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Author Topic: Cinderella Man scratched print Stephen LaPadula Film Handler Posts: 50 From: New York, Ny Registered: Mar 2005 posted 05-30-2005 03:15 PM                     Was wondering if anyone in the northeast or any other part of the country ran into the following issue. We had a screening on Sunday for Cinderella man: reel 4 had a base scratch through out the entire reel. We ordered a replacement which came sat night but has the same scratch through the entire reel. Then we had a third replacement shipped form Ohio which seemed to be fine. Anyone else notice this (hopefully before it was screened to the public)?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 05-30-2005 04:14 PM                     Sounds like something happened during the printing/processing when the reel 4s were made. All of the major labs pull random samples off of the rack for QC checks, though I'm not certain what the frequency is. It may be every 20 reels, or 50 reels, only the lab could tell you that. Regardless, the odds of more than a dozen or two scratched reels getting past the guys in the lab and out into the field is probably pretty rare. I believe if they find a scratched reel, they start back-checking previous reels from that line to try and catch them all. You may have been lucky enough to have received two reels back to back between QC checks. It happens. There is no way to QC all 50,000 reels printed from every release. That's why each theater is supposed to pre-screen the films before they exhibit it to the public and request a replacement reel should one of them happen to have a lab printing problem. One thing I have noticed though, EVERY lab has made noticeable improvements in quality control. I used to reject reels frequently due to lab issues than I have to now.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 05-31-2005 06:17 AM                        Pretty much as Brad says. A printer or processing machine scratch would be caught during routine inspection of reels after processing. The process machine operator has a viewing screen that allows seeing everything coming off the machine, but at the very high speeds and lower resolution, only a very obvious defect would be caught there. A percentage of reels are inspected by actual projection, and if a problem is found, all the reels in the suspect batch are inspected to cull the bad ones. Sound tests are also run on a sampling of reels. I agree with Brad that careful in-theatre inspection and screening is still the best way of being sure there are no unwanted surprises when the picture opens.  |  IP: Logged Chris Brown Expert Film Handler Posts: 105 From: Fairport, NY, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 06-01-2005 01:30 AM                        So far I've built 2 prints of Cinderella Man, no problems with either. We had a sneak on Sunday night and that print looked fine...I built another one today for a sneak tomorrow night and it looked fine as I was inspecting it. Sorry for your back luck Steven!  |  IP: Logged Joseph Pandolfi Expert Film Handler Posts: 213 From: Milford, CT. Registered: Nov 1999 posted 06-08-2005 06:51 AM                     Mine too Reel 4 first ten minutes spotty base scratches. Also there were five lab splices. We got ours replaced too.  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 06-08-2005 09:54 PM                        quote: Joseph Pandolfi Mine too Reel 4 first ten minutes spotty base scratches. Also there were five lab splices. We got ours replaced too. Five lab splices sounds like you got a reel of "short ends" spliced together. Shouldn't happen, but evidently did.  |  IP: Logged

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