1) Have you ever heard of 'overlap' splices. The other theater in town uses these. one end of the splice has and extra perf left on it and is overlaped with the other by one. What is the purpose of this?

1. The reason for that EXCESSIVE overlap is to create a stronger splice than just the tape itself. It goes through the projecter much easier and keeps you from losing audio on the analog track. Normally during a splice you end up with a minor gap. What this theater has done is in theory a good idea, but is also a bad idea. The sprocket overlap can be seen on film if it is a scope presentation, where the entire frame is used. On a flat presentation you wont see it because the area that is projected will not be affected. If you want to know how to modify your splicer to create an appropriate overlap, go to the Projection Tips section of this site. It will give you step by step instructions on how to make the modifications.

2. On to the tape questions. I HATE, and I mean HATE, Zebra tape. This goes back to the scope presentation problem, where all of the frame is projected. The Zebra tape will be seen on screen. Opaque tape is for when you are lazy and want to cheat. It is so that operators that don't want to spend any real quality time on thier prints can make a VERY easy to see joint mark. I admit I use them between those god awful commercials, but NEVER in a print. The splice WILL be seen on screen and your audio will cut out, and you could lose your digital sync if you are not careful as well. The best bet is always clear tape. ALWAYS CLEAR TAPE. The reason so many operators wont use it is because it is hard to find the joints for breakdown. Well this shouldnt be a problem if you properly mark the joints. You can get a yellow tape that is just wide enough to mark the sides of the film at the joint. Apply this tape BEFORE you apply the splice, otherwise you will end up with pieces of wadded up tape in your projector. You can also do what I do, I use 3/4 inch white paper labels cut thinly. These are cheap and easy to apply, avoiding the frame and the audio/digital tracks. They are also VERY easy to see. Just make sure you apply marking tape BEFORE you apply the splice.

I hope this was helpful.

Cement splicers used to make overlapping splices. Maybe there's an old timer out there who keeps overlapping splices.

The opaque tape blocks everything, including about half of top of one frame and the bottom of the next. Looks pretty bad.

The zebra tape will block a lot of the SDDS tracks, a small amount of the other soundtracks, and a small portion of the top/bottom of the frame for anamorphic films. I've seen where some people will pull the zebra tape out just a little farther, and apply it so the yellow edge of the tape covers the optical track. Supposedly, this keeps the SDDS track clear, and covers the optical track to keep from getting that little 'pop'. But, you have to be careful, and I would'nt suggest it. Eventually, you will miss and cover something else. Supposedly, all the digital systems can recover gracefully from missing a few frames, but why push it?

If your splicer is adjusted correctly, and the tape is of good quality, there shouldn't be any problems.

It's fairly easy to learn other tricks to see where the reel ends are, without requiring zebra or opaque tape. A bright light shinning on the film (to see the edge texture,) lightly holding your finger on the film edge, not running the table motor at close to the speed of light, etc.

I bought a microphone stand (which we also use for sound EQ's) and a cheap worklight. I position it so it shines on the film, but not out the port window.

I first find the splices by looking or feeling for the tape edge with my finger. I place a peice of tape on the film just after the splice, and then start breaking down. The tape shows me when I'm getting near the splice, and can slow down the motor just before, then feel for it with my fingers.

To gain a little more time, I mounted a short peice of threaded rod on the other side of our makeup table to use as a reel spindle. After I splice the tail of the feature onto the tail leader, I put the makeup table on 'slow.'

While that's going, I put the reel I just did onto the extra spindle, and splice the head leader on. I spin the reel by hand to wind the leader on, and drop it into the can. Then I get the next reel ready by either winding the tail leader on (if it was left on- you never know who made it up,) or taking off the tape holding the leader. I can 'time' the speed of the table motor such that after getting the next reel ready, the reel being wound is near the splice.

I hate zebra tape also. Just wanted to know what the group opinion was.

As far as overlap splices go, I think they're useless. I have never seen a film break do a weak splice unless there was a wrap, in which case you want it to break on the splice. Maybe its just our booth environment, I don't know. But our splices are normally strong enough without an overlap.

As far as white versus clear tape-we normally use white tape for everything except breaks, in which case we use clear, and tearing down, which of course we use clear for. The white tape we use is semi-transparent. I don't know how much it takes to 'cover up' the soundtrack, but we've never had any noticable problems on the splices. Our DTS units are more than capable of missing one frame and not kicking out as are our Dolby Digital units.

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I use zebra tape in both of my jobs. Lately I've been splicing so the "dotted line" is the part that gets cut off. The part that goes across the splice is the clear part. The yellow bars go along the SDDS track. Since I HATE SDDS I don't care about it! It usually doesn't cause any problems, anyway. If it does, it's just one more reason I can tell mgt. that they should take the damn things and throw them in the dumpster!

Really, on a practical matter, only 6 out of 17 screens are SDDS. If you think about it, that means that the movie is going to play in SDDS for one, maybe two weeks. The rest of the time it's going to be in opt. stereo. A "Rice Crispies" splice is far worse to me than a momentary drop-out.

With the splices made this way you get all the benefits of zebra tape and (almost) none of the problems. (Provided you buy good quality tape.) You can still see the splices just as well during the Breakdown.

There's one guy here who complained to me that he couldn't find the splices like that. I just kind of laughed and walked away. I just didn't have the heart to tell him that Leslie, the W/S student at the college, has only a few months of experience breaking down the prints and she has NEVER had trouble finding splices. I even changed my splicing technique on her without telling her and she never missed a beat. This guy is supposed to be a 4-year "vetran" and he STILL has trouble finding splices?????

Overlapping:

I do that, too. In the last movie at the college, every splice was virtually undetectable. There's only a quick, split-second jump and if you look closely, you can see the edges of the tape. The great majority of people don't have the ability to even see it. Those who do are probably projectionists! If you weren't looking for it you might not even see it.

Yes, the overlap makes the splice stronger but I think that's secondary. Where the real benefit comes is that there's absolutely no gap between the ends of the film. Even if you make a perfect "butted" splice, eventually it'll pull apart and leave a little gap. That'll make a snapping sound when it goes through.

Here's what I think you gotta' do: Take a close look at one of your best butted splices. Notice how the soundtracks line up. There's a minute "blank space" at the jount. (Unless you really do it well.) All you gotta' do is modify your splicer, per Brad's inst. and you'll overlap the ends by a hair's width. Maybe it'll be only a 1/8 of a sprocket hole, maybe a bit less, even. If you've done a good job, you'll notice there's no blank space. Also, after 100 or so runs a "blank space" might develop even on the best butted splice. With that hair's width of overlap, it won't happen!

Moral of the story:

Experiment! Try a few different things out and see how things improve. (Or don't improve) If you want to be a good projectionist you've got to know how things work. If you don't try you don't learn.

"Zebra Tape" was developed long before digital soundtracks. The concept was good, but the tape has evolved to very wide stripes that are too visible on the screen and cover the soundtracks. I prefer clear tape, especially the 1-1/2 inch wide (8-perf) "frameline" tape, that covers two complete frames, leaving the tape edges on the framelines so they are less visible.

The technique of looking carefully at the film roll edges for subtle differences in the color or gloss of the film edges at reel changes is valid. When illuminated with bright, grazing illumination (a small spotlight or halogen desk lamp), there is usually enough of a difference to distinctly see each different reel as they lay on the platter during breakdown.

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BTW, I'm not yet a MASTER Film Handler , so it's Okay to argue with me.

I would have to agree with, "Err on the side of caution."