Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Reels Made of Flexible Non-Breaking Material

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Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-03-2002, 09:31 AM:

We received our print of Ferris Bueller's Day Off on Thursday. It was mounted on STEEL reels. As much as I cussed these wobbly, noisy, heavy monsters a few years ago, it was nice not to be concernedabout them falling apart, being already broken or just too screwed up to use. Where did all these things go? I'd much rather deal with them than these shitball plastic reels. If cheap and light is what they want, why not put film loose into plastic bags? I tried it a while back--a 2000 ft reel can be spooled loose into a 55 gallon bag. Just tape the end to the outside. A little bulky to be sure, but it would work as well or better than plastic reels and would eliminate the need for shipping cans.

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 02-03-2002, 10:33 AM:

Bill, you are kidding about the plastic bag idea, right?

I still get a lot olf older prints on those steel reels, but there are nice plastic reels around. I have a couple dozen grey palstic reels (Can't remember who made them) that are light, flexible and really tough to break. I wish they would ship more prints on those.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-03-2002, 10:41 AM:

That would make it very convenient for them to scrap prints!! And very convenitnt for film collectors to retrieve it from the scrap heap! Great idea!
Mark @ GTS

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 02-03-2002, 11:21 AM:

A vaguely related question: Where did TES get all those ancient heavyweight cases? Sandblasting and a coat of orange paint doesn't disguise the fact that they weigh nearly as much empty as contemporary Goldbergs weigh full.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-03-2002, 02:27 PM:

Your Ferris print was shipped back in the good 'ol days of NFS. Back then there were rooms with inspectors who literally wound through the entire print. This served two purposes. First, to "inspect" the print. (Personally I never thought they did very good at this, but any big time obvious problem WOULD be caught.) Second was to mount the film from the lab cores over to the shipping reels. Basically, those reels still work, so why re-reel them onto plastic clip-together reels? For however long that Ferris print is in circulation, those reels will be with it. When it comes time to junk the print, ETS will junk the film AND the reels.

Steve, Sony has an insane amount of warehouse space up in Ohio. They even have another building where they store older films instead of all being "inside" Technicolor. They didn't want to buy new cans, so they kept their old pre-WWI cans and had TES put their orange stickers on them without even paying for painting of the cans. That being said, I have a feeling what you were describing was another studio's attempt to cut costs. Unfortunately, if one studio decided to be "cheap" and have painted old cans, those will eventualy get circulated with other distributor's prints, who may have paid for new cans all along.

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 02-03-2002, 02:49 PM:

Personally, I like the Paramount reels, all the ones I've seen are quite sturdy, and I've never seen a reel fly apart. As far as metal reels, as long as they arent bent, I like them. They dont burn your hands either like the plastic ones do.

Josh

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 02-03-2002, 05:32 PM:

Lets make them out of carbon fibre like race cars

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-04-2002, 12:52 PM:

Brad said: "...in the good 'ol days of NFS. Back then there were rooms with inspectors who literally wound through the entire print. This served two purposes. First, to "inspect" the print. (Personally I never thought they did very good at this, but any big time obvious problem WOULD be caught.) Second was to mount the film from the lab cores over to the shipping reels."

For a bit of nostalgia, and to meet a lady who was a legend among film inspectors, check out the story about Ola McElhinney of Benton Brothers in Atlanta in issue H-50-5 (12/77) of Kodak's "Film Notes for Reel People" in the Film-Tech "Manuals" section.

------------------
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
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-04-2002, 11:17 PM:

Yes, I actually did roll a whole 2000 ft reel of trailers into a 55 gal. lawn & garden bag, it had to be pushed down a couple times but it all fit. I think it would be only very slightly worse than the typical plastic reel.
The Ferris Bueller print was one of the worst I've ever run. I stopped counting and repairing at 180 splices with 2 reels to go and just opted to run it as is and man the frame knob.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-04-2002, 11:34 PM:

Bill, you need to call Paramount directly and tell them your print was extremely bad and they need to junk it. Otherwise they will keep sending it back out to other people. As popular titles like Ferris Bueller get rented, they DO make new prints when the old ones get worn to a certain point.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-05-2002, 07:59 AM:

Bill--was this print number 665 from the Landover, MD ETS depot? I ran that print at Williamsburg a couple of times in 1998/99 and it was in decent shape (not great, but much better than the print you describe). If you got a different print, as for #665 next time...

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 02-05-2002, 08:28 AM:

Brad is correct --- unless you inform the distributor that the print has major problems, it will likely stay in circulation. Document the problems BEFORE you show the print and try to get a replacement that is in better condition, If you have to show the bad print, be sure the distributor knows of your dissatisfaction, with the details of the poor condition.

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 02-05-2002, 08:34 AM:

Bill, I understand that when you are running a print like that Ferris print you described, maintaining its condition is not a concern, but would you spool a print in good and presentable shape into a trash bag? Am I understanding you? If I am, that strikes me as a terrible idea. It sounds like a great way to ruin a print.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-06-2002, 09:03 AM:

Paramount told us that this was typical of the condition of all the remaining Ferris B. prints and that they might eventually make some more but not to hold our breath.
Joe---the bag was an experiment, a joke, some fun with junk, the trailers were headed to the dumpster anyway. If you get a print from my booth, you can count on one thing--it is better than it was when it was received. You will NOT FIND ANYBODY with a complaint about damage done here. I do however stand by my comment that the bag would be no worse than broken reels spilling film in the cans

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 02-06-2002, 09:42 AM:

Thanks for your response, Bill. I understand and feel much better now. I've had some horrors with broken reels here, too.

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 02-06-2002, 11:26 AM:

JP wrote:
"For a bit of nostalgia, and to meet a lady who was a legend among film inspectors, check out the story about Ola McElhinney of Benton Brothers in Atlanta in issue H-50-5 (12/77) of Kodak's "Film Notes for Reel People" in the Film-Tech "Manuals" section."

I'm fairly sure I met her personally. There was a short period when I used to drive from B'ham to Hotlanta to pick up my prints. (At 90mph it was a fast trip and I saved about $70 a trip after expenses.) I remember the Benton depot and the ladies inspecting prints. IIRC reel one was often the only reel inspected, even then, but stickers got put on all the reels in the cans.

They were all nice folks at the depot.

Posted by Paul Turner (Member # 832) on 02-07-2002, 02:16 PM:

Friday night I had a plastic reel fragment and a shard hit the wall and bounced 12 feet to the booth stairs. Unfortunatly, it went thru my finger to get there. Did finish building the print and got the show on the screen before the trip to the ER, however. If this print had come in a plastic bag, I'd have saved my finger three stitches. Makes me long for the days of metal reels and NFS. At least if a metal reel was bent, you could bend it back, and I never had one fragment on me.