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Topic: Quite possibly the weirdist coincidence ever involving John Q...

Jacob Huber
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 172
From: Evansville, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 02-25-2002 11:22 PM

Here's the deal... today on my 2nd show of the evening for John Q, I ran into trouble. The tail I guess slipped off at the end (untucked?) and about the last foot got caught on the little metal square that blocks foreign objects from interfering with the connection between the platter motor and the platter (bottom deck, movie was paying out from top deck and taking up on middle). This caused the entire rating card, save two frames, to be thouroughly trashed, thankfully this was the only damage done to the print.
Now heres the weird part. I talked to a friend of mine who works out at the other location for our indie chain and told him of what happened. He informed me that the exact same thing happened to him today as well, same snag, same movie, same damage, same equipment. This completely blew me away that such a complete list of coincidences (or are they?) would happen at two theatres in the same chain not 10 miles from each other. Has this happened to any of you guys with John Q, or any other film for that matter. If so, what could have caused the snag, operator error, mechanical error, print error?
BTW, the equipment we use is the Simplex Millenium projector with a Neumade NXP-3000 platter, both locations installed at the same time.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 02-25-2002 11:28 PM

I think it was a fluke. Regardless, this is why all theaters should add another 20+ feet of film to the end of each feature, to protect from damage like this and general handling.

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Christopher Seo
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 530
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-26-2002 12:53 PM

As improbable as it sounds, I too have witnessed this occurring at the very end of a show on a Neumade/Xetron platter. We found a single sprocket hole caught and stretched on the (sharp) corner of the little sheet metal motor "shield" that hangs over the drive puck, I guess to prevent fingers from being sucked in. It was within about the last foot, after the film had left the centerfeed. In this case it was the same motor as was driving the feed platter.

I don't recall if I was tucking the film at the time or just using stick-a-poos, but I don't think it matters. The tail end of the film does flap around as it pays out of the rollers and given the sharpness of that finger shield I guess there's a real chance of it happening now and then. It seems you just got a double dose of it.

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 02-26-2002 01:38 PM

This is also why I don't endorse "tucking" anymore.

Instead, I train projector operators to use a strip of painted leader to make a belt around the plattered film. The belt is held in place with velcro strips.

------------------
And, hey! Let's be careful out there.

~Manny.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 02-26-2002 02:21 PM

Interesting Chris. I'll have to have a closer look at a Neumade platter at ShoWest next week. My experience with them isn't a lot.

Manny, I've been tucking tails forever. Never had a problem, even with a double feature loaded onto one platter deck. What kind of platters are you using?

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Jacob Huber
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 172
From: Evansville, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 02-26-2002 03:22 PM

I could kind of understand it if they were caught on the payout motor shield, but both were paying out from top to middle and got caught on the bottom deck motor shield, which really caught my attention as odd.

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Christopher Seo
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 530
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 02-26-2002 04:01 PM

Certainly, tail tucking has no bearing on this problem, which occurs after the tail leaves the centerfeed. And yes, interesting that in both cases here the tail got caught on the bottom motor, but I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't... after all, that is at the point where the film flops down before it turns upward around the bottom roller, so why not?

I'm sure this scenario never occurred to the engineers at Xetron. However, a simple rounding of the sharp metal corners on those motors would solve the problem. As a quick fix, perhaps you could put tape on them. However, I only saw this problem once in two years working at a multiplex with 18 of these platters.

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