8mm Forum: Slugs

This is topic Slugs in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on July 17, 2019, 05:15 AM:

Whilst looking at some 16mm features for sale on American eBay, among the seller's attributes to his film for sale were the words:-
"No slugs".
What are slugs?
The only ones I know are the ones which eat my strawberries before I do.

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on July 17, 2019, 06:39 AM:

Maurice, it usually refers to short clips (a few seconds long) like "coming soon", "our feature presentation", etc.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on July 17, 2019, 02:02 PM:

My interpretation of this is different to Jean-Marc's, but I've tried a search that seems to reinforce the one I had in mind. My understanding is that "slugs" are lengths of leader (usually white, to add visibility) that were put in features or TV shows to indicate where commercials should be (or had been) inserted. That's (e.g.) stated under "TV print" heading of this page: https://16mmfilminfo.com/fstock.html

Posted by William Davis (Member # 4023) on July 17, 2019, 02:20 PM:

Adrian, Your answer is correct - "slugs" refer to leader (can be any color) spliced in where the commercials were removed. If a print had never been run at a TV station it will have a few frames with something like "place commercial here" or "insert commercial" printed in - not spliced in - to indicate where the commercials should be placed. After the original broadcast of that print - when the commercials are removed - they are replaced with leader (slugs) to indicate where to place the commercials for the next broadcast.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on July 17, 2019, 03:00 PM:

Thank you, gentlemen.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on July 17, 2019, 03:01 PM:

A thought. If the seller says "no slugs", would that mean the feature for sale was not an ex TV print?

Posted by William Davis (Member # 4023) on July 17, 2019, 05:05 PM:

Some people - including myself - sometimes - but not always - remove the slugs from prints. I find some leaders - including plastic and fiesta leaders warp and I just remove them to allow the print to run better when projected.

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on July 17, 2019, 06:23 PM:

Maurice - That's a tricky question. My interpretation, if there's no reference in the text to whether it's a TV print, would be that it IS a TV print - or at least a print used by a TV station. If it's not a TV print, a reference to slugs seems irrelevant. But I can't rule out that the seller always says this when there are no slugs, even if the print was never screened by a TV station.

Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on July 20, 2019, 07:52 PM:

I got a chuckle when I first read the headline. Where I come from, a "slug" is slang for someone of low regard, you know, a lazy, worthless POS who can not be relied on.

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