This is topic ELR reels & boxes in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Tom Fermanian (Member # 1094) on 01-23-2002, 06:50 PM:
Does anyone know if the ELR long reel project is still around or completely dead, There's one example of a good idea that deserves to remain, I've heard with electronic cinema lurking , that film companies are not interested in converting over? anyone know? 
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Posted by Pat Moore (Member # 380) on 01-23-2002, 06:59 PM:
My impression is the project's pretty well dead at this stage. I don't think it's D-Cinema (or E-Cinema), it just didn't get universal support, despite the best efforts of various technology committees that tried to get it implemented. I, for one, loved it...
Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 01-23-2002, 07:12 PM:
Well, as far as E cinema It will be many years down the road before every single screen in the world will be digital. So this should not effect the decision of the film companies as to how they deliver films. Many factors occured during the test phaze if the ELR.Only Warner Bros. used them as far as I know and most of the time the reels were still spliced together with a cement splice.
The reels would always fall apart because nobody new how to put them together. They also did not fit or work properly with rewind benches and platter make-up tables. All these problems forced you into spending the same amount of time putting a film together. No real time was saved in my opinion.
If you had a bad reel of film you had to replace the whole 6000' reel instead of a 2000' reel.
There are other reasons why they didn't work that can be found doing a search on this site.
Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 01-24-2002, 09:48 AM:
The Extended Length Reel (ELR) is unlikely to be used in the future. Only Warner Bros. and New Line used them to any extent. The concept was good, but the execution had some problems (e.g., incompatibility of some reels with some make-up tables, labs still spliced reels together AFTER processing, some theatres were not equipped to handle the ELR or still used 2000-foot reels, some film exchanges were not equipped with needed equipment and racks, cases had shipping limitations due to size and weight, etc.).------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-24-2002, 03:33 PM:
Actually I did play an ELR Dark City that had no lab splices in it. The print was from Deluxe Hollywood and New Line. I also specifically remember Warner's Addicted to Love did not have splices in it either. That was printed at Technicolor.It really is ashamed the ELR idea is dead. It would've greatly improved presentation by eliminating 2/3 of the film handling.
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 01-24-2002, 05:56 PM:
I saw a few that had no splices, but still had the changeover dots where the normal reels would have ended!
Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 01-25-2002, 02:42 AM:
So let's see....the industry couldn't get all the seemingly insurmountable bugs out of a fairly simple idea -- the ELR (basically nothing more high-tech than a big reel)-- which would have been of great benefit in terms of presentation and labor-saving film handling. Yet people seem to think that this same industry will have no problems implimenting a highly technical conversion to E-Cinema, which will involve every aspect of image delivery, from the front of the camera lens to the screen. That's really E-funny.
Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 01-25-2002, 08:06 AM:
<That's really E-funny>I had to E-Laugh at that one 
Posted by Tom Fermanian (Member # 1094) on 01-25-2002, 09:21 AM:
E Cinema? Yeah, how about all the theatres that don't have 'red' optical readers yet! 
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