i think they are a wast of time.
plenty of other films come without them with no problems, so why use them?
Those new TES plastic/paper (whatever they are) reel bands with the peel off stickers are flimsy, annoying and a horrible design. The theory is nice, but the BONEHEADS that pack the film keep putting the label for the movie and reel number over the seal, thereby rendering them useless for repackaging. When I see them now, I tear them off and throw them into the trash where they belong.
Paul
Same goes for the reel bands. Tape those suckers down if the string is gone (which in my experience, it almost always is).
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
'Nuff Said
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Chris Duvall
General Manager
Regal Cinemas Colonnade14
Las Vegas, NV
How on Earth can claim that tape holds better than the paper bands? The number of prints with a disaster of leader in the can as they unravel in shipping from tape giving it up is FAR FAR higher than with the bands where the only problem is with the string coming off and that is a relatively small comparison.
Putting tape on the leader is wholy unnecessary, increases handling and dirt and with the bulk of the masking tape users out there...leaves sticky residue.
In this era of recycling, the paper band wins again in that it can last as long as the print...the tape is a use once (and if you use it again, good luck on it holding until the next booth gets it).
The paper band also is a better way to label the reel, in my opinion and helps keep the print cleaner during shipment.
The collectors that try to keep the prints in the best condition possible for the long run almost all use the paper bands too.
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
Now if only more projectionists would wrap each reel of film into a small trash liner when they break down prints, they would truly stay clean in those dirty cans. Or at least until they get back to the depot and they remove them to put make way for their "integrity inspected" stickers.
I think my English was horrible in that earlier post! But thanks for the kind words.
Steve
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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"
If they would bring back the old style bands, which were made with thick string instead of the "thread" type line that TES uses, I'd be all in favor of bands. The TES bands are crap.
From a collector POV:
When a print arrives as the latest addition to the collection, it is always a pleasant surprise to find original 40 year old bands with the print. This makes the print all the more valuable to me.
These bands managed to stay with the print all those years.
These new TES bands do suck, and dont get replaced when the string breaks.
I think that if they would simply put a THICKER STRING on the bands, there would be much less growling about them from the neglected souls here that have to deal with them every week.
Unfortunately for me, I rarely get prints with bands, anyway.
I have a load of bands here that I replace the strings on before they get labeled for the collection. Kite string from the grocery store works great.
Is decent string too much to ask for?
I do know that the old style of string was "softer" and tended to "stretch" or "give" a little (kind of like comparing a soft nylon rope to a stiff fiber rope), therefore the strings tended to stay tied better.
I think it's amazing that even NEW prints from TES come with broken or missing strings on the bands. What's up with that??!
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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
quote:I am fairly certain none of this is accurate. I made many trips to the Dallas NFS depot back in the days and there was no such machine. I would think a major depot like Dallas would have had one if they were used. I think Ken is mistaking the NFS 35mm depots with the 16mm depots like Swank and Films Inc, for they used RTI inspection machines. Regardless, the inspection machines I worked with briefly did not care whether the film was heads or tails out.
When the large reels and then the platters came into popular use, the films were returned "heads out" and made the inspection process more time consuming, costly and, because the inspection machines which inspected for sprocket hole damage had to see the film from the tails out direction, every reel had to be rewound before inspection.
The deterioration of the inspection process was, in part, caused by the booth operators who did not rewind the films to the "tails out" format.
quote:Right. We used to get circuited films via the bus quite often, and our westbound bus arrived at 5:35 PM. Often that bus would be up to an hour late, so many's the time I would get the film and have to run it right off of the shipping reels. Every now and then the film would race in the door about 5 minutes before show time (or, occasionally, 5 minutes AFTER show time), and we used to royally cuss if a late delivery arrived with tails-out reels!
Probably the inspection machines did not care for the film direction, but I figure they fed the reel in foot first so that it would come out head first, ready for storage.
quote:The issue is H-50-5 of Kodak's "Film Notes for Reel People", and it's in the Manuals section of Film Tech:
I used to go to Benton Brothers Exchange in Atlanta and watch inspector Ola McElhinny at work. She worked there for 40+ years, and was one of the sweetest people that I have ever known.
I seem to remember that she had an electric rewind that ran at medium speed. She used cotton gloves and was known for catching damage better than anybody there. A little pressure with the fingers... just enough to make the film curl slightly... is all she did.
She was featured at work in one of the Kodak booklets. I want to say it was Reelnotes #50. I may be wrong.