Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: TES Integrity Checks and Splicing Leaders

This is topic TES Integrity Checks and Splicing Leaders in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 09-28-2004, 12:40 PM:

It occured to me the other day when building up a used print that the new practice of properly splicing the leaders back on that TES has apparantly adopted may not be all that good after all. Let me explain.

As we know when TES does an 'Integrity Check' they are only checking the first 20 feet of the film for damage. I suppose this is better than nothing. Recently they apparantly improved this service by properly splicing the head leader back on if it was improperly done in the first place. You can tell they are doing this because the tail of the print is attached with masking tape (the part of the reel TES didn't look at) and the head with a single sided clear splice.

When I first noticed this happening my reaction was 'cool, step in the right direction.' However, when building up Fahrenheit 9/11 the other day (real smart idea to bring that back [Roll Eyes]

) it dawned on me that the splices on the heads of the reels looked TOO clean. You see, all the tails-the ones that were masking taped on-had the left over crappy zebra tape still on them; naturally the 'projectionist' at the last theatre didn't peel their tape. I had a fairly diffcult time geting this stuff off and even then there was some residue left over, the edges still looked yellowish from the tape residue. Not so with the heads which TES had respliced. They were as clean as a whistle. Now as much as I want to give TES the benefit of the doubt-perhaps they have some really good tape peelers working for them or some really great chemical to clean the residue off-I think it is far more likely they are chopping frames from the print. Even worse, even with the nice singled sided splices they are making with good quality easy to peel clear tape there are probably still plenty of shitheads out there who are just going to chop an additional frame off the reel instead of unmaking the splice. Thus the print is losing TWO frames, one at the depot and one at the make up table. I think that although we all may disagree about how many ID frames to leave per reel everyone here can agree chopping frames instead of peeling tape is FILM DONE WRONG.

So what to do? Personaly I can understand if TES does not have the time or the resources to have their people peel tape, it certainly is a pain in the ass. I would instead ask them to make their one sided clear splice over the old tape. This way people who peel tape can take care of the old suff when it gets to them and those shitheads who chop frames won't care either way.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-28-2004, 12:42 PM:

They should be taping OVER whatever tape is there with no cutting allowed. If that is happening, then the practice does immediately need to be put to an end. I will inquire and report back.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 09-28-2004, 01:27 PM:

They should splice the heads AND the tails, and charge theaters $10 for every splice they have to make. That would more than cover the cost of their resources needed.

Edit:
And while they're at it, they should charge $20 if it takes longer than 20 seconds to peel off the tape used by the theater.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-28-2004, 01:29 PM:

Sadly, there's literally not time enough to do that.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-28-2004, 03:26 PM:

Whenever possible, PRESERVE CONTINUITY. That is, don't remove frames unless absolutely necessary to prevent further print damage or poor screen presentation (e.g., a lab splice mid-frame).

I also fear that a good splice on the head leader without also correcting a poor splice on the tail leader could give a false sense of security to a changeover operator tempted to project the heads-out reel without proper bench inspection of the entire reel.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 09-28-2004, 05:01 PM:

John-

You, I, and everyone else here knows that any changeover operator who does not bench inspect a print prior to showing it, gets exactly what they deserve! [evil]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-28-2004, 05:28 PM:

I would have to agree, any changeover operator that doesn't wind the reels to the end to check the splice is just plain stupid. Part of the point of re-splicing the head leaders back on can be seen on page 1 of the "you suck" thread. Masking tape splices rarely line up the edges of the film, so during shipping the sprockets get damaged. At least as the QC checkers unreel the first 20 feet of each reel, they are fixing that problem so more damage does not happen from the TES depot to the next theater. That's the main point of it.

What I can't stand are those reels that grab the tip of the tail leader as it is tucked into the core, thus that at the end of the reel, the tail is unable to be released. In such a situation, it causes a platter-less wrap situation in the projector. (The translucent TES reels are very guilty of this.)

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-28-2004, 09:02 PM:

A good changeover operator is going to check the C/O cues anyway so they are at most 24 frames away from the potential tail splice...thus it is a non-issue.

Steve

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 09-28-2004, 10:20 PM:

quote:
A good changeover operator

Let's hope they are all good.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 09-29-2004, 08:01 PM:

Golly gee, John, don't we wish they were! Steve brings up a good point. Standard procedure to check for cue marks, but we all know there are people out there who don't, then stand there with their mouth open when they blow a changeover. [Eek!]