Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: White dots on prints

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Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 10-07-2003, 07:44 PM:

Hi everyone

Periodically I have prints that shows in one or more reel 4 or 5 frames with a white spots on the center of the image. The spot is like the changeovers dots, seem to be made phisically on the negative (like holes) since are not all in the exact same position.

What is the purpose of that dots????

Bye
A

Posted by German Marin (Member # 918) on 10-07-2003, 09:25 PM:

Ciao Antonio,

The dots could be [thumbsdown]

"Film Done Wrong". I've seen lots of times old projectionist do these "home made changeover holes" just 'cause they're lack of energy (spiritless) people and doesn't like to see the "small" holes on the the upper right side of screen and then "kill" the film cuting a new cue mark. Even I've seen MASKING TAPE! along 4 - 6 frames... no words for this... [fu]

Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 10-07-2003, 10:17 PM:

In the early days of the drive-in movie theatre the size of the screen was too narrow for the anamorphic image so there had to be new VISIBLE Q marks added. I saw mostly red china marking pencil along the middle of the frames next to the regular Q marks. The regular Q marks were out there on the trees or someplace in space. Some early scenes had both actors out of the frame off either side of the screen and only the center, out of focus, set was showing. That got lots of tooting horns. But you had to know that bigger screens cost big bucks and times were tough. Eventually this led to the common width screen size for both scope and flat.

In the TV days when 16mm was used in the local stations it was common practice to punch the center of the frames out with a newspaper punch. The white flash woke up the switcher to put in a commercial. Often in westerns the punch beheaded the star right before your very eyes.

Those were the not so good old days!

KEN

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 10-08-2003, 09:39 AM:

If they are not punched into the print and are white it would indicate a opaque mark on the negative such as dust

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-08-2003, 12:51 PM:

Large white spots "like the changeover dots" sounds like a "home made" cue scribed or punched on the print itself. "Shadow Image" dirt on the printing negative would tend to be very small and random, like dust particles, but clear images on the print rather than black.

Or else it's another form of anti-piracy code unknown to me. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 10-08-2003, 08:58 PM:

They're not dust or similar on negative, and they're not on print itself. They're printed on the reels!

They're exactly like changeover dots but they're white and not at the end of the reel but in the middle.

I'll post aphoto if I'll have a chance to shot it.

Bye
A

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 10-09-2003, 12:09 AM:

If you run *old* titles, you'll sometimes in new prints see the old cues for 1,000 foot reels. I ran a print of Night at the Opera that had cues mid reel followed by sometimes failing lab splices, & those sometimes covered with tape. The print had come from a platter house, & the new splices added additional worry that everything was in order.

Posted by Antonio Marcheselli (Member # 373) on 10-09-2003, 06:22 AM:

No, they're on our print of "Anything else" but I saw them on other recent titles (but recently not often).

Bye
A

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-09-2003, 07:48 AM:

May be yet another version of an anti-piracy code. It would not surprise me if a distributor used several different coding methods on the same print.