I ask my staff to screen in analog sound. The reason is because that soundtrack is the last option available sometimes and if it is bad, I would like to know right away so that the reel can be replaced rather quickly.

We will play it in digital for the regular run, but want to be sure that the analog track is good.

Usually it seems that as a print get older, it becomes harder to get a replacement reel in a timely manner, and possibly having to purchase the replacement because the defect wasn't discovered right away.

What are your thoughts?

I once had a showprint of The Land Girls in which the SR-D was in sync, but the analogue sound on one reel was about three seconds out. I didn't know this until the show was switched from a digital auditorium to one that had SR only at the last minute... and one reel played out of sync as a result.

A colleague once showed a print of Amistad in which the SR-D track was fine, but the SR on one reel was dubbed into German. He rehearsed the print in SR because it was going into an SR-only house, but imagine what the result would have been if the print were checked in digital only and, with a full house of customers in, the SR-D failed and the dialogue suddenly went into German!

I'd suggest switching through all the formats your theatre can play at least once during each reel to check that there's a soundtrack, that it's the right soundtrack and that it's in sync.

A well designed complex in my opinion has always been to have one (whichever, it doesn't matter) format in every auditorium, coupled with the a rollaround unit or two of the other formats for backup.

By the way, I do disagree about screening in analog. The customers do not want to hear analog. They want digital. Because of this, it is far more important to ensure that the digital tracks are good. Since Paul's theater is half equipped with SRD and the other half equipped with DTS, if I were running that complex I would move ALL print building tables over to the SRD booth and make it mandatory that all prints be screened in SRD. Finding a reel with a defective dts track is very, very rare so it only makes sense to check the SRD track. In fact, it has always been routine for me to run the screening WITHOUT analog backup. That makes any defect VERY obvious to whoever is screening the print. If the SRD track plays properly on the pre-screening, then the track will always play back properly, provided the films are taken care of.

When films aren't pre-screened by theatre staff, it's always good to check the sound for the first show, preferably right around every reel change, in attempt to ensure that the track is good and the digital track (if present) isn't faulting. In single-screen houses, I always leave the booth monitor on (at least at a low level) as a way to check for sound problems.

Having said this, I don't normally pre-screen prints unless either a) I'm personally interested in the movie or b) other theatre employees want to watch it (in which case, if I'm not personally interested, I start the film for them and go home). I tend to think that the value of a pre-screening is overrated, especially for once-only shows. It's also sometimes impossible when prints arrive at the last minute on Friday morning.

I agree with Brad about the benefits of having the same digital format available on as many screens as possible at a multiplex. If I were equipping a multiplex, I'd probably put in all SRD and maybe have a few DTS units available as well.

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You mean you get you prints sent to you in advance? You don't just get handed the print by a visiting guest, who brings the print with them, and it has to be on screen in about five minutes, as soon as they have made a short introductory speech to the audience. Quite often when this happens, there's not even time to check the cues on the first reel, you just have to hope for the best. Sometimes there's not even time to get the first part onto a spool, so you have to run it from a split. I don't like running any film without inspecting it first, and I don't like running from a two inch core, but sometimes, in this situation, you have to do it with the first reel.

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