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Author Topic: DELUXE sending out ambiguously numbered reels John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-27-2009 07:28 AM                     It may be of interest to some that the Australian lab 'ATLAB' has been bought out by Deluxe here so ATLAB is no more. The old habits continue though at Deluxe in Australia. Not sure how it works over in the USA, but here we have colour coded heads and tails...it's nothing scientific, just red means tail and blue means head. The geniuses at ATLAB never got the importance of this fact and now DELUXE are doing it too. (It's probably the same person). The prints are run off the printer and cut into sections, right? The thing is, they never cut it where the red meets the blue so when you see blue START 6 it is more likely red END 5 or similar. Considering there are no other labels than the printed ID's on these prints...is it too much to ask that they be cut in the right place? I would have thought that was rather an important part of presenting a feature (albeit nicely covered in plastic and in a nice new box with cardboard between the reels) to a cinema for building and screening. If it says END 5 on a reel, I expect that reel to be END 5...not find out it's actually START 2 when I wind in a bit...or maybe I'm just expecting too much in these times.  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-27-2009 07:51 AM                     Too bad Film-Tech member Dominic Case has left Atlab. He could likely give you a more direct response. Is it really END 5 vs. START 6 or is it END 5 vs. START 5? In the US, many reels are loop printed, and it's common (though not frequent. Maybe 1 in 10? 1 in 20?) to see HEAD COMMON SYNC because the leader is long, and if you go a bit further, it'll say FOOT COMMON SYNC and then have the proper tail. My understanding is the printers never stop, so the operator has to grab and cut the leader while its in motion, which makes it difficult to be precise. I suppose they could always trim the leader later, but since people are always saying leaders are too short, I imagine nobody wants to be the one to shorten a head or tail... In the US we don't have any coding like that. Deluxe does have a color coding system for reel numbering, so red is R1, yellow is R2, green is R3 (have I screwed that up yet?). --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-27-2009 09:32 AM                     I, personally, use the colors of the leaders to tell reels apart but I have seen various situations where they have been wrong. Sometimes, the heads and tails are not spliced back onto the reels they should be. Sometimes, like you say, the reels are not cut in the right place. Other times, they have been just plain wrong. That's why I don't teach new people to look at the colors of the leaders. I never even mention it. If somebody notices the colored leaders and asks me, I only give them a brief description and tell them that it all depends on the lab that made the print. I always teach new people to read the leaders. I tell them to look for the name of the movie and the reel number followed by "Head/Start" or "Foot/Finish" then the countdown or absence of countown and, finally, the ID frame. If they don't find that sequence they are supposed to call me and we'll puzzle it out together. (This usually means we go to Technicolor and get the ID sheet.) I like the idea of colors or simplified symbols to make the job easier but, if they aren't going to be consistent I wouldn't bother.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-27-2009 11:47 AM                        quote: John Hawkinson the operator has to grab and cut the leader while its in motion, which makes it difficult to be precise Geez, that doesn't sound very high-tech. You would think in this day and age there would be a more precise and/or automated way of cutting film in the right place rather than some guy running after a moving strip of film with a sissors trying to catch a the right spot. Then again there are booth monkeys that break down prints pretty much the same way, so I guess it is what it is.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-27-2009 04:26 PM                     quote: John Hawkinson Is it really END 5 vs. START 6 or is it END 5 vs. START 5? Yes, it is in this case. I also had on WOLVERINE an end 3 / start 4 but it's not normally so direct. It usually can be something like end 5 / start 2 etc. To me, it seems a poor way of presenting your work.  |  IP: Logged

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