Folks here in this forum have been blessed with getting access to video scans of release prints from their favorite films. Almost all the scans feature an audio of the print’s optical sound track. Although the optical track is appreciative for preservation, some of us would like to enjoy the quality of the print through better sound quality, like from Blu Ray, DVD, and/or LaserDisc versions, so, we attempt to mux one or more of these audio tracks to the video scan. After doing that, we find that the audio tracks won’t play in sync with the scan because the source—the release print—has missing frames. So, we either edit the audio to match the length of the scan or we extended the video to match the audio tracks—via black frames, duplicating one or more frames, etc.
We all know, by now, that one cause of why frames are missing from a release print is because of the damage that print gets through excessive playing through a film projector. After a while, the film breaks apart during projection; a frame, or two, is torn; and the two pieces of film are taped together. Other times, frames at the head or tail ends of a film’s reel are damaged because of an operator’s constant taping together and later removing a long strip of black leader used to thread to an empty reel for a projector.
This brings me to the another cause of missing frames—one that I would like an explanation to. These missing frames only appear in the home video releases and are not on the release prints. In the release prints, these missing frames occur either in the beginning of a shot or at the end of a shot. In the frame where a missing frame would either follow or precede, it has no evidence of damage –dried-on adhesive markings, a torn frame that is poorly pieced together, etc. Even if you purchased a film print where all the frames of each reel are complete, frames that appear in the home video edition would be absent from the print. Because of this, one would not be able to sync this complete print to any audio mix of any home video version unless you either edit the audio to fit the print or add frames on the scan of the print to fit the audio.
Here are some examples.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
Here is the last frame of a shot from the release print (at 00:05:04 from Litemakr’s release)
Notice the position of Indy’s hammer.
From the Blu Ray, here is that same frame (00:04:11).
…followed by this next frame, not seen in the release print.
…and that is the last frame of this shot.
Now see all these frame together below.
Here is the last frame of another shot from the release print (00:50:59)
Notice the front-end cap of a German soldier that is about to appear.
Here is that same frame, as seen in the Blu Ray (00:50:09).
…followed by this theatrically unreleased frame.
Now, we have a face that goes with that cap.
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)
Here is the first frame of this shot from the release print (00:41:33).
Notice the position of R2’s red light on his dome in relation to his barrel.
On Harmy’s Despecialized Edition, here is the first frame of this same shot (00:41:33). Now look where his red light is.
This frame and 3 others, seen below, did not show up on the release print.
Our own Mavimao gave a detailed description on the process of creating release prints from the camera negative which you can read here, but here is my version of the process in a nutshell:
- In a film processing lab, technician takes reels of the original camera negatives and cuts them into pieces
- Technician edits the pieces together to match the edited work print
- Technician takes edited camera negative and makes a high quality print of it called an interpositive
- Interpositive can either be used to make release prints, or, for safety, make a negative out of that print called an internegative and use the internegative to make release prints.
I would think that the interpositive would be used for both theatrical runs and for home video releases. If so, why are frames from the edited camera negative left-out from the release prints but appear in the home video versions.
- Did the lab’s equipment, somehow, overlook certain frames from the camera negative when making the interpositive?
- Are the procedures for distributing a film different between making a release print and a home video master that frames get missing in the release print?
Please enlighten me.
Thanks.