Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Mystery scratching please help..

This is topic Mystery scratching please help.. in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Kilianski (Member # 3747) on 06-04-2010, 09:11 PM:

I have this problem that is driving myself and my manager insane. Recently one of my operators has scratched several prints in the same house. The scratch is a constant vertical line down the right side of the screen opposite the sound track. The scratching is only happening on this one auditorium and by the same operator. I did a theater check during both of our afternoon shows and the print was fine. On our most recent show the scratches appeared on the screen. This is leading me to believe that the scratching is happening somewhere after the film rides through the gate sometime during the take up process. I've also checked the threading on each show. I am baffled.

We are running a refurbished Century SA head on a new big sky lamp house and big sky platter system. We have a basement led and a DTS reader. Our rollers seem to be in direct alignment and there is little to no dust build up (only by the intermittant).

Anyone have any ideas on what I should look for? I have even switched out the brains from the whole deck with another auditoriums all together.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 06-04-2010, 10:29 PM:

Are the scratches on the base or emulsion side? Are they black, green, or yellow?

If you can provide pics of the set up with it threaded up that would help too.

Posted by John Walsh (Member # 168) on 06-05-2010, 07:08 AM:

Yes, if you could post more details about the scratches, it would be helpful.

Posted by Kris Verhanneman (Member # 5562) on 06-05-2010, 09:03 AM:

Have a look around the soundhead. We once had a problem at that location.

Posted by Manny Montes (Member # 5639) on 06-06-2010, 06:55 PM:

Without more information Its going to be simple guessing for now.
I'll second the sound head guess, we had a problem here where the lateral guide clamp on the sound head broke and part of it was squeezing and scratching the right side of the picture. It a nice green scratch on the far right, if you're experiencing something similar I'd check it out. It was a quick fix