American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1924)

Sixteen AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER June, 1924 Sprockets and Splices By Earl J. Denison From Transactions, Society of Motion Picture Engineers When pictures first began to be used for entertainment, the question of splicing and continuity was given practically no consideration whatsover, and it was thought that all that was necessary to patch a film was simply to stick the two pieces of film together, and this was done in the crudest manners, without any knowledge on the part of the people who inspected the films of what was required of the film in the theatres. Futhermore, at the time which I mention, everybody was making so much money in the picture business that it overshadowed any damage to film, or damage to presentation through lack of proper handling of film. After everybody got a little experience and more education in the picture game, and profits were not so great, it began to dawn upon the distributors that film damage was causing them great sums of money, as prints were being returned to exchanges practically unfit for further use, and they immediately took the operators to task, (operators, now more properly called projectionists) for the film damage. In 1919, I was hired by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation to investigate and, if possible, determine the real cause for the great amount of excess film damage they were having at that time. I visited practically every one of our twenty-eight or thirty offices, at that time, and followed up specific cases of film damage by visiting theatres from which film had been returned, and examining the condition of projectors, I soon learned that although the film was actually damaged in the theatres, the real cause would be found in our exchanges. I then started an investigation of inspection and splicing conditions in our exchanges, and at the same time making a great many experiments and tests myself. I soon discovered that at least 75% of our damage was due to improper handling and splicing of film in exchanges, caused by ignorance on the part of inspectors, improper equipment and methods. Practically everyone of the exchanges had their own method for making splices, and each individual inspector had her own pet way of making a splice. At that time most of the splices were made by what is known as the "wet method." That is, the emulsion was moistened in order that it could be easily removed. There was practically no effort made to match the film so that the lap would cover the scraped part, which is so necessary in making a splice. There were no devices in use to make a straight line across the film, neither was there anything used to give a positive register to the sprocket holes. Also at this time the most common and practically only kind of a splice being made in the exchanges, as well as by the operators, was known, and is still known today, as the "full hole splice." Furthermore, at the time of which I speak, there were no adequate machines or devices on the market for making splices, so I developed several rather crude affairs, in order that the film could be a little bit more speedily handled and at the same time insure a better splice. However, these methods were entirely hand methods and did not seem to be much use in improving our film conditions. I soon learned that in order to improve conditions, my first job was to standardize on the method, as well as equipment, and we also began an educational program in our exchanges, teaching inspectors something about the film itself, as well as what was required of the film in theatres, and enlightened them as much as possible along these lines. However, the turnover of the personnel in our inspection departments was so great that we never found the same bunch of inspectors in an exchange on our next visit. Our next step was to put each department in charge of a supervisior. In doing this we endeavored to install the girl who had shown the greatest intelligence in the handling of the film. These methods improved film conditions considerably, but we were still receiving quite a lot of complaints and our film damage continued. We had great trouble with film cements. A number of different brands were on the market and practically every brand being used more or less in different localities. We kept on the lookout for some kind of device that wpuld register the film and apply a pressure to the splicing, as we learned that it was practically impossible to make a lasting splice, unless a uniform pressure was applied to it. Our next step was to install what was commonly known as a patch plate. This was the first real step in improving film conditions. Next we did away with the wet method of splicing and standardized on the dry scraping method, and we soon learned that razor blades were about the worst thing we could use in this work, as the job of removing emulsion from film is a scraping job, and therefore required a scraping edge. So we adopted a standard scraping tool, which was nothing more than a flat piece of flexible steel, ground to a scraping edge, and not to a cutting edge. With the adoption of these various methods and equipment and continual education, film conditions began to show considerable improvement. About the time that this work was being carried on, I was continually experimenting and investigating, not only the film itself, but made hundreds of tests with splices of various widths and different kinds of film cement. It next dawned upon me that the proper splicing of film consisted of two distinct operations, and unless both were properly used, that neither one meant anything. In other words, no matter if the film was perfectly cut and scraped, we would not get a good splice unless the cement was in good condition, and properly applied to the film. So our next step was to equip our inspectors with a certain type of bottle, fitted with a cork and cement brush that would insure the cement being kept in good condition. We experimented a great deal with various sizes and kinds of brushes, and we finally adopted a brush so adjusted in" the cork that it would dip just the proper amount of cement to cover the scraped part of the film. I think this did more to eliminate buckled splices than anything up to this time. (Continued on page 23)