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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Changeover guys/gals - test your skills
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 09-28-2007 10:54 PM
John, you are right, and of course that means that if you REALLY want to get it accurate as humanly possible, you first have to determine the exact time each of the projectors ramped up to full speed, which might not even be the same for each machine, and then each projectionist who worked the booth would need to determine his own "personal" response time and adjust down from there to compensate for that.
And believe me, those of us old enough to know what it was like when all houses were changeover know at least a few of those really old guys whose reaction time sure did exceed the better part of a second. And you knew who they were by watching them thread up on [3] "just to be on the safe side," as one of them once explained it to me. And even THEN you couldn't be sure they would hit it. Hells, they could fall asleep between the MOTOR/SYNC cue and the C/O cue! OK, I exagerate, but you KNEW they were threading on some ridiculously low number when you heard the garbled sound because the sound drum did not get up to speed and saw that tell-tale picture continuity jump so badly that it was painfully obvious you just missed something. ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
You think these times of the minimum wage splice-monkeys are scary....don't let anyone kid you, the change-over days had some scary scenarios as well. At least the platter prevents some clown from changing over to the last 5 min. of the last reel so he can get home early on a Friday night.
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 09-28-2007 11:06 PM
Oh, sure, Frank. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Measured the actual projector speed, the ramp-up time, made a spreadsheet for common changeover lengths, did up a nice threading diagram, and posted it on the side of the lamphouse. It is indeed slightly different for two adjacent machines...
Like this:
Each operator can choose the proper reaction time ("fudge factor"). Yellow line goes through 500ms, which seems to be typical.
The "self-clocking" method (I'd attribute it to Steve K.) is a handy way to check yourself and soforth, but then you run into an uncut print and screw yourself.
Threading to 8 on an academy leader? Perhaps our Centuries are just a tad fast (insert Mark G. jackrabbit comment), but perhaps you guys are shortchanging the last second of the outgoing reel? Motor start on motor cue. Pause ONE FULL SECOND after the changeover cue, and then hit the changeover button. That last second is there to be shown.
--jhawk
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 09-29-2007 03:45 AM
quote: Brad Miller
Nope, nowadays most brand new prints only have 18 frames after the changeover cue, and since most films run at 24 frames per second, you have to wait 3/4 of a second to do the changeover! That was messing with me this year at Telluride as I did some practice changeovers because I am so used to 24 frames after the last cue.
I remember something about this change being posted here a couple of years ago. However, I often see to opposite happening; the c/o cue is early on the print, by anything up to 5 or 6 extra frames, so there could be up to about 30 frames from first frame of cue to LFOA. It just varies from print to print, and sometimes from reel to reel. That's before people start chopping odd frames out of the print. I can only think that they're dooing this to allow for the loss of some frames at the reel ends during the life of the print; it's happening too often to be an eror. Then, of course' there are the prints, mainly from French labs, which have no cues at all, unless someone as scribed some huge, ugly handmade ones ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
What was the official reason for the change to 18 frames; was it that people were tending to change too early, and missing too many frames at the end of the reel?
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John Hawkinson
Film God
Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 09-29-2007 03:23 PM
Well, Rick, somebody's got to be too analytical.
Yes, it's true, often there are 18 frames. During inspection, of course, we count the distance between and after cue dots, and right it down on the cue sheet, and then of course our projectionists adjust their timing based on that. Sorry for leaving out yet another detail ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
--jhawk
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