my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » Is it possible to run a long loop (several minutes) without special equipment?

Author Topic: Is it possible to run a long loop (several minutes) without special equipment? Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-29-2008 08:49 PM                        I'm wondering if it's possible to run a loop thats 2-3 minutes without any special equipment. Is there a way to do it using a Christie AW3 platter? The only thing I can come up with is using a series of rollers much as you would when interlocking. Unfortunately I don't have any interlocking equipment - no collector, no portable rollers. For what it's worth. This is related to the thread about using a digital projector at our drive-in. We have someone that wants to shoot something at our drive-in and they want something projected on screen while they are shooting.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-29-2008 08:56 PM                     Can you make a shorter loop that would go from the top roller, through the machine, down to the lower roller of the platter, through the lower roller of the traveller, though the takeup arm roller and back to the roller traveller and back up to the top roller? It'll look like a large triangle. Use a good length of trailer in doing this. -Monte  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-29-2008 09:02 PM                     You can, but you'll need to get some rollers unless damaging the loop isn't a problem. That's a lot of time for a loop though...can it be shorter? As a guide, check out this video . It shows a journey of film running 3 minutes and 10 seconds. It shows that at 3 minutes you're going to need a lot of rollers...and hopefully a pretty big booth. A smaller loop (like one minute) would be much more managable and likely do-able including the rollers on your platter. At IMAX years ago, we had a 45 second commercial that ran every hour on the hour but they only gave us one print. I set up the machine so it played the loop negating a re-thread every time. I only needed the platter and from memory two more rollers strategically placed to accomodate the length  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-29-2008 10:28 PM                     You can also have someone trying to manage it in real-time, ideally wearing cotton gloves. Depending on how replacable the loop is, it's the quick-and-dirty solution. Try to keep it off the floor, e.g. in a cardbord box or whatever... --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-30-2008 03:31 PM                        What type of equipment is being used to "shoot" the drive-in? If it's videotape, the film projector won't sync with a standard NTSC video camera (the image will flicker). In order to have the image not flicker, you would need to do one of the following: a) shoot film at 24fps; b) shoot 24p video; c) run the film projector at 30fps or 15fps (or some other multiple of 30); or d) use a 5-blade shutter on the film projector at 24fps. Still photographs will be fine if the shutter speed is 1/30th or slower. This may or may not be an issue for you.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-31-2008 01:45 AM                        This is a question I really don't know the answer to. We were approached by the group who wants to do the filming and they seem to be professional documentary film makers so I'm going to assume they thought through the frame rate issue - but I do have a hunch they are going to be shooting in PAL rather than NTSC.  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 10-31-2008 03:49 AM                     quote: Justin Hamaker but I do have a hunch they are going to be shooting in PAL rather than NTSC. The same thing applies, but it might be even worse. Since with PAL the difference in frame ratesis much less, 1 fps rather than 5.97, the flicker will be much slower. With interlaced video, and a two-blade projector shutter I think you'd probably get a 2 Hz. flicker, which would be very annoying, whereas with NTSC you'd probably get a 11.94 Hz. flicker, which they might think gave it a 'film' look.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 10-31-2008 09:50 AM                        The long loop: use the roller on the makeup table; set it outside if needed. I run 100 ft loops this way for testing. Louis  |  IP: Logged Kenneth Wuepper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1026 From: Saginaw, MI, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 10-31-2008 10:02 AM                     Stephen, We had the local TV station do a feature on our Art Films. They wanted to see the Carbon arc lamps and then they wanted to see the projectionist's view through the booth port. There was a really bad shutter bar in the picture on their camera. So I put the V-10 into 30FPS mode and the bar vanished. Looked pretty good on the evening news. (they didn't care about the sound) KEN KEN  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-31-2008 10:27 AM                     Watch out on what footage you are planning to put on the screen. Because of copyright image rights. They need to get a clearance for the footage used, even if it's a trailer. If they plan to show this film later, otherwise they and your company could get sued for not getting a rights clearance for the footage. Many documentry filmmaker film before getting the rights cleared.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-31-2008 07:41 PM                        Bill, I'm pretty sure this is their own material. My understanding is it's actually graphics rather than video.  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.