The Score came, probably directly, off a platter at the GCC Framingham 15. Everything properly done -- leader was uncut, plenty of head and tail, exactly one frame cut off for ID, head and tails spliced back on well. Ran reels 1 and 2 to screen and saw no scratches at all. Ran into exactly one mid-reel splice, so whoever had it last also took out a lab splice. Only significant thing wrong with it was that it came heads-out.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail was delivered as I was screening The Score. Again, in the best of conditions. Cues apparently weren't printed in at the lab, and the cues made were clear and expertly done. Reel heads were marked with masking tape, sound format, aspect ratio, etc. all labelled. The print's been traveling directly from theater to theater since it left the depot and has been to the Tivoli in St. Louis, Docfilms at U. Chicago, and The Brattle down the street.

Why can't all prints come this way?!

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Tao Yue
MIT '04: Course VI-2, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Projectionist, MIT Lecture Series Committee

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Michael, there is as such no 'correct' way, you get what you are given, and as you run towers surely the correct way for you, or the best i should say, is Tails out?

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Heads vs. tails? Personally I see the argument for both sides. If I am building a print onto large reels, I want the film to come in tails out so with one pass it will be heads out, after assembling and inspecting, for loading to the platter (or reel to reel projection). However, as a constant user of the platter reel (review on the site), nowadays I hate it when the reels come in tails out. When they come heads up, I wind them directly onto the platter reel and then the entire pancake of film is ready to slide onto the platter, ready for projection.

quote:

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whichever way the reels come in, please make them ALL that way

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YES! It frustrates me to no end when every other reel is wound opposite. I mean, really, in the modern days of slap a snap-together reel on it and throw it onto the Airborne pile, does someone just sit around all day inventing this stupidity? I can understand the first or last reel being different for trailer/credit changes, though.

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I should revise and qualify my statement then -- the print coming heads-out was the only thing non-ideal for a reel-to-reel projectionist.

Other than heads out and the single ID frame, another (possibly) controversial practice done to the print was the splicing on of the heads and tails using tape on only one side. Also non-ideal for reel-to-reel.

But I guess the main point I was making (which got lost in the head/tails out discussion) is that everything was done properly, within the acceptable range of variation. All reels were consistently heads out, ID frame was not chopped off, and prints were in excellent condition.

Many of the prints going into second-run seem to have been treated poorly. Most of the good ones usually are scratched to some degree and dirty around the ends of reels, most likely to letting film drop on the floor while breaking down. As my first post says, "Why can't all prints come this way?" I'd much rather have a print in good condition come heads-out than a film come, in pieces (literally), tails out with scratches all over the place. All the more so since head/tails out is a matter of individual preference.

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Tao Yue
MIT '04: Course VI-2, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Projectionist, MIT Lecture Series Committee

My bad. Too much caffeine today.

Back to the original discussion, it's good to hear from a second-run theater about good film work. I hate to think what has happened to some of the prints after they left my theater.

It would never work, but wouldn't it be nice to have Film-Tech prints that only circulated in Film-Tech'ers theaters?!

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