Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: "The Interpreter" ID 01852 Masterpiece of distruction

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Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 06-11-2005, 01:24 PM:

We received this print of "The Interpreter" and immediatly called TES to register its condition. We should have this print preserved as an example of how many ways a single print can be abused.
Upon opening the cans, there were two tail leaders rolled up and loose. Reel one was full to the edge of the flanges. The DTS box was smashed and splinters throughout the case. (We don't do DTS so don't know the worth of the disc)
Reel one contained the entire trailer pack plus reel one of the feature. There was no tail leader, probably there wouldn't have been room for it! The last splice was a butt joint made with solid yellow tape which had been embossed into the emulsion by an improperly adjusted lamp.
Reels 2 through 7 had 4 ID frames at the beginning of each reel. There were 4 frames of film marked with red felt pen on the frame lines. The usual solid yellow tape splice and then 12 more frames marked with red felt pen on the non soundtrack edge but through the SDDS track. Immediately there was 5 inches of white edge marking tape on the soundtrack edge covering the SDDS track. Continuing there was approximately 3 feet of white smeared edge marking on the soundtrack side. Only two reels had any tail leader, the others just had the last frames of the film taped to the core.
The old automation cues were still on the film and when romoval was attempted, the metal foil came off leaving the adhesive layer behind. Fortunately, 100% denatured alcohol removed the adhesive without damaging the print.
We are running it this week but I hope that it will be removed from circulation as the sound jumps on reel changes are distracting.(Sort of reminds me of when the local TV station had real film for the late movies) The ends of the reels are pretty scratched from rubbing on the cores so there is no doubt about when reel changes are coming.
This print deserves the Purple Heart for being subjected to "FILM DONE VERY WRONG, WROng, wrong!"

KEN

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-11-2005, 03:24 PM:

Oh Ken, no, no, no, no, no. Call TES and have them send you a replacement print. That copy in no way should be presented to an audience!!!

Also if you play it, there's a good chance it will go out to another theater. Send it back as "unplayable" and write that all over the labels just to make damned sure.

Closing this thread and linking to where it is more appropriate.