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Topic: Strange scratch in "Signs" prints

Adam Martin
I'm not even gonna point out the irony.

Posts: 3686
From: Dallas, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-01-2002 12:35 AM

We have three prints of Signs here. One arrived on Monday for a screening of some sort. I watched the first print Monday night and called for the replacement of reels 3, 4 and 6.

Reel 6 was because of a magenta scratching on just one shot, but it was an important shot in an important scene at the end of the movie. I chalked it up to possibly a bad or worn dupe negative and assumed the prints we got later in the week wouldn't have it.

I just finished screening another print, one which arrived today. It has this same exact magenta scratch.

This paragraph contains **SPOILERS** for the end of the movie and only describes exactly where the scratch is. When Joaquin Phoenix hits the alien for the last time, we get a POV shot from the alien as he falls backward, just before the water glass dumps on his face. As he is falling backward, the vertical magenta scratches are visible in the light area at the center of the screen. **END SPOILERS**

There are maybe a dozen or so short scratches bunched up together, like an intermittent scratch from a projector, and they are all magenta (the top gelatin layer, which only makes sense if it was on the dupe negative, right?).

Are these in everyone's prints, or should we just keep ordering reel 6's until we get a good one? Could they originate as far back as the camera negative?

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John Scott
Master Film Handler

Posts: 252
From: Oakdale, MN, USA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 08-01-2002 01:20 AM

I was at a sneak screening last night and the print they showed did not have any of the magenta scratches you mentioned.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-01-2002 08:20 AM

A ran a show off of an EK print...no scratches but a bunch of dirt! (PTRed the print twice too)

Steve

------------------
"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

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Jim Leko
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Redondo Beach, CA, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 08-02-2002 04:48 AM

Just screened Signs. Print looked good with the exception of reel 5. There was a series of translucent white blotches on the right of the screen. hardly noticable, but once you see it, it's all you can see. I am guessing this is a lab error. Managment will look at it tomorrow and make a decision (I didn't know exactly how to describe it to them).

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Michael Gonzalez
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 790
From: Grand Island , NE USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-02-2002 10:36 AM

Our print has the occcasional blotch and one bad factory splice near the end of the movie also if the framing isn't perfect, you get the boom mic showing up in several scenes.

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John Anastasio
Master Film Handler

Posts: 325
From: Trenton, NJ, USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 08-02-2002 03:26 PM

I just saw a print where the beginning of reel #2 was printed out of frame. It continues for about 20 seconds, then gradually creeps back in. It looks for all intents and purposes like a bad splice on the screen, but when I saw it I immediately looked back to the booth and there was nobody within miles of the projector, so it had to be the print.

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Jason Black
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1723
From: Myrtle Beach, SC, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 08-02-2002 03:40 PM

Screened one of our prints last night and all looked well, with the exception of one lab splice in R-4. Didn't see the magenta scratches Adam mentioned. Everyone thought I was crazy when I mentioned Joaquin Phoniex getting into a battle with an alien...

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Aldo Baez
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: USA
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-02-2002 09:34 PM

ok has this ever happened to anyone:

Upper left frame is the normal frame, then lab splice.

What a pain in the butt.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-02-2002 09:43 PM

looks like the soundtrack neg jumped the printer sprocket when the ultrasonic splice in the raw stock went by

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Aldo Baez
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: USA
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-02-2002 10:00 PM

The picture is off frame as well.

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Alex Grasic
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Toronto, ON, Canada
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 08-03-2002 03:01 AM

I had the same problem with a Premiere print of K19 that I received a couple weeks back. I'm still amazed that I didn't catch it while I was making up the print, instead, my machine (a Simplex 35/70) had to "deal" with it!

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Aldo Baez
Master Film Handler

Posts: 266
From: USA
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 08-03-2002 09:36 AM

I've never seen where the actual picture on the film was off frame. While I was tring to fix it I was so confused why I couldn't splice it in frame arrrrrrg I was a little fustrated. Granted its only like half a sprocket hole but still.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 08-04-2002 08:59 PM

I agree that it appears the splice caused the film to briefly jump off the printer sprocket. Should have been caught by the lab.

------------------
John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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Adam Wilbert
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 590
From: Bellingham, WA, USA
Registered: Mar 2002

posted 08-04-2002 10:59 PM

Both of our prints had the magenta "scratches" at the end, but they were stationary on the screen, they didn't move like scratches from frame to frame. They looked more like drips of fluid.

-adam

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