It seems like highway robbery to buy them for $80 (that's what "Theatre cue marker 35mm" runs for in Christy's Editorial's catalog.)

At this point, I think I will mill some myself. Though it appears the cost of tooling is sort of annoying, as there's a specialty keyslot cutter required. That kind of makes me think I should make more than 1 or 2 if I'm going to buy the milling cutter. Would anyone here want a few?

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Unless it's changed, SMPTE 301 says center of the cue should be .281" from the edge, and .148" up from the horizontal centerline, and a diameter of .094".

The frame I scribed w/ a Clint Phare in my pocket is .275" from the edge, .169" from the centerline, and a diameter of .080". That seems reasonable except for the height, but if anything the SMPTE height seems low. I don't have any frames with IP lab cues in my pocket, but I'll measure some next time I'm in the booth.

Any idea how consistent IP lab cues are? I seem to remember seeing them in a variety of different places, but I could be wrong on that. If so, obviously you can't please everyone.

BTW, are IP lab cues actually punched out of the IP, or are they adhesive dots, or Clint Phare -scribed, or what?

--jhawk

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It sounds like it would be cumbersome and annoying to use, though...but certainly possible.

The top piece has the holes to allow you to guide the scriber Thus it could be made for FLAT and CSCOPE and you just change the top plate with a couple of screws or a 1/4-trun fastener.

Then, for the bottom plate, you have the milled out area for the film and the registration pin(s).

While you are at it...you could always make 16mm and 70mm cuers too.

We once had a stock pile of the 16, 35 and 70mm cuers (new in the box) but have gone through many on various installations.

Steve

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I'm not sure what the concern is with cinemascope cues...one position seems to be sufficient (no?).

I'll admit I thought about a two-piece design for other reasons, like not having to buy a 1/8" width 1-1/2" diameter narrow-slot woodruff keyseat milling cutter...but I'm going to go with purity, at least for the moment.

Joe: SMPTE 301 doesn't specify cue marks for scope, they're all the same.

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Hey, how about a staggered design? The flat cues as with the Phare units. But then, down about 2 perforations, is the set for scope, which are distinguished by being inset more than the flat. If there's enough room to do that and still leave room for the scriber, that is.

FWIW, the original Phare markers would align with the frame line along the top.

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Better Projection Pays!

Him, I think Tim is certainly right, if the goal is to have different marks for flat/scope. Also, another choice would be to have scribing holes on both the left and the right side of the die; so you rotate the die 180 degrees for scope. Both those systems are prone to abuse in that a naive user might scribe more cues than are necessary.

Tim said, "the original Phare markers would align with the frame line along the top". Perhaps I'm smoking something, but I seem to recall getting cues wrong the last time I tried that; regardless, I do find that sometimes it is better to scribe the cue dot 1 perf down, depending on what's where in the frame.

--jhawk

{*} -- There's an ETS label from the previous theater under ours, but of course its from July, so I'm not sure there's much point in bitching at them privately, much less publically...

On the frame line alignment. With the registration pin on the top left, and the holes on the right, the frame line went right across the top. At least in the ones I used in the 70s and 80s.

They may have well altered something in later units. As I remember, the craftsmanship wasn't as good on the newer ones. One problem in particular was that whoever drilled the holes went a bit too far and dished the bottom of the scribing area. You could never make a perfect circle with those markers, because the scribe tip would walk around in the shallow crater at the bottom (the place that was supposed to be perfectly flat). The result was a cue that danced around, and changed in thickness, on the screen. Yuck!

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Better Projection Pays!

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