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Your rite, inexperienced film handlers can be ANY age...

Hey, I started when I was 17 I beleave...

Yeah sorry for the harshness of my reply.

I have a personal thing about age. I am a 20 year old manager so I get comments from people a lot such as "I want to talk to someone older.. etc..) so I take it too personal

[This message has been edited by Sean F. McKinnon (edited December 27, 2002).]

In response to the whole shoe polish thing and the colored tapes, why cant the labs just make the heads and tails have a few frames of white or someother color on the sides of the film instead of the green. Then it would make shoepolish, colored tape and whatever else people do to mark the film unnecessary. Well that is just an idea, but I still dont see how you cant find a splice in the first place........


carl

In any booth I've worked in I've been able to see the splices on the edge of the film on the platter. You can put a piece of tape on the inside if you absolutly must see the splice coming (remember to remove it before starting on the next reel). When I break down a print I just put my finger on the edge of the film while it's on the platter. You can feel the bump the splice creates. As the bump gets more pronounced, you slow down. When the actual splice passes under your finger, kill power and it usually stops with the splice right next to the shipping reel, then I just splice (one side) on the head and go. Some platters have knobs that rise above the ring. Must have brain fully engaged when using this technique with those platters. But, my AW2 have the rings that pinch inside.

If breaking down off of a reel it seems to take very little light to diferentiate separate reels. I usual run the print egdes thru my fingers (very lightly. Any pressue and getting cut is a possibility) and wait until I feel the splice. Being older and working with my hands quite a bit, skin oil is usually at a minimum and calouses are at a maximum -- so I can't imagine any skin oil is getting transfered to the film. All my prints get Film Guarded which makes me less worried about scratching a print with the next to no pressure I put on the film edge.

I know projectionist who use everything from clear tape and cotton gloves, to those who put a piece of masking tape under the splice so they can see it. Number of years in the booth doesn't seem to make too much difference . . . .

Carl Palko asked: "In response to the whole shoe polish thing and the colored tapes, why cant the labs just make the heads and tails have a few frames of white or someother color on the sides of the film instead of the green."

Many years ago, Deluxe lab actually did try to color code the edges of the film using the printer edgelight -- a different color for each reel. But that "real estate" of the print is now used for digital sound. Color coding the leaders would be of no help in finding the splices.

Another "trick" is to look at the film lying on the platter with bright, grazing illumination from a spotlight. The subtle differences in slitter knives usually give a slightly different gloss to the sidewall of the print for each reel, and you can usually easily see the differences between reels.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services
Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
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Website: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion