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Topic: Leaders Marked as Both Head And Tail

Carl King
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 199
From: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 09-29-2002 09:04 AM

Lately,over the last year or so, I've been getting prints in that are head up and marked that way but also have the wording FOOT PICTURE at the beginning of the head leader. It looks as if someone at the lab is just plain too lazy to check their work. This could cause some serious problems if an operator doesn't check the reel properly.

A word of advise for you young projectionists. NEVER, NEVER BELIEVE A LEADER. Look at the image to know if the reel is head or tail, always.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 09-29-2002 10:12 AM

Carl,

You are right; I have seen this also, mostly on foreign films. And yes, your admonition is right on the money -- this should be the Standard Operating Procedure for any print preparation.

Frank

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

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

posted 09-29-2002 01:20 PM

What happens is during printing they load and splice and when processing it never stops so the cut the print as it is running using a loop acumulator onto the next core. Some times the word head or tail may get cut early but I have never actually seen a improper head or tail section at the actual end of pix or sound

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Brad Miller
Administrator

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

posted 09-29-2002 03:41 PM

I look for two things. Doing this will ensure you never have a problem.

*It is really the tail when you see the frame "FINISH".

*It is really the head when you have "6" "5" "4" "3".

If you're in the habit of noticing winding orientation like I am, you can tell if you have a reel with "excess/incorrect leader" in about the first 2 seconds you look at it before you rewind it.

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 09-29-2002 03:50 PM

It can get confusing.

One thing that can eliminate some of the confusion:

"Sound Track Towards You, Emulsion Side Up" - Heads will be to your left, and Tails will be to your right.

To determine the emulsion side, wet your lips and clomp them on the film. When you open your mouth, the emulsion side will stick to your lip, and the base side will not.

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

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

posted 09-29-2002 05:05 PM

Also, if you breathe on the film, the base side will fog up and the emulsion side won't. Unless, of course the film has something on it like FilmGuard or PhotoGard.

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 09-29-2002 05:11 PM

Adam, I never thought of that. I'll have to try that sometime.

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Rick Long
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 759
From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-29-2002 08:34 PM

The "biting the film with your lips" method Paul mentioned has been a time honoured technique with projection technicians for years. When, while accompanying me on an installation, my youngest son saw me doing that on a piece of test film, he asked,

"You DO know that is silver nitrate don't you?"

I nodded in the affrimative.

"How long have you been doing that?"

"Years" I mumbled, with the test strip still between my lips.

"Hmmm" he said, walking away, "Explains a lot."

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John Pytlak
Film God

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

posted 09-29-2002 09:49 PM

Gordon nailed it --- with film coming off a processing machine at almost 1000 feet per minute, it's hard to make a cut to the frame. The operator may accidently cut the film leaving a bit of the leader from the previous reel.

------------------
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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Wes Hughes
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 175
From: Raleigh, NC, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 09-29-2002 11:27 PM

I just cut it off where the actual head starts.

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 09-29-2002 11:29 PM

John, whatever happened to quality control? If this problem cropped up in the last year or so, what were they using when it was not a problem?

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Peter Kerchinsky
Master Film Handler

Posts: 326
From: Seattle, WA, USA
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-30-2002 04:26 AM

Paul
You hit the key wors here
QUALITY CONTROL?
Think it went out the ol' window!

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Jamie Sanson
Film Handler

Posts: 33
From: Port Macquarie,NSW, Australia
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 09-30-2002 08:12 AM

Hi all
You could also check the change over cues.They should be
on the end.

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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 09-30-2002 08:34 AM

All I can say is...they were doing a lot of drugs out there in L.A. when I left.
Sounds like they're still smokin'.

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Bernard Tonks
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Cranleigh, Surrey, England
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 09-30-2002 08:52 AM

quote:
Hi all
You could also check the change over cues.They should be
on the end.

Don't know if it still applies Jamie as I've been retired for 6 months now, but quite a few release prints did not have changeover cues on.

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