Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Damaged coach carter print

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Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 01-15-2005, 12:59 AM:

This past thursday I was one of three working build-up for the 10 prints we got in. Luckily the other two stayed busy and by the time I was scheduled on I was only left with two. The first one I built was Coach Carter. We usually only get first-run prints, so I was surprised when I found several tape splices, random splices in the middle of the film(i almost think these may have been lab splices which were removed, except they left 2 more lab splices in the print...), creased film, and splices which had been blooped with marker all the way down into the picture area. After reel 3, everything looked normal. In fact, reels 4-8 showed no signs of having ever been used before. Not knowing what was going on, I built up the print onto a platter and left it to be screened. When I walked over to see what it looked like, I was greeted by HUGE base side dirt scratches all over the film. It looked like someone had dropped the print, monkey stomped it, and tried to eat the evidence. I knew immediately that we'd need some replacement reels, so I asked the manager in charge of the screening to tell me which reels were destroyed. It turns out the damage stops midway through reel 3.

My question is how the hell could this have happened? And why would there only be a few reels like this in a film can, accompanied with several brand new reels. Luckily I am cleared in the incident, having built these reels onto 6000's making it very unlikely that I could have managed to destroy the first 2.5 reels then suddenly and miraculously built the rest of the print(and the next print) flawlessly. The logic here just doesn't add up though. I don't see why there would be such a mix of old and new reels in the same can, or how a print could be so screwed up on a new movie, or why the film damage(which is severe) stops midway through the 3rd reel, or how I could get stuck with this piece of shit of all the people in the world it could've gone to! I stayed by the MUT during the entire build up process, I had other projectionists verify that the print was indeed used before just to cover my ass, I let the booth manager know what was going on before I was even done building the print, and in months of build-up I've built a very good record, my only error so far was a bad splice in a print of aviator. I don't know if I could've done anything else to cover my ass, but I'd like a possible explanation to give if asked how the film could've been damaged by the prior theatre in such a way.

Posted by Richard Greco (Member # 2032) on 01-15-2005, 01:34 AM:

You should check out my post in Hey You, You Suck!! about the movie Darkness. At least you got the right heads and tails correct.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-15-2005, 01:44 AM:

Somebody dumped the print on the floor or severely wrapped it on a platter or something like that. In the process, some of the reels were damaged beyond use. Instead of trashing the whole print, which SHOULD have been done, somebody got the bright idea of replacing the damaged reels and putting the rest of the print back into circulation.

It's probably some idiot's idea of way to save money. Problem is, it more likely cost them twice as much money because they could end up tossing several brand new reels into the trash bin.

Penny wise. Pound foolish!

Richard's right, though. You ought to check out that thread.
This kind of junk is de rigueur in my line of work.

Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 01-16-2005, 02:17 AM:

definately sounds like a wrap or a throw.

Strange shit like this happens some time. Our only print of Good Company evidently had some serious scratching on it as of the first show. AFAIK the print we recieved was new in can, some how it had acquired what looks like a couple days worth of damage in one show. I watched the last two reels get put on 6000, and the builder did nothing technically wrong that I could see, and I personally put it on platters. Yet somehow reels 3-6 were just border line unpresentable, reels 1 and 2 were perfectly fine.

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 01-16-2005, 03:38 AM:

I agree that that sounds like the case, that they tried to recirculate some reels. At least I'm not being blamed!

Good news is that we got a whole new print, shrink-wrapped on cores, and it arrived in time to get it ready for the 2nd show of the day.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-16-2005, 04:10 AM:

Chase what make of platters are you using? Describe the scratches? I can probably tell you where it happened based upon that information.