Cue mark
Encyclopedia
A pair of cue marks is used to signal the projectionist that a particular reel of a movie is ending, as most movies come to theaters on several reels of film lasting about 14 to 20 minutes each. The marks appear in the last seconds of each reel; the first mark, known as the motor cue, is placed about 8 seconds before the end of the picture section of the reel. The second mark, known as the changeover cue, is placed about 1 second before the end. Each mark lasts for 4 frames (0.17 seconds).
Coded Anti-Piracy
Coded Anti-Piracy
Coded Anti-Piracy is an anti-copyright infringement technology which marks each film print of a motion picture with a distinguishing patterns of dots, used as a forensic identifier to identify the source of illegal copies....
is a different kind of mark, used for watermarking to detect and prevent copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
.
Placement
The exact placement of cues varies somewhat from lab to lab.According to SMPTE-301 (Theatre Projection Leader), there shall be 4 frames of motor cue, followed by 172 frames of picture, followed by 4 frames of changeover cue, followed by 18 frames of picture. That puts the motor cue at frames 198–195 from the end of the picture section of the reel (12.34 to 12.15 feet; or 12-foot-6-frames through 12-foot-3-frames), and the changeover cue at frames 21–19 from the end (1.31 to 1.18 feet; or 1-foot-5-frames through 1-foot-3-frames). As of January 2005, most domestic United States release prints follow this standard.
According to SMPTE-55 (SMPTE Universal leader), there shall be 4 frames of motor cue, followed by 168 frames of picture, followed by 4 frames of changeover cue, followed by 24 frames of picture. That puts the motor cue at frames 200–197 (12.47 to 12.28 feet; or 12-foot-8-frames to 12-foot-5-frames) from the end of the picture section of the reel, and the changeover cue at frames 28–25 (1.75 to 1.56 feet; or 1-foot-12-frames to 1-foot-9-frames) from the end. Prior to January 2005, domestic United States release prints printed by Deluxe Laboratories (about half of domestic first-run major releases) followed this standard.
Appearance
Most cue marks appear as either a black circle (if the physical hole is punched out on the negativeNegative (photography)
In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...
used to make the projection print of the film), or a white circle (if the mark is made by punching a hole or scraping the emulsion on the positive film print). They will also appear as an oval if the print requires an anamorphic lens.
In order to make these marks appear clearer to the projectionist, the punched film is most often "inked" after punching by application of India ink, or a similar ink. The sample frames at the right have very fine inking. In the days of Three-Strip Technicolor, and successive exposure Technicolor cartoons, where separate silver images were available, it was not uncommon to apply two punches, one being larger and circular and the other being smaller and "serrated", with these being done in contrasting colors. In perhaps an homage to Three-Strip Technicolor, when "Star Wars" was restored, its conventional circular cues were replaced by "serrated" Technicolor-type cues on selected reels by the restorer.
Use
Most projection boothsMovie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
in movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s in the past (and in some older theaters and studio screening rooms today) were equipped with two projectors
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
side-by-side to project reels of film alternating between the two projectors. The cue mark was originally designed for such a setup.
In such a system, the projectionist had a projector running the currently-playing reel (the outgoing projector) and a second incoming projector with the next reel to play, with each projector switching roles with each changeover. The projectionist would start the incoming projector with the changeover douser closed as the first mark (the motor cue) appeared; the second projector would be threaded with the incoming reel parked 8 seconds of countdown ahead of the start of the picture section. The second mark (changeover cue) would alert the projectionist that the changeover was imminent, and one full second after the mark he would trigger a solenoid
Solenoid
A solenoid is a coil wound into a tightly packed helix. In physics, the term solenoid refers to a long, thin loop of wire, often wrapped around a metallic core, which produces a magnetic field when an electric current is passed through it. Solenoids are important because they can create...
that would open the incoming projector and another solenoid that would close the outgoing projector. The audio would be switched at this time as well; the audio for a particular film frame appears 20 frames (about 15") before the image, and so all film prints carry the first two to three feet of audio of the reel they precede at their tail, called a sound pullup (digital systems use different offsets before or after the image, which a computer corrects for). Film prints could be prepped by a projectionist with automatic changeover cues, which were small metallic appliqués which could be applied to a print at the first cue mark. Readers attached to the projector would read the marks and execute the changeover sequence automatically, as long as the incoming reel was threaded properly on the second projector.
However, most modern movie film projection systems have the film loaded on a very large horizontally-oriented platter (often colloquially known as a "cakestand"), in which all the reels of a movie are spliced together into one large contiguous wind of film filling the platter. Studios and preservation libraries that allow their archival or other rare prints to be exhibited typically demand that a twin projection system still be used so that their prints are not cut up for assembly.
Such newer platter-based projectors would eliminate the need for cue marks, but the marks are still present on modern-day motion picture projection prints, mainly for older theaters and studio screening rooms still using 2-projector setups, and also to aid the projectionist in identifying reel ends during the splicing together of the reels onto a platter in newer theaters.
In past years, certainly up to the late 1960s, cue marks were applied to the composited camera original negative, but no longer. Cue marks are now applied to the printing internegative, only, and these marks appear to be black, because the mark is made on a negative image, suitable for release print making, only. However, for many films, particularly those for which Academy consideration is anticipated, a special kind of film print, known variously as a "Show Print" or an "EK" (after Eastman Kodak), is indeed made directly from the composited camera original negative. In these cases, the cue marks are manually applied to the finished film prints, and these marks appear to be white, because the mark is made on a positive image suitable for direct projection. A typical print run of such "Show Prints" or "EKs" might be about five prints, with one being intended for a Los Angeles engagement (required by the Academy, for its consideration), one for a New York engagement, one for the producer, one for the distributor, and one for archival purposes.
Cue dots in television
In television, a similar idea is used to signal to a control room that a transition of some sort is about to occur on the broadcast (such as a commercial break). The most common type of television cue dot is the IBAIndependent Broadcasting Authority
The Independent Broadcasting Authority was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television - and commercial/independent radio broadcasts...
style, used around the world, which consists of a small square in the top right corner of the screen, with black and white moving stripes. The other is a proprietary
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
system used principally by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
(who do not air commercials). This version is a static square in the top left corner with a white-black-white pattern.
In the early days of television, some stations used a hand punch on film prints. This was seldom accurate and not all stations used the same five second / one second pattern. Viewers were often treated to distortion just before station breaks in any film that had been around a while.
In the past few decades, the cue dot was used extensively on the UK's ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
and Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
networks as a commercial break was approaching. This was for the benefit of the regional playout centres who would need to play in commercials for their region. Automation and playout servers led to this being phased out and it is now used only for some live presentations, especially those with regional opt-outs or variable ad breaks. The cue dot appears about 1 minute before the break and disappears 5 seconds after the break starts. ITV use a spinning black-and-white ticker in the corner of the screen.
The BBC's main purpose of cue dots was to cue the following programme, either from a studio or from an outside broadcast.
Improvements in talkback and Presfax means that cue dots are rarely used now by the BBC. The prevalence of digital television and the accompanying delays means that the use of cue dots to communicate with outside broadcast units is obsolete.
Cue dots do have some other uses: presentation may be asked to "flash your dots" by an outside broadcast unit so they can confirm that their off-air check feed is the correct one, particularly when they are working on a regional basis. The dots are also used during coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships to warn other broadcasters that the BBC feed will be cutting to an interview intended for the UK audience only, so they should be ready to go to something else.
"Cigarette burns"
The 1996 novel Fight ClubFight Club (novel)
Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, he finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups...
and its film adaptation of the same name
Fight Club (film)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an "everyman" who is discontented with his white-collar job...
drew attention to cue marks, referring to them as "cigarette burns." This term is not used in the industry and is not a standard term. In one instance, a filmmaker has used the moniker in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: a 2005 episode of Masters of Horror
Masters of Horror
Masters of Horror is an informal social group of international film writers and directors specializing in horror movies and an American television series created by director Mick Garris for the Showtime cable network.- Origin :...
by John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
is titled "Cigarette Burns"; its plot revolves around film collection and distribution, with the lead character hallucinating cue marks.
See also
- Coded Anti-PiracyCoded Anti-PiracyCoded Anti-Piracy is an anti-copyright infringement technology which marks each film print of a motion picture with a distinguishing patterns of dots, used as a forensic identifier to identify the source of illegal copies....
, a different kind of mark, used for watermarking