This is topic Splices taped on only one side in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 05-12-2002, 07:29 PM:
Some background-Currently running a 10 day film festival, so we have lots of prints running just one show. As Saturday was my day off i left a list of jobs to do - films requiring building and breaking down. So got in today (Sunday) to find most jobs have been completed.
Then our print of Harry Potter (which was built on my day off) had a brain wrap. But there were only a few wraps round the brain, so it couldnt have been an underspeed/overspeed (understand i was just concerned with getting the show back on, i wasn't about to waste time looking at the wrap to determine why). While i was between the projector and the platter, joining the film and cutting out the damaged sections i noticed a bad splice. I said 'this splice is shit! whoever made this just put tape on one side'
Guess what? After getting the show up and running, the culprit identified himself - He made up the film and only taped one side of the reel-reel splices.
The reason given being that the show was only going to be run once, and he had used that practice before in his previous cinema.
Well this get's worse - the next reel end also caused a breakdown.
Now to be fair, he sat with the print for the rest of the run, and noticed that alongside the reel ends were some sticky residue that appeared to cause the print to stick - maybe that was the cause, not the single taped splices.
But in my opinion, WHY? Why not make proper splices? I wouldn't even attach scrap to my leader with a splice taped one side. Laziness?
Does anyone here ever make splices taped on one side? I doubt it, i have never heard of it until today, and i swear i was speechless!
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-12-2002, 08:09 PM:
I've heard of that practice, but it was probably a used print, he probably was trying to do the right thing by peeling off the tape instead of chopping off another frame, and the residue from the cheap tape before caused your wraps.BTW, I wouldn't try that with just any projector. Sure it works fine for one time shows on many projectors (Centurys handle it the best I've found), but I must agree with your bottom line...why??? It's not worth risking a show stop or film damage.
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-12-2002, 10:19 PM:
Running reel to reel I am constantly repairing poor splices made by the platter people and often making splices where there was only masking tape. I'll single side the tail leader splice provided there is no sticky residue that needs covering since obviously a break there would be of no consquence since I would already be out of the reel. I won't chance it on a head leader and on those occasions when I use a platter I wouldn't there either even though 99.99% of the time it'll go through just fine. Perhaps your problem really was sticky residue than the behavior of the splice itself.I really don't mind leaders reattached with single-sided splices. I think it's a reasonable compromise between those who figure the next person will just be building it up anyway (it's easy to flip and peel apart a one-sider and creates less temptation for someone to cut yet another frame) and those who will run reel to reel. I'll do the 2nd side on the head leader during my inspection. Anything is better than masking tape.
BTW, you have my sympathy for running a film festival via platter. Been there; done that. What a pain.
Posted by Bill Hallsworth (Member # 1240) on 05-12-2002, 11:37 PM:
I've seen a few one-sided splices, too. Mainly on our family film festival (kidshows) we run in the summer, usually in the middle of a reel, which causes real problems since we generally interlock each print on 5 or 6 screens. I've also seen plenty of "repairs" made with masking tape...the one time that we missed one, it ran through all 6 projectors flawlessly before breaking in the take-up elevator.
Posted by Christopher Seo (Member # 7) on 05-13-2002, 12:39 AM:
My bet is that the sticky residue from previous splices caused the problems. There is no real reason why single-sided splices won't work. Indeed, I once forgot to tape the other side of a reel join and the print ran flawlessly for the entire run. I just did a screening of a workprint many of whose splices were single-sided. To be fair, that workprint will not be projected often, but some tests I ran indicate that single-sided splices can survive over a thousand passes before needing replacement. (Emulsion-side splices seemed to fare better, perhaps because they were bent less while going through the loops.)
Posted by Stan Gunn (Member # 554) on 05-13-2002, 04:29 AM:
Back in the past,pre retirement I was running AW2 and AW3 the aw2 as whe all know can be a little picky, the application of baby powder at the splices was well worth the effort.As brain wraps became a thing of the past, this practice didnot impact on film quality as only a very minute amount is used, but it was ample to take the stick out of any residue. ------------------
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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 05-13-2002, 10:30 PM:
A 10 day film festival on a platter? Did you tell them there was not enough money in the world to make you do that? However a doubling of your regular salary would be a nice start.One sided splices done on purpose? Did you make him walk around in a to-to for the week?
Posted by Ken Lackner (Member # 1002) on 05-14-2002, 02:09 PM:
A couple of years ago one of the operators at the theater I was then at forgot to splice the second side (how could you forget something like that?) and it brainwrapped. The film folded at the splice and two layers got pulled through the brain.------------------
This one time, at Projection Camp, I stuck a xenon bulb....
Posted by Peter Kerchinsky (Member # 1098) on 05-14-2002, 03:54 PM:
Frank:
10 day festival on a platter?
The Seattle International Film Festival uses a downtown Seattle theater equipped with platters only. That fest. runs from May 24th through June 16th. Most of the time each film shows once. They run 3 shows on the weekdays, 5 on the weekends and holidays and 5 shows daily the final week.
Guess who doesn't take on that job?
As far as splicing on one side, that is asking for nothing but trouble period! How can anyone be that lazy.
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-14-2002, 05:32 PM:
Last time I had to run a festival with one machine and a platter I prebuilt the shows on pairs of 6000' reels. Still broke them down directly but at least we could wind the next one in with a minimum of fuss.
Posted by Andy Muirhead (Member # 712) on 05-14-2002, 06:21 PM:
Frank- Doubling my salary would have been nice, although i would have settled for being introduced to any of the Directors that attended. Oh i met them but they didn't have clue who i was, nobody bothered saying 'oh, this is Andy, our senior projectionist'. Since i dont dress any different than the floor staff, they probably thought i was waiting for them to leave so i could hoover the popcorn. Oh, and making the culprit walk around in a to-to for a week is a bit of a no-no - i failed to mention that this person is my boss!Ken- Good post, i was getting round to thinking that the one-sided splice wasn't the source of the breakdown but what you described was exactly the way the first break happened.
By earlier posts, the consensus is that sticky residue from the non-taped side was causing the problem - this may or may not be true, but i know that he said the sticky bits were a wrap or two in from the splice. I'll know better when i look at the print. I'm off tomorrow (hurray!) but i'll examine that print when i have some time.
I have seen single-sided splices run just fine, for many shows, and i have seen them fail almost immediately. My opinion is that it is un-proffesional and lazy to make one-sided splices. That goes for my newbie and my boss. Period.
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 05-15-2002, 01:55 AM:
Ken, you asked how can anyone forget to tape the second side of the splice? Simple. By chatting with a fellow projectionist/manager/whatever while the splicing is being done. I see more threading mistakes and buildup mistakes happen when the projectionist doing the work has company in the booth. It distracts him/her from the job just enough so that little mistakes like that are made. Having company around during any film handling is a very bad idea in my book.
Posted by Peter Kerchinsky (Member # 1098) on 05-15-2002, 04:36 AM:
Steve:
Yes, our people build all the festival prints on a Kel-Mar makeup table on 6000 foot reels then load them on the platter while the previous film is on. That's the only way to fly in this situation.
Then comes Thursday night when their "house projectionist" has to use the one and only makeup table on that floor to build his regular run prints. It's an 11 plex, and the festival only uses one of the auditoriums. Hopefully with the AMC takeover there, they will give them another makeup table and a splicer as to not to interfere with their regular duties. Didn't happen when General Cinema had the place.
By the way, they had no 1.33 or 1.66 aperature plates or lenses for that booth. Nice, huh?