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Author
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Topic: when is every frame sacred?
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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 10-16-2003 06:34 AM
william hooper and frank angel expounded their "every frame is sacred" philosophy in the "you suck" thread, and i mostly agree with it. if a raggedy old print has a jagged mid-frame tear, i will leave that (repaired) frame in the print. if a head or tail has multiple cuts, i will try to leave those in as well, as long as it's not a matter of singleton frames held together by long stretches of tape (and of course i would never make a new cut). given the luxury of time, i will even sometimes cut a small piece of black leader to "fill in the gap" in a frame when a chunk of it is missing, such as might result from an out-of-frame splice, if it looks like something important is going on in the soundtrack.
i figure, given all the general damage such prints have, the "imperfections" that i leave in will not stand out too much, and it's worth preserving what integrity remains of the print.
however, in a brand new print, i do take out the mid-frame lab splices when i find them. they just stick out too godawfully and usually sound like crap, when the rest of the film is (hopefully) pristine. but it does violate the "every frame is sacred" philosophy.
i know different people differ on whether to take these out and it's been discussed before, but william and frank's comments brought out the dilemma of it. what is a well-meaning operator, devoted to putting on a good presentation and taking care of his prints, to do?
carl
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Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 10-16-2003 10:51 AM
There's a difference between "sacred" and "sacrosanct". Let's face it. If you want to make an omelette you have to break some eggs.
One frame lost isn't going to hurt anybody. Probably nobody will ever notice. One bad splice that breaks or jams up in the machine WILL be noticed! You even stand a chance of damaging even MORE film! 0.04167 seconds worth of film is a good "insurance policy", as far as I'm concerned.
If somebody else has cut off frames at the head/tail of a reel and left dozens of tape-spliced bits of film at the end, it is THEY who have done the damage, not you. Removing those trashy frames of film is another form of "insurance policy". If you are concerned about keeping those frames for posterity, go ahead and leave them attached to the leader. (Honestly, I trash them!) Just don't run them through YOUR projector and increase the possibility of film getting damaged on YOUR watch.
You don't have control over what other idiots do to the film while you're not watching. If they cut off extra frames, that is THEIR fault. It's up to YOU to do what, in your professional opinion, is the best thing for the film while it is in your hands.
If studios/distributors REALLY cared about preserving film they would prosecute/charge-back idiots who damage film. Since they don't it's up to you to make a decision.
IF you can, YES! Save the frame. If it's better for the film in the long run or if it will save you from the possibility of damage later on, snip it!
If it will help make YOUR presentation the best you know how, do whatever it takes, within reason.
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Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 10-16-2003 03:02 PM
Randy and Steve put it right....preservation, within reason. And quite frankly, I don't have a problem with a single ID frame because that is what the industry seems to have tacitly accepted, but like Brad, there is no good reason anyone needs an ID frame on both ends of a reel. Seems to me, if a guy is too lazy to rewind a 2000ft reel that has no leaders to check which reel he's got, well, he deserves to make up the print with the reels out of order. The sooner they fire his lazy butt the better.
Just as Randy points out, preservation many times will require that you don't leave film in the print if it has the potential to damage more film by jamming in the projector. I never leave accordion fan-folds at the beginning or end of a reel. On a rare occasion I have used pre-punched archive tape (you can make a repair over as many frames as you need) to preserve frames because the sound is essential at that spot that might contain a word or the end of a cord. But that situation rarely ocurrs because a good editor will cut where sound and even picture are not essential.
Problem on a lot of older prints is that so many frames have been lost over time that you could be many frames back into the body of the reel where sound could very well be essential. In rare cases like that, you do what you can. But just keeping frames is not the be-all and end-all of your mission. You use your skill to determine if keeping the frame(s) will hurt more than help.
As for lab splices, Carl, you have the right idea -- chop' em if they look ugly; if on the rare occasion the sound will be really hurt, them leave it and lay a piece of opaque material over them so all that the audience sees is a black frame, much like they did for the 3D films. Black frames in one eye were zipping by quite frequently in the older prints. Reason rules.
Frank
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