Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: A Dirty Print From The Lab?

This is topic A Dirty Print From The Lab? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Jason A. Forno (Member # 853) on 06-18-2001, 12:02 PM:

I have a real quick question for anyone...

Last thursday night my idiot of a manager put an old very used PTR cleaner on our only print of Tomb Raider. upon seeing this I questioned his judgement and was told that the companies head engineer told him that the reason that we have had problems with prints going in and out of focus... is because and get this... The prints are dirty.

Plus as a laughable side note. We are sitting down watch Tomb Raider and the DTS trailer doesn't kick in. So I run upstairs and check it out. A disk is in the B drive and vise versa, also the print was not threaded through the DTS reader.

Calgone take me away

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-18-2001, 12:14 PM:

The labs don't send out dirty prints, but they can certainly get dirty in the depots on route to your theater. Dirt would have nothing to do with focus problems anyway.

It doesn't matter which dts disc goes in which drive. I make it a practice to use drives A and C because the B drive is the most difficult one to get to when it dies and must be changed out. Also using A and C drives keep the drawers side by side, which is nice.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 06-20-2001, 10:52 AM:

Generally, the prints leave the lab directly from the processing machine dryer, with little opportunity to pick up any "black" dirt. As Brad notes, poor handling in "positive assembly" or at the film exchange (e.g., to splice on a last-minute trailer or change an end credit) may be a source of dirt or damage, and a "new" print may actually have been run at another theatre as a sneak or trade screening. And a poor shipping reel or dirty shipping case may allow dirt or damage to the film.

It's very unlikely that dirt would have any effect on focus stability, unless it built up in the gate and affected gate tension.

Any good film cleaner (PTR or web cleaner with FilmGuard) should be able to effectively remove any random loose dirt picked up in previous handling or projection. If the "old very used PTR" has hardened, it will not have enough "stickiness" to effectively remove dirt particles.

------------------
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 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Michael Cunningham (Member # 210) on 06-21-2001, 12:28 AM:

One way I have seen "new" dirty prints is ancient cans used by the depot / shipping agent. You know the ones with the cardboard liner / insert? These things have a nasty tendency to rot after several years which means the new, clean film from the lab is being inserted into a can full of cardboard flakes and dust. Always a joy to see one of these at the ol' build bench...grr.

-Mike