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Author
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Topic: strangeness at the edge of the reel
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Edgar Njari
Film Handler
Posts: 3
From: Osijek, Osječko-baranjska, Croatia
Registered: Jun 2016
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posted 07-03-2016 07:05 AM
if it was "real" instead of reel, it could pass for a nice movie title...
Pardon my poetic expression, and let me first say HI to everyone as I'm new here. My name is Edgar, and I recently joined this forum, and film community at large, when I started shooting on 35mm, rather late in it's history I might add. By the end of this year, I hope to project my first 35mm print, as one of the local theaters where I live still operates a 35mm film project, though it rarely uses it except on freak occasions (like when someone like me comes along).
Anyway let me get to the point.
I have fond memories of watching movies in cinemas in the 90s and 2000s, when film projection was still the main standard. I often feel nostalgia towards all the artifacts associated with film projection, such as reel changes (before platters came along), optical soundtrack (before digital soundtracks) vinyl-like crackle etc.
But there is something that I remember seeing in certain cases, which puzzles me to this day.
Specifically I think it was the LOTR (Two Towers) print, and the way it behaved when the reels were changing. I remember that the entire image kind of shifted to cyan or blue at the very end of the reel. Then the next reel seemed to have a significant shift in sharpness for some reason, which I think didn't last long until it settled in, and there was also a contrast change. By sharpness I don't mean better image detail, I mean edge effects; adjacency effects which sometimes happen in development.
So my question is: what could possibly happen in the lab that could cause significant adjacency/edge effects, contrast shifts and color shifts at the very end or beginning of a reel.
Did anyone else notice such a thing. I remember reading somewhere about color shifts, due to safelight contamination, but I never heard anyone mention edge effects.
Thanks
Edgar
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/534a.jpg)
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 07-04-2016 12:45 AM
quote: Edgar Njari For example, what would cause color shifts, and/or pronounced adjacency effects in the print. Perhaps this is more a question for a lab technician, but a lot of you guys seem to know a lot about what happens at the lab too.
Factors that could influence the color balance of a release print include...
- The interneg used to print it - The emulsion on the print stock you're printing on to: though Kodak's quality control on the consistency of 2383 and 2302 has always been pretty darn good, dye couplers in color stock will change with age, as will the speed of b/w emulsion, slightly; so if you're printing onto stock that has sat on the shelf for a long time before exposure, its color and gamma curve will have shifted - The color temperature of the light source in the printer - The potency of the processing chemistry: the mixture in each bath needs to be "replenished" regularly, to ensure that it is of the correct strength - The temperature of the processing chemistry as the film passes through it - The speed at which the film passes through each chemical bath (in other words, the length of time it is immersed in each solution).
That is probably not an even close to complete list. All these factors need to be monitored and kept within spec: if they're not, the quality of the prints that emerge from the lab will suffer. As Mike points out, towards the end of the 35mm multiplex era, the sheer volume of prints being made and the commercial pressure to make them for the lowest cost per foot put a lot of pressure on the quality control aspect of things.
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Edgar Njari
Film Handler
Posts: 3
From: Osijek, Osječko-baranjska, Croatia
Registered: Jun 2016
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posted 07-04-2016 05:59 AM
Hi,
@Buck: I'm 30 now. Actually where I live, which is a smaller city in Croatia, they didn't get Dolby Digital until 2001. In those days there used to be just two active cinemas in town, which were old-school single projection room theaters. One of them was built in the 20s actually, the other in the 50s or 60s I think. Nowadays both of them are just relics of the past since multiplexes have taken over in malls. They also kept a two-projector system for the longest time, I think even into the early 2000s. But my memory is faded, and I could have actually been seeing just spliced-together reels on a platter that that point. I can't remember. As for the "dye leak", well there is actually no such thing in the eastmancolor printing process, because the "printing" itself is actually photo-chemical, rather than mechanical as in technicolor IB prints.
@Leo:
Yeah, now we are getting into the gritty stuff, which is what I wanted to find out in the first place. Whatever is causing the shifts, the question is, why does it happen to a couple of meters of footage at the end of the reel and not the entire reel.
Strangely enough I found this thread: http://www.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004332#000003
someone else noticed this too...but I just realized I mad a big mistake in my first post which can't be edited anymore. It wasn't Two Towers, it was The Fellowship of the Ring. Sorry.
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