Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: splice in eternal sunshine, r5?

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Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 03-19-2004, 07:06 AM:

our print of eternal sunshine arrived with an odd splice in reel 5, about 3/4 way through. made with 8-perf tape, sloppily cut, and with a gap. a different shot on either side of the splice. otherwise the print was completely new. reel 5 was tail-out, the rest heads out. i trimmed the edges flush, removed the hanging chads and blooped the soundtrack. when i ran it, i fully expected to see an annoying continuity gap, cutoff dialogue, or at least some sort of sound glitch. but despite my looking out for it, i didn't even notice the splice go by (dang that 8-perf tape! [Wink]

).

so is this a last-minute edit performed after the print was made? if so, someone else must have found this as well. we didn't get a low-number print or anything.

anyone?

carl

Posted by Peter Mork (Member # 1336) on 03-19-2004, 08:38 AM:

Didn't see anything like that in my print.

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 03-19-2004, 09:29 AM:

our reel 5 was also the only tails out...but I didn't see such a splice. I'll note that out print didn't look very good though.

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 03-19-2004, 12:13 PM:

Is it truly a significant detail if a reel arrives tails out?

Based on my experience, I would have to say it is par for the course to have the odd reel whose orientation differs from the others. I've also seen a number of reels that are head-tails-head-tails, etc.

Annoying, yes.

But significant...?

I always assumed -- in the back of my mind -- that there would be a "perfectly logical explanation" for the phenomenon but, for the most part, I simply accepted it as a very ordinary fact of life in the booth.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-19-2004, 12:49 PM:

Isn't it because film duplicating machines are similar to auto-reverse tape decks? (For lack of a better way to describe it.) When the original (negative) hits the end of its reel it reverses and keeps on going the other way. Every other reel of film that comes out of the duplicator will end up being backwards.

Thus, it's literally the luck of the draw as to whether you get heads up reels or tail up reels. A conscientious person at the lab/depot might try to make sure that all the reels in one can are the same but, even then, there's no guarantee.

...Or, am I just dreaming?

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 03-19-2004, 12:51 PM:

The head-tail-head-tail orientation of the reels when they're shipped might have something to do with bi-directional printing at the labs. In a perfect world, they'd hire someone to separate the "tails" reels from the "heads" reels to send out a uniformly-oriented print, but with the tight schedules and added payroll, that's wishful thinking.

I'm happy when our prits arrive with at least SOME indication which orientation they are! [Wink]

=TMP=

*EDIT*: Damn, Randy! We were typing the same ideas at the same time!! [eyes]

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 03-19-2004, 02:10 PM:

maybe i'm lucky, but most reels i get are heads-up. i noted the orientation only because it looked like an indication that reel 5 in particular had been wound through, presumably in order to inflict this splice on it. but i guess none of you have such a splice. strange.

carl

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-19-2004, 02:18 PM:

That 8 perf splice is a lab splice. Not all of the labs uses ultrasonic splicers yet.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 03-19-2004, 02:22 PM:

The 8-perf tape indicates to me that the lab made the splice. The fact that it occurred between two shots indicates that it was done during QC of the reel and that part of the reel was rejected and the good part of another reject reel was attached to make a good reel.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 03-19-2004, 02:42 PM:

We were still working with the DP and Post-Production as of a week and a half ago on "Eternal...". I still have two check original prints off the digital neg sitting in my booth.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 03-20-2004, 02:16 AM:

quote:
That 8 perf splice is a lab splice. Not all of the labs uses ultrasonic splicers yet.

reel 4 had a regular ultrasonic lab splice. i guess the difference here is that the tape splice was made later, after the reel was processed. the film edge has a different sheen on either side of the splice, so it does look like an assemblage of parts of 2 reels. shitty splicejob though. it would have made a big pop in our analogue houses if i hadn't blooped it with some tape.

carl