[AMIA-L] Reply: 1000 ft reel

[Leo Enticknap <ldge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

E. Summer writes:

> While I can't point to anything historically specific, wouldn't it have
> been congruent with the manufacture of 1000 foot camera loads by Kodak (or
> some other film manufacturer). That's a pretty standard 35mm camera load
> just as 400 feet is a pretty standard 16mm camera load.

I wouldn't have thought that this would have necessarily have been the
case, because essentially we're talking about two separate issues here: the
lengths in which unexposed stock is sold for use in a camera or printer,
and the lengths in which release prints are supplied for projection in the
theatre.

By the time finished productions in excess of 1,000 feet became
commonplace, editing was already quite advanced and virtually no-one was
releasing films which consisted of a single, continuous 1,000 foot
shot.  In that case, and taking on board Paul Spehr's point that 1,000 feet
was the maximum length which the early 1900s production lines was able to
handle, I'd speculate that this length represented the best compromise for
users at each stage in the production process.  It was long enough for
cameramen not to have to reload too frequently, it enabled rushes and
intermediate elements to be printed without needlessly increasing lab
workloads, and it was long enough to enable seamless changeover operation
in the theatre without posing too much of a fire risk.

This would explain why, when the practice of 'doubling up' reels into 2k
lengths for projection became commonplace in the 1930s, it was not extended
to production and post-production, with the 'double reel' release prints
being produced by splicing two 'singles' together.

Interestingly, 2k reels remain the norm for release print distribution to
this day, even after the introduction of safety film (and later polyester,
the thin-ness of which would easily enable 2,500 feet to fit in a can
designed for 2,000 feet of acetate) and 'long play' devices which allow the
projection of a complete feature film as a single roll.  About ten years
ago an attempt was made to introduce 'ELR' (extended length reel) release
print reels of 6,000 feet each, the advantage being that only two or three
splices would be needed in the theatre to assemble a complete feature.  In
the end the idea never caught on (I've heard various reasons as to why),
though I understand that 6k reel prints are used in Denmark and Sweden to a
limited extent.

Leo