This is topic Deluxe Hollywood Does it AGAIN! (or was it Universal?) in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-28-2000, 12:29 PM:
Built up 'Klumps' last night and screened it at midnight. Well... the 'attached' trailer placement job was hideously botched! Between the last non-attached trailer and the green band for the attached one (Grinch) you get about 1-1/2 seconds of the opening bars of the Universal logo music, then abrupt silence... Then after the trailer ended, the music abrubptly starts right where it left off! Really unprofessional for this to get by the lab (since they ahd printed it this way) or were the attached trailers placed on the negative by Universal? Either way it wasnt pretty. 
Neither was the film, but thats another forum altogether.Aaron
http://www.cinema-west.com
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-28-2000, 01:32 PM:
Both prints I built up of Klumps were hand spliced (and might I add performed in a mighty crappy way) in between the reel 1 leader and Universal logo. The splices were single sided and had a nasty gap (they would've broken very quickly...guess they're too cheap to use the extra tape to tape both sides), they cut the Universal logo's opening sound off because TES is too damned lazy and cheap to actually hire people with a few brain cells, butchered the green bands and just plain made a mess of things.The solution? The Grinch trailers went in the trash! The Universal logos were barely salvageable by making a careful splice, but normally when this happens I cut off the studio logo and trash that too. I will not run damaged film.
Anyone have any ideas for putting a complete stop to splicing at the depot? The whole thing is incredibly stupid. It's like the studios feel the projectionists don't know how to make a splice and put that Grinch trailer on themselves, so they have the "experts" do it at TES...but they'll drop 5 loose trailers in the can no problem.
But that's not all, our caring friends at Deluxe Hollywood made SURE to have their clear edge marks down the black between the "3" to the Universal logo (which always show up on the screen on the right side). Since the audio starts in this section of leader, what's the better choice? Have an incredibly obtrusive white flash for a few seconds on the right edge of the screen, but preserve the opening audio, or have the Universal logo cut in late? Pathetic.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 07-28-2000, 01:39 PM:
What is the justification for attached (as opposed to loose trailers)? I'm sure that there's some economic reason why this is better or easier or cheaper or something. I can't think of it myself, though. It's not as if the trained monkeys who make a thousand splices a day at TES are going to be any better at it than the projectionist who makes a dozen splices a week in his theatre...
Posted by Tom Ferreira (Member # 70) on 07-28-2000, 02:07 PM:
Again this brings up my pet peeve about five trailers from five different studio being enclosed loose in the can. Let's see-one attached to print(the purpose of which, I'm sure, is to make sure this one gets played-since it is almost always the same distributor as the film), five loose in the can to be added to the print, plus three more that came either UPS or Airborne earlier in the week with instructions to attach to the print("Your district manager is aware of this request" Yeah, right.) So if I were an idiot and programmed all the trailers that everyone wanted on Nutty Professor, along with Val Morgan rolling stock, the Pepsi ad, and our gift certificate snipe, the film would run close to two hours instead of the 96 minute running time the booker gave us, which, as it turns out, is ten minutes shorter than the actual running time. I don't mind trailers in moderation, but I don't need to be running fifteen minutes of pre show. I just laugh when I see the trailer placement listings in IME that list one or two attached trailers and six loose in the can. Greedy bastards.
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 07-28-2000, 02:10 PM:
My guess would be that the "Grinch" trailer was an afterthought, or didn't get cut into the printing negative in time to be printed along with reel 1. But Universal wanted to be sure it was "attached" and played, so the job of splicing in thousands of trailers was subcontracted. (They might not have been done by the lab or TES). Since it was an afterthought, they didn't "pull up" the sound, so you have the 21 frames of sound from the Universal logo "hanging" at the opening. IMHO, single sided tape splices are very poor practice, and very likely to cause extensive damage (fold-up or platter jam) if not properly remade.Brad's issue of the white flashes in the last three feet of head leader is the responsibility of whoever prepared the negative for printing. It could have been the lab or the negative cutter. New leader is needed, per standard SMPTE 301.
------------------
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 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Posted by Jason Burroughs (Member # 68) on 07-28-2000, 02:38 PM:
Not to mention that those "attached" trailers have to come off anyways (and the splices are RARELY in frame), most theatres require that their "policy" logo and sound snipes be inserted between the last trailer and the feature. I've only worked with 1 manager that insisted that the attached trailers stay where they were. It was always aggrevating to have to remove these splices when it was clear the trailer could have been left loose in the can.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-28-2000, 04:55 PM:
John,The splicing work stank of TES's quality. It even had their TES sticker "Grinch attached" on the leaders.
What can realistically be done about this other than trashing those trailers? I see this time after time after time and it is extremely annoying. I'd like to play what they want, but if it's got a mark on it, that's just not going to happen "attached" or not.
Also, I see that "clear frame mark" edge ALL THE TIME on the start of movies and virtually EVERY SINGLE TIME the audio starts during that. It is very unprofessional and ONLY happens at Deluxe. Technicolor shipping may be the worst thing to ever happen to the industry, but at least the Technicolor film printing lab is first rate. Those Deluxe lab guys need to take some lessons from the Technicolor lab guys. 