Readers may remember a thread last November on the reasons why boom mikes can sometimes be seen when a film is projected, with specific reference to 'The Ice Storm'. Just a little postscript to this: I've just finished preparing and rehearsing a print of it (opens Friday) and I had a real struggle. Firstly, the printer registration marks suggested a super-16mm blow job, hence an actual aspect ratio of about 1:1.73. A previous projectionist had written 1:1.66 on the spacing on one of the reels, so I tried it as so. Only by very careful racking could I get rid of frame lines and printer marks, and the registration of the frames within the 4-perf space varied slightly from shot to shot, and in some places radically. Reel joins threw the picture considerably, necessitating constant racking adjustments during the run and yes, there were boom mikes all over the place. Because in 1:1.66 there was no unused area of the frame to rack out of the picture, there was no way of losing the boom mikes. I then tried it in 1:1.85, initially racking to centre of the opening titles. This resulted in mikes galore once the actual film got underway, which I would guess is what happened at a lot of multiplexes. By racking the frame up in order to obliterate them, that cured it for reel 1, but it also decapitated most of the cast. The variation in printer registration from reel to reel caused constant problems; the only way to keep acceptable framing throughout the film was to stay with it throughout the show and rack where necessary, something which a small arthouse establishment such as the one I'm involved in can't do all the time and a zillion-screen McMultiplex could not do at all - the technical set-up in one of these places depends on the projectionist being able to push the button and run. In other words, there must have been a post-production f*** up of Stroheimian proportions. Negative cutter not able to make consistent joins? Step printing on the blow-up inconsistent? Who knows, but I hope no-one throws another one like that at me for some time... Leo __________________________________ Leo Enticknap Postgraduate Common Room School of English and American Studies University of Exeter Queen's Building, The Queen's Drive Exeter Devon EX4 4QJ United Kingdom email: [log in to unmask] ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite