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Topic: Acadamy leader,3 2 1
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Douglas Meltzer
Moderator
Posts: 4554
From: New York, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 13, 2005 01:10 PM
I just went searching for a definition:
Academy leader : The visual countdown that precedes the first program frame of a motion picture. Symbols and numbers on the academy leader are used for aligning the various film reels and the optical track for composite printing, for aligning the workprint and edited soundtracks for mixing, and for timing the change-over from one reel of film to another during projection. Academy leader contains one number per foot following the Picture Start, with 11, 10, etc., leader to three. (As projected, these numbers appear upside-down.) Named after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which sets all film format standards.
Doug
-------------------- I think there's room for just one more film.....
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Jan Bister
Darth 8mm
Posts: 2629
From: Ohio, USA
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted March 13, 2005 07:06 PM
So what I still have trouble understanding here is this: ... how is a projectionist able to get the incoming film going EXACTLY IN SYNC with the outgoing film, as to ensure a smooth, completely glitch-free transition in both picture and sound? I'm thinking of some mega-features like Titanic or Dances With Wolves and remember that when I saw those in the cinema I never saw ANY evidence of a switchover, ever. How do they do it so well?? I mean, frame-exact and all? With no pause, however short, no crossfading, no nothing? It still boggles my mind, and the less I realize I really understand about a projectionist's job, the more it impresses me. I guess I always used to imagine 35mm projection booths as merely gigantic versions of super-8 projectors, with equally gigantic reels mounted vertically on gigantic reel arms.
-------------------- Call me Phoenix. *dusts off the ashes*
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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted March 18, 2005 05:17 PM
quote: I never saw ANY evidence of a switchover, ever. How do they do it so well?? I mean, frame-exact and all? With no pause, however short, no crossfading, no nothing? It still boggles my mind, and the less I realize I really understand about a projectionist's job, the more it impresses me.
In a two machine booth, the accuracy has a tolerance of about four to eight frames (1/4 to 1/2 foot). A "cued" film has change-over marks in the upper right hand corner of the screen and the first dots flash for four frames at 12 feet from the end of the reel and are known as the "motor cue" and that's when the projectionist starts the incoming machine. With his experience in the booth, he knows his own reaction time and the start lag of the machine and has threaded the proper number of feet in the gate. If everything was perfect then "picture start" would be in the gate, but more likely it's around "8". The second dots flash for four frames at 11 feet and then the projectionist hits the change-over douser and the picture and sound move from projector A to B.
There are four or a few more frames following the change over dots and the incoming machine may actually start a few frames into the picture but the standards for reel changes (written in the SMPTE Standards) specifies that no critical action or sustained notes occur over the change-over. Ideally there would be a scene change without music and any error of 1/2 second wouldn't be detectable.
Nowadays, films are made up on platters and the reels are spliced together and the magic of the change-over is gone. This would have been impossible in the days of nitrate film since one spark on an open platter would have vapourized the booth!
John
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