[AMIA-L] Reply: 1000 ft reel

[Leo Enticknap <ldge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard May writes:

> Release prints were standardized for 2000 ft. reels in 1937.

Standardised in what sense?  Publication of SMPE guidelines?  Whether it
was standardised or not, the practice was commonplace in Britain as early
as 1933, when a trade press article pointed to the difficulties of
distributors supplying 2,000 foot 'double' reels to theatres which often
had to break them down into 'singles' for projection.  Local councils
granted cinemas their licences to open to the public, and many forbade the
projection of 'doubles' on safety grounds, or at least required that fire
extinguishers built into projector mechanisms be installed or
upgraded.  One of the two main trade unions which represented
projectionists also imposed restrictions on their use, ostensibly on safety
grounds, but in reality (it was suspected) out of fears that longer reels
would mean lower projection booth staffing (its leader, George Elvin, was a
prominent member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the early '30s
before he went to Labour and eventually stood - unsuccessfully - for
Parliament in the 1945 general election).

> Starting at that time, labs still printed in 1000 ft. lengths, but the A
> and B sections were spliced together in the distribution exchanges before
> shipping. [...] The A sections (or odd numbered reels) no longer carried
> changeover cues.  Also reels numbers were based on 2000 ft. reels.

Interesting, because I've seen prints of feature films made a lot later
than 1937 with a set of cues half way through each 2k reel.  Perhaps this
was because some theatres were still breaking them down into 1k for
projection, and so labs took the line that it was better to put cues on the
internegs of each reel rather than have projectionists inscribe home-made
ones.  Interestingly this is still an issue over half a century later:
there's one lab in Paris which never puts changeover cues on its
prints.  Most of their output which comes over here is prints of arthouse
titles, which tend to go to the theatres that do still run
changeovers.  Once one of these prints has done the rounds a bit, the
blizzard of marks on the end which pass for 'cues' defies belief.  It's
obviously a mark of pride among some projectionists that only their own
cues will do, and so they go to work on the prints with hole punches,
Tipp-ex, masking tape - you name it.

> Some projectors, I believe, also required special motors for the take-up
> since, as the weight of the take up reel increased, the torque had to be
> adjusted.

Fitting separate take-up motors is very common for 35/70 combination
projectors, even though most don't come out of the factory with
them.  There's obviously a huge difference between the weight of a 500 foot
35mm reel of commercials and trailers and a full reel of 70, hence the
desirability of being able to adjust the speed and/or torque of the take-up.

Leo