally would to run a feature. Now remove that center ring and take that loop of film and set it temporarily on the outer edge of the print. Put your splicer on the edge of the platter and make your splice (don't punch down on the platter when you do this). Now simply rotate that loop of film counterclockwise as needed to remove the slack from where you made your splice and set it into the center of the roll. It will be too big, so you will end up with a bulge of film inward toward the brain. Not to worry, it will run perfectly and it will not scratch.

If you can tell me what kind of platters you have, I can give you a more detailed explanation.

(By the way, "speed winding" through the platter rollers does not scratch the film so long as the film isn't dragging over the edge of a roller or rubbing against something.)
 

1. You could make up your trailors and throw them on the floor, spicing the end of the to the beginning of the show and just play them off the floor. (if you are really concerned about the dirt lay down some paper or plastic bags or something).

2. you could make up your trailors onto another ring and start with them, when the trailors are almost over pull the rest out by hand and splice it to the start of the movie thats already placed in one end of the splicer and ready to go.
 

We've got two kinds of platters, and I could do it on either one -- They're both Strong, but one has the removable brains, and the other doesn't -- it's the older one with the interchangeable (to use the term loosely) 70MM attachments and the switches on the side (off, make up, rewind, payout).

Frankly, the idea of running trailers off the floor or shutting down to do a splice scares me. I'm thinking speedwinding will have to be the way to go. But I'm sooooo going to look into making myself a little tiny ring. There's even an old one in the booth we aren't using because it doesn't have a spring. Too perfect.

I have to admit I'm kind of intrigued by the idea of making up the trailers onto a ring, taking it out, then setting them on top of the print to run it. But would the film feeding out of the brain clear two levels of film?

You know, I guess I could just break the damn thing down onto 2 reels, make up the trailers, then put the movie back on. I was hoping not to, though. And the trailers absolutely MUST be seen, we're only doing one promo screening, and there's a fox rep coming...

Do not actually sit the new roll of trailers "on top" of the print. A Strong platter cannot handle that height. They MUST be forced down flush with the rest of the print, hence the bulge you will have inward toward the brain.

Only a Christie can handle a "double stack" of film.
 

Aaron

 

Speco's can also do the job.

I have 5 or 6 different sections of junk film (old ads etc.) about 5 or 6 mins in duration. When putting a print on the plate, this film always goes first and is attached with masking tape to the leader of the feature and then on goes the feature just in case there's something that needs to go on the head.

This happens pretty much every week here as prints come in and are built up Monday or Tuesday for a Thursday start and ads are changed Thursday morning so you need that junk in there to have some space to throw in the ads and trailers.

For those films already screening, the small ring helps enormously. Just don't forget to be there at the start up to assist the plate (especially with a speco) to save unnecessary rubbing / scratching on the print.

The 19 inch ring gives you room to drop a core of up to about 20 minutes without having to worry about an inward bulge.
 

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Professional Motion Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
 

Randall G. Urlick
Goldberg Brothers, Inc.
8000 East 40th Avenue
Denver, CO 80207

Tel. 303.321.1099
Fax. 303.388.0749

Or contact your local cinema dealer.
 

I always just do center drops of trailers, but using the larger center rings is a pretty foolproof method.
 

Goldberg Bros. makes a reel that has a collapsable center. (Kinda' like the platter ring of a Potts/Strong.) You just make up a trailer pak with leader and everything, pull out the old trailers and drop the new ones in.

It actually took me a while to learn how to do it other ways 'cuz when I was first trailed I thought that was how it was supposed to be done! It wasn't till I started at M.H. College that I had to learn how to do changes without the reels.
 

Multiplexes here have used them for over 10 years. With up to 20 mins of ads and trailers running and changed every week, there is no other way. Many locations do these changes whilst the film is running, it is safe with one hour of film run through.

These units were designed and manufactured locally. Every other way is slow in comparison.
 

I don't know what I would do if I couldn't double stack film like I do on my Christies. To me the problem with Strong platters is the film-level outter rollers of the brain. Anyone who's seen or uses most Christie platters knows they have large vertical pegs. Tho I've never run 70mm, I'm assuming that's what they're there for.

Has anyone with Strong platters ever tried putting something over the outter rollers that extends their height and double layering film? Would that even work? Can't picture the Strong brain very well anymore.

The 19-inch ring sounds like the best and most sound solution for Strongs. But I also know there are a lot of cheap owners and theater chains out there who expect their projectionists to make due.

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"And the monkey flips the switch."
- Major Don West, "Lost In Space"

Andrew D'Vrey
IATSE Local 219
 

During the run of the film Armageddon (running time 2:40 or so) it was moved to the back building and it started to come apart. Fortunately it was clamped, but we had not yet recieved the 3 hour clamps, and I had not yet read the article her on this site for moving long prints.

The print was largely in two sections and the best I could do was have the early section (Trailer pack and first reel and a half) partially sitting up on the later section. I stood there for the 40 minutes or so until it had dropped down to the normal level and the most I had to do was hold my finger to the top of the first post clockwise from the feed arm. After about five minutes though it dropped down on it's own without any help.

fortunately there was little if any damage to the print.
 

Christies can do this even better. You can literally have 2 prints stacked on top of each other and they will play fine, just as long as the one on top is the shorter movie.
 

Now the other strongs we're running have the removable brains. Do they make different brains for these things? Like maybe ones with the big, high christie-type rollers? Let's assume such a thing doesn't exist. Could I not just take one of the regular brains, take off the arm and rollers and put them back on after mounting them on some kind of riser? I guess I'd want to tilt the whole works to make the film take up better.

Maybe I'll just throw the whole works out and ask for Christies.