Assuming the ELR was re-designed properly, would everyone here have as many complaints regarding Friday pickups after a hectic Thursday night? Just curious. I know it would cut down SUBSTANTIALLY on breakdown time and unnecessary film handling and damage. It would also virtually eliminate the possibility of a movie being put together wrong on a last second delivery. Sadly the two gentlemen who tried to get this idea going are no longer with us. Anyone see a potential future for this great idea? (This curiosity was spurred from the current discussion on eliminating lab changeover cues and how some theaters make a mess of cueing prints.)

Our currier service picks up the films at 1 AM on Fridays.

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Breaking down on a 6K gets slower as the reel is getting full, and even harder as you get closer to the center ring. You can hear the MUT straining to make this thing move.

- double-inventory problem for theatres that can't handle ELRs
- assembly of ELRs (I've never seen a splice made at a depot that didn't need to be remade; I'd be very afraid if the ELR involved the splicing together of 2000' reels at the depot)
- shipping and storage issues
- replacement reels
- cost of new reels and shipping containers, as well as conversion of depot film racks to accommodate them

Personally, I'd say that it isn't worth the trouble, and that the industry's time and money would be better spent on improving the existing distribution infrastructure. Prints need to arrive on good reels and need to be packed to avoid damage in shipping. Theatres which damage film should be charged for the damage. Neither of these is happening consistently at this time and both are more important than ELRs.

Even if the ELR concept is implemented, it will probably only be for wide releases. It wouldn't make sense to use ELRs for limited releases of, say, a dozen prints, or repertory prints, due to the double-inventory issues, since there are plenty of theatres that can't accommodate the large reels. Also, shipping would probably be more expensive for the larger, heavier containers.

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I LOVED the shipping cases!! Easy to cary, sturdy, the latches worked, they wouldn't get dented (thick plastic), and we even had a rack in our booth to store them.

As far as ELR prints being assembled at the depot, I don't think this is correct. Every print, as far as I recall, that we recieved on ELRs was printed that way. Changeover cues were throughout the print as if it were 5-6 reels, but there were no splices and the "shade" of the reel was consistent when it layed on the platter.

Once we recieved a New Line print on ELRs and a second on regular reels. When it was time for pickup, they specifically wanted the regular print and not the ELR. Wonder why?

On a side note, I've also never noticed a lab splice in the few ELR prints we received.

Most if not all of the ELR prints I have handled had the reels lab-spliced together, so I am assuming the work was done at the lab level, rather than at the depots.

I am for the ELR but only if the reels they use are metal, solid-hub jobs with 5/16" spindle holes. The Warner/New Line ELR was almost as bad as the 2000' TES reel.

Scott is also right, there are still many locations out there that utilize 2000' reels in which they are screwed if they receive a print on ELR's (most of these places are not likely to have film handling equipment that will accept a 6000' size reel, for starters).

Better design of the DTS holder would be appreciated too, I have had a couple ELR prints where the DTS discs got caught in the bottom of the can and were smashed up pretty badly. Maybe a pouch or something that will positively latch closed would work.

Just my $.02

Complete conversion to new ELR reels and cases would be a very significant expense, not to mention the cost of new racks and handling equipment at all levels.

What about theatres with Norelcos? Or Western Electric universal bases? Or limited ceiling height? Many of these places simply wouldn't be able to convert, so ELRs would need to be double inventory items. I've personally worked in three (four as of next week) places in the last couple of years that can't run large reels, and none of them is likely to convert.

Even platter houses might have issues: aren't there some makeup tables that can only handle 2000' reels?

I do think that the ELR is basically a good idea for the multiplexes, but it would always be a double-inventory item, so it seems to me that the money and effort would be more likely to benefit the average filmgoer if it were spent in some other way.

This does have the potential to be a big pain, of course:

• Cutting uncut prints is always unfortunate, and in a bizarre variant on "turnabout is fair play," it would now be the platter houses that have to rely on the changeover houses to splice things together nicely.
  
• It would be a lot more work for the changeover houses, who at the moment can go off-screen in seconds (if they take-up onto shipping reels), or seconds+unattended minutes (if they take-up onto house reels and rewind to shipping reels).
  
• It might be real difficult to find the reel breaks; labs could include footage counts of the constituent reels, but not everyone has a frame counter or sync block (though I guess you could use a ruler/chart and "do the math"). Actually, it would be great if lab-style edge notching were used. I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world if a changeover house cut 6k reels in the "wrong" places, but then hopefully they would add only temporary cues (adhesive dots or china marker).
  

TMP's comment about lab-splices is interesting. I assume that means there's one dupe neg for the entire ELR, and that they use an entire 6k roll of raw stock for it, and then "do something creative with the short ends." That's a positive benefit of ELRs I hadn't considered...

If ELR reels were to happen, they should be with 1/2" shafts not 5/16"

Steve

--jhawk

Steve