Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: LAD Girl Lost Her Way

This is topic LAD Girl Lost Her Way in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 09-04-2002, 06:09 PM:

LAD girl, why are you showing up in such odd places like right in the middle of the last 3 feet of leader going into a reel? Don't you know that area is sancrosanct and should be solid black? Bad LAD girl, bad!

John, please escort your progeny back to CF where she belongs before she ends up on the corner of 42nd St. and 70M working for a guy named Morgo.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-04-2002, 06:51 PM:

Probably menopause.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-04-2002, 07:05 PM:

Actually it seems the LAD girl is being repaced with the LAD dude. I've been seeing leaders with a guy posing for the camera lately. I'll have to post a shot when I can remember.

Posted by Bob Maar (Member # 763) on 09-04-2002, 07:32 PM:

Joe if Brad is correct, that would make it Pauseomen.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-04-2002, 08:10 PM:

Steve: Contact me off-line with the name of the lab. You are correct that Ms. LAD belongs in the CF (control frames) area of the leader. Next thing you'll write me is that she was telling "off color" jokes. We never had these problems with "China Girl" or "Tech Lily", much less old "Gray Patch".

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

Posted by Tim Sherman (Member # 569) on 09-05-2002, 04:36 PM:

I have also seen her where she shouldn't be on a couple prints i have recieved lately. The titles slip my mind at the moment.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-05-2002, 08:07 PM:

If you can get me the details off-line, we can follow up with the labs or negative cutters responsible. Photos or samples would help.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 09-06-2002, 09:03 AM:

For those like me who have NO idea who or what LAD Girl is.... could someone please explain?

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 09-06-2002, 09:13 AM:

LAD stands for Laboratory Aim Density. It is a sytem developed by John Pytlak to assure consitstency from lab to lab, print to print. Lad girl is an image of a woman in front of some control patches. These patches are compared to a calabration sheet at the lab to make sure the color timing, flesh tones, and processing are correct for the given film. It has helped greatly in improving laboratory consitancy over the years.

Josh J

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"Film is made of silver, video is made of rust"
'nuf said

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-06-2002, 01:05 PM:

Here's information on the Laboratory Aim Density (LAD) Control System, which I developed in 1974. "LAD Girl" followed in 1982:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/h61/

Before LAD, labs used a tedious and complex procedure to determine optimum "curve placement" and color balance. LAD greatly simplified the procedure and resulted in better quality and consistency.

Kodak supplies the LAD Control film to laboratories. Some splice it into the leader of every feature, others just use it as an internal control tool.

Photos of the Academy Technical Achievement Award are in the "Pictures" section of Film-Tech, under "John Pytlak's Academy Award". And here's a direct link to my acceptance speech with award presenter Renee Zellweger:
QuickTime Video of LAD Academy Award