Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Outing Bad Labs

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Posted by Alex Rolfe (Member # 1648) on 03-07-2009, 05:00 PM:

Over in "Outing Bad Filmhandlers," Mr. Redifer noted that India can't afford backtension. Apparently Adlabs, Mumbai can't afford
- cue dots (this seems common to indian prints)
- enough black dye to fill the frames at the end of the leader and beginning of the tail on our print of Delhi-6. Makes those changeovers very exciting.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-07-2009, 07:20 PM:

hmmm
It is nice to know that the standards of the US for projection are world wide
I have run bolllywood for years and yes one must scribe cues and the leaders are clear
but if you don't want to run them then maybe you should work at another theatre [Frown]

The projectionists job is to present to the public whatever they receive to the best of the ability of the facility they work at
This sounds more like threader gripping than legit projectionist issues
sorry to sound negative but that is the way I see it

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 03-07-2009, 07:25 PM:

The French don't print change cues either, not a problem anyway for the well equipped booth. You just need a cue cutter of some sort.

What difference does the clear leader or tail make, if the film is properly prepared and the projectionist is competent neither will ever be seen.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 03-08-2009, 12:13 AM:

Usually cue dots are the job of the negative cutting house and / or producer and not the lab.

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 03-09-2009, 03:06 AM:

Well, the lab implements the cue dots with their punch/die on the dupe negs, right?

I don't think it's fair to complain about the lab not including cues when cues aren't standard in that country. Sure, it's annoying to not have them, but that doesn't make the lab bad. They're just doing their job to spec.

Same deal with Eclair Lab.

--jhawk

Posted by Alex Rolfe (Member # 1648) on 03-09-2009, 08:59 AM:

Gordon said

quote: Gordon McLeod

I have run bolllywood for years and yes one must scribe cues and the leaders are clear but if you don't want to run them then maybe you should work at another theatre
The projectionists job is to present to the public whatever they receive to the best of the ability of the facility they work at
This sounds more like threader gripping than legit projectionist issues
sorry to sound negative but that is the way I see it

It's certainly our job to present the film to the best of our abilities. It's always nice when other people make that easier rather than harder- we added cues and the changeovers were fine. The point was that lab cues and black leaders are helpful in the same way that unlocked cans or well made splices with good tape are helpful.

I do find it curious that cues are standard in some countries but not others. Was there ever a movement to drop them in the US? Are there actually enough venues running changeover that they're still printed, or is it just tradition?

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-09-2009, 09:10 AM:

cues were often placed in different areas of the screen in different countries

Posted by Jarret Chessell (Member # 5077) on 03-10-2009, 12:52 PM:

I believe a fairly large number of theaters still retain the ability to go reel to reel even if they have a film tower or platter system. I rather enjoy being able to run a film reel to reel if it's showing only once or twice to save the hassle of assembling it on a platter. Also, don't forget some smaller venues still use 6000' reels with changeovers. I would like to see them continuing this practice.

Posted by Damien Taylor (Member # 4255) on 03-10-2009, 05:23 PM:

Much to my disappointment, our 6000 magazines just came off. [Frown]

Posted by Geena Phillips (Member # 3726) on 03-10-2009, 09:58 PM:

Yeah, not in love with Adlabs Mumbai myself, if only because they ship prints without cores. It would probably bother me less if they weren't technically my coworkers.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-10-2009, 11:24 PM:

Actually it will have bee a nother theatre that removes the cores somewhere down the food chain

Posted by Geena Phillips (Member # 3726) on 03-10-2009, 11:32 PM:

Normally, that's the case, Gordon, especially with MOST Adlabs prints, but the Mumbai facility clearly does not run too terribly tight a ship.

And generally, our Adlabs prints always come new (our company is owned by Adlabs).

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-10-2009, 11:56 PM:

Generally always?

[Razz]

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 03-10-2009, 11:58 PM:

I have dealt with ADLAB many times over the years ( having worked for the first indian theatre/distribution network in north america years ago) and all our "new" prints had cores but the previously enjoyed prints that came from them never had cores [Smile]

and to date some of our theatres still run bollywood and the new prints have cores others have not [Frown]

but that is part of the joy of bollywood every heason box one opens is a suprise
Also Adlabs printing quality is normaly very good

Posted by Geena Phillips (Member # 3726) on 03-11-2009, 12:56 AM:

Agreed. The quality of most Adlabs prints is top-notch.

Posted by Brian Guckian (Member # 1678) on 03-11-2009, 01:31 PM:

Unfortunately, for every theatre that has a proper cue-marking device, the correct cueing specification to hand and the time to carefully apply cues, there will be another theatre that doesn't, giving rise to more unnecessary print handling and damage.

For sure, there is the argument that with so few changeover houses today (in relative terms), there is "no need" to apply cues on the interneg etc., but this doesn't acknowledge the practical issues in attempting to do the job properly on site.

One distributor I know of uses double-inventory prints; the bulk of the release is non-cued, but prints they know that go to twin-projector houses are cued at the lab, once the prints are struck from the interneg.