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Author Topic: How to measure film? Richard Greco Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1180 From: Plant City, FL Registered: Nov 2003 posted 04-23-2004 10:20 PM                     I was building Man On Fire yesterday and I found a message from FOX. "Reel 5 the first frame is 12 feet from the "Picture Start" Frame. You Should neasure and cut accordingly. This frame is black." It was close to that. My question....How does one measure 12 feet on film? I have a frame counter but only know how to use it to find framelines in black. I dont know how to measure with it. Any ideas for future films like that? I ended up cutting about 2 feet from the #3 on the head. It seemed okay on the screen.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 04-23-2004 10:25 PM                        If your frame counter only counts frames, and not feet and frames, just divide by 16 (frames per foot) to get feet from frames.  |  IP: Logged Richard Greco Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1180 From: Plant City, FL Registered: Nov 2003 posted 04-23-2004 10:38 PM                     Thanks Daryl  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 04-23-2004 10:45 PM                  Deleted by me as not being constructive or helpful to the original question. >>> Phil [ 04-25-2004, 02:26 AM: Message edited by: Phil Hill ]  |  IP: Logged Richard Greco Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1180 From: Plant City, FL Registered: Nov 2003 posted 04-23-2004 10:50 PM                     Thanks Grand-POO-Bah Phil. I bow to you!!!  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 04-23-2004 11:06 PM                        quote: Phil Hill You didn't answer what he asked! He asked how to get from feet to frames. I never said I was answering the question he asked! Dumbass! Actually I did answer his question and then edited to confuse you. quote: The standard SMPTE leader length! HA! Depend on it being a standard leader! You're crazy.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-23-2004 11:06 PM                     I sometimes wonder how people in this industry miss checking with what the standard is for many things like the number of frames per foot (especially since it is in film note for reel people in the manual section of this site) There seems to be a lot of topics as of late that a little research would go a long way to solving and other usefull skills learned along the way  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-24-2004 12:21 AM                        Why don't the labs print clear frame lines? Or failing that, why do they cut reels at a point where there's a long black stretch. They should know it's just asking for trouble.  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 04-24-2004 12:29 AM                        Clear frame lines kill the contrast of scope films. If whoever is making up the print can't accurately measure a length of film they'd probably be more successful working in some other position.  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-24-2004 01:17 AM                    Take another leader that you've already cut from a different reel of that print. Line it up on top of the leader of the reel you want to cut that starts with black. By line it up, I mean line the count down digits on top of each other. Keeping the sprocket holes lined up, follow to the end and cut. Piece of cake. Don't bother counting anything. If they printed the reel correctly, it will match the countdown of every other reel. If you have weird countdowns like there were on Kill Bill (...6, 5, 4, 2) you might want to abandon this method and count frames instead!  |  IP: Logged Chris Liczbinski Film Handler Posts: 33 From: US Registered: Oct 2003 posted 04-24-2004 02:51 AM                    I chose to build up "Man on Fire" exactly how Mark mentioned, just took another head from lets say reel 2 and lined it up with the head of reel 5 I think it was. This worked for me perfectly and was done fairly quick.  |  IP: Logged Peter Castle Expert Film Handler Posts: 220 From: Wollongong University, NSW ,Australia Registered: Oct 2003 posted 04-24-2004 03:15 AM                     Now that most of the territory on 35mm film is being processed, why can't the frame lines be marked in between the sprocket holes on the picture side of the film (other side to the Dolby Digital) ?  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-24-2004 08:44 AM                     The other edge is still reserved by Dolby  |  IP: Logged Christopher Seo Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 530 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-24-2004 09:51 AM                     Richard, I'm curious as to what make and model of footage counter you have, since I don't see that you ever mentioned it only counts in frames. Is there anything wrong with the leader? Why would the letter ask to measure 12 feet from the 'START' frame when 3 feet from the '3' frame (assuming an Academy leader marked in foot increments) is much faster? Remember that the beginning of the soundtrack is not a guideline to cutting the film, because the soundtrack starts ~21 frames ahead of the first frame of picture (and there's no guarantee that the soundtrack will appear active).  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-24-2004 06:44 PM                    quote: I chose to build up "Man on Fire" exactly how Mark mentioned... This worked for me perfectly and was done fairly quick.  |  IP: Logged

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