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Author
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Topic: Filmus-Interuptus!
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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 04-08-2000 04:45 PM
Here was a baffling problem. Our new film, Mifune, was playing and it would stop at the beginning of the fourth scene, every time! Our lamp house has a few problems, one of which is, you can’t strike a hot lamp. You have to wait 5 minutes for it to cool down. So I would give the patrons passes and wait to start the film. On the last show last night I got a clue and left the lamp on. This morning I ran the film twice to that spot and there was no problem. Then I ran the film for an audience and it stopped! I had wanted it to stop so that I could identify the problem. So I gave out passes and went up and looked at the film for the third time. There was no damage, cues or other problems.I have optical fail-safes and I thought that they might be the problem. While the film was stopped, one of our spastic ushers asked why the film was curled? It was cupped in and when it ran through the fail-safe it would curl away from the optical sensors. On the fail-safe was a pot labeled, “Bobble Delay.” I have no idea what Bobble is but I figured delay would be good. The pot is marked 0-4 and it was set at 0, I dialed up to four and took the film out. Four seconds later the fault light came on. It’s now Show Time and we are going to see if this solved it. I can’t believe that curled film would cause me such problems. I don’t think I would have had this problem with a split, mechanical fail-safe.
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John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 04-08-2000 09:42 PM
Ian:It might be 64% RH outside, but the humidity in the projection room is what counts. Get a Radio Shack or Edmund Scientific digital humidity gauge, and then you'll know what it really is. Ocean breezes or desert Santa Anas can really cause wild fluctuations in California. Winter heating makes it really dry in cold climates. Having lamps rated in kilowatts and all that air being sucked out of the projection room to cool the lamps makes precise humidity control difficult, but do the best you can with HVAC adjustment, and humidifiers or dehumidifiers, as the case may be. Fifty to Sixty is Nifty. But I agree with you, the likely cause is old triacetate film that may have been wound incorrectly, or has shrunken or warped a bit due to improper storage. ------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
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John Walsh
Film God
Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 04-08-2000 11:05 PM
We use Xetron failsafe detectors- the regular microswitch kind. We actually had the optical failsafes, and they were such a pain we removed them.Once we were running the same trailer in three of our houses, (I think it was "ID4") and all three projectors would 'failsafe' at the same location in that trailer. I could not see anything wrong with the film; it looked smooth and flat. After running out of ideas, I e-mailed John P., and he kindly looked up records for that film to see if there was a different kind of emulsion used, or something, but didn't find anything different about it. Now, don't quote me or anything, but my understanding is that so many people complained about those Xetron optical failsafes that they agreed to replace them with the microswitch type. But, you had to specifically ask for it, as they were not too keen on changing every one, sepecally if it was working OK.
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