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I actually did that to someone once (filled shipping reels). One of our projectionists didn't mark a stock splice on R5 of 8 Mile and being my 6th breakdown (with 2 to go) I didn't check the frame and it just spiraled from there. I got to the "end" and realized what I had done and just crashed. I just put a letter in to the depot and whoever would run it next (Technicolor depot is generally good at QCs) apologizing for my snafu and explained that the handwritten labels (which I make everyone do) were the correct run order. I put my name, theatre name and theatre number to call me with issues or just vent at me. Early Saturday morning I got a call from a guy who runs a twin in Montana who just laughed and said that he had to call to see if I had in fact given my real info. He told me that he actually appreciated it because I had taken a 7 reel print and turned it into a 5 reel print... he ran R to R. Far from the help I need with my automations right now, but I couldn't help but to share.

Here's a hint for those times when the films have been cut anywhere and the leaders just attached or are loose in the can:

Learn to read the DTS Timecode. It actually reads right to left along the edge if the film is being projected (or it is being hand rewound and the film is heads up). Within the timecode each reel is separately numbered and each frame within the given reel is consecutively numbered.

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited August 02, 2008).]

muviebuf,

how do you read that code?

A DTS timecode is 20 bits long, with a "Marker" between each frame. There are two types of frames. A Serial Number frame, and a Frame ID/reel ID frame. On trailers, because each trailer has a unique serial number, the frames alternate evenly. On a feature print where there is only 1 serial number across multiple reels, the Serial Number Frame is only present every 16th frame.

Frames are read backward from right to left.

Serial Number frames are just the SN of the trailer/feature - the first 4 bits always 0 0 0 0. For example if you cut off zeros at the beginning of a serial number frame, you may get something like 10100010, which is binary for 162.


Then there is a combo Reel ID/Frame ID. The first 4 bits are the reel ID. All trailers are Reel 14. In a feature film, these would change with every reel. So reel 1 would be 0001, Reel 2 is 0010, and so on. There is no Reel 0, and the highest is Reel 15. Since DTS choose 14 for trailers, if there is ever a film with 14 reels, they skip 14 and use 15 instead. Films with more than 14 reels would have to use a 2nd serial number, and another set of discs.

The next 16 bits are the Frame Count. DTS uses 30 frames per second. Each one has the number of the frame measured from the beginning of the feature reel.

Hope that makes sense. It took me a while to figure out that a 1 is always a short dark spot and a short light spot together, and a 0 is either a long dark spot or a long light spot, depending on what is around it.

There is a picture of how the Reel & Frame ID portion of this works on the following website:

http://daryl.dostech.ca/blog/2007/06/08/

The above picture has the image "reversed" from the way I normally thread it up and read it (reel ID would be first)but you get the idea of how to count it out.

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited August 02, 2008).]

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited August 02, 2008).]

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited August 02, 2008).]

[This message has been edited by muviebuf (edited August 02, 2008).]

thanks muviebuf.

I think I'll need some practice before I'm comfortable with this.

Read from tail of the print to head
1=0001
2=0010
3=0011
4=0100
5=0101
6=0110
7=0111
8=1000
9=1001
10=1010
11=1011
12=1100
13=1101
14=1110
15=1111

Yes, thank you. I have read about this before, but never understood it. That should eliminate a little stress.

Hmm...Having been a (professional) projectionist for over 30 years, I am shocked at what has happened in the 35mm end of the biz. I haven't been a 35mm operator for 10 years. I got into IMAX, both as a technician working for IMAX and as a projectionist.

Not attaching heads/tails? Lazy. Using WD40 on rollers? Outrageous!

The depots aren't what they used to be either. I'll bet no film is inspected when it's returned.

I do remember Technicolor coming into the scene about the time I was getting out. I think they're a bunch of deaf idiots. All complaints were handled poorly.

I'll stick with IMAX...it's the last place for a professional projectionist to prosper! (But it is a LOT of WORK!)

The picture is me in '76 in a 1500 seat theater...booth above two balconies...

Pat

Years ago, we ran "The Wall" for a midnight show. The print arrived in a cardboard box, with empty cups and hamburger wrappers thrown in. It had no head or tail markings, so we pieced it together over a two hour span. Then, when we ran it through, someone had cut one of the reels and spliced the end of the reel to the beginning. Worst print I've ever dealt with.

We also picked up Mighty Ducks 3 from our in town competitor at the time. They intentionally swapped the heads on two of the reels, and my projectionist missed this. We opted to screen it to be safe, not really paying attention to the movie, as neither of us cared about it. Looking up at the screen, I realized that a guy who had died the previous reel had made a miraculous recovery.

Worst we ever had was at the Grandview, we had 2000 maniac's, it was a 5 or 6 reel film, yet it came in 1 can, opened the can to find 4 reels overflowing with no straps, no headers:woohoo: and when my dad made it up best he could we noticed in one scene some guy (or girl I forget) had just been killed, dragged down the street till nothing but a leg remained, yet 15 or so minutes later in the middle of a reel that same person was running down the street! a guy comes down to the booth and says " I think your playing it in the wrong order" ...

by the end of the run we had most of it back in the correct order, it had been cut and hacked into quite a mess...

Guess the Depot hadn't gotten to 'inspect' this lovely print...