National Film Archive of Japan - Film Handling

[Ryan Gallagher]

Not many people making videos like this, since this is NEW thought I'd share.

Unfortunately no english language CC or subs, so maybe just some film handling ASMR for everyone. But no subs needed for most of it. ;-) They at least highlight the do and don'ts pretty clearly.

[Brad Miller]

Ummm, yeah these people need to learn a few things. The highlights:

Right off of the bat in the first minute they are winding the protection leader down past the projector before threading. Actual professional projectionists that understand the detrimental consequences to the print do not do that.

Then they proceed to get their hands all over the leader in the next scene as they claim it's "protected" by going into a trash can.

Next they show what happens when the center falls out of a core of film due to improper film handling of the core. While it's important to demonstrate the bad handling of the core for the video, their repair isn't exactly the best solution since if there is any dirt on that film it will cinch scratch using their technique. (This one I'll only dock a little bit off as an actual theater would not have a rig to center-feed it and this could be the only way that a theater could get it back together without cutting the film.)

The rewind table they are using is crap. Just an on/off switch with no ramping ability. An archive should not even possess such a thing.

They DO at least point out to never tape the end of the film to the core, so at least they got THAT right!

Pretty sloppy film handling at the splicer, and of course a dead wrong demonstration of the tape application. On that same note, the splicer blades are clearly out of alignment, which is an easy fix.

Idiots drew grease pencil "X" marks for temporary cues on the LEFT side of the picture.

They should not wrap their yellow flags around the film. They should have punched it using the splicer on one face of the film. Wrapping can cause the image to shift laterally during projection as the flag passes through the trap.

Then they apply cue tape mid-air and proceed to wrap that around the edge of the film as well. Ugh.

Just another training video with good intentions but with a lot of bad techniques and procedures.