How long is a piece of leader?

[Douglas Meltzer]

Chip,

At CineSea I use a camera accessory known as a "French Flag" to block the light from the projector while cuing up a reel. The articulated arm is clamped to the projection table so that the flag can be easily positioned a few inches in front of the lens to see when the countdown ends. At the end of the film I bring back the flag to block the lens so that the remainder of the tail leader can pass through the gate without appearing on the screen.

[Chip Gelmini]

Well done Doug!

[Daniel Nemenyi]

Photo of the French Flag in action here Doug?

[Ken Finch]

Many commercial films just have a length of clear film at the start. Sometimes followed by the count down. Kodak have always added white leader to films shot with spool loading 8 and 16 mm cameras. Not sure about the super8 magazines/ cassettes. What I have always found with self threading projectors is they can be very temperamental when it comes to threading irrespective of the type of leader used so I always use a minimum of 3ft with some black at the tail end of the film. I also use. The card in front of the lens trick. When projecting vhs or dvd I pause the film at the short black seconds prior to the logo and open the screen tabs as it appears. Just like they used to do in the good old days when films were properly presented. I reverse the process as The End Appears. I try to do the same when projecting cine films but not so easy to do at the start of the film without an extra pair of hands to press the tabs button. 😉

[Douglas Meltzer]

Daniel,

Yes! I was checking to see if it's better to attach the flag to the carry handle of the GS or have it come in from below. The underneath position worked better for me.