Cigarette burns / reminders in films

brav

Hi,

Just wondering why are "cigarette burns" still in films?
I know they used to be there to remind the projectionist that it is coming to the end of a reel, about 12 feet left in it or 8 seconds or something.
They last for 4 frames I think(1/16th second) and they punch the holes in the film, also a bell used to go off in the projector.

But I thought nowadays its either all digital or that there was no need for 2 projectors or whatever as the projector could take all the film and no need to change reel.

Am I wrong, have cinema not gone digital yet? I understand the old/smaller cinemas around might not be digital but I still thought these did not need to change reel.

Also for the cinemas that are digital should they not be free of the marks?

I tried googling but my searching skills must still be in bed!

Black Swan

brav wrote:

They last for 4 frames I think(1/16th second) and they punch the holes in the film, also a bell used to go off in the projector.

Three frames? Upper right hand corner?

brav

Ya, 3 or 4 frames in the upper righthand corner.

could only find this which doesn't really shed any light on it

~Rebel~

well i know that most cinemas here haven't gone digital yet. Its still all reels of film. Beyond that i dont know why they still have the cigarette burns in them, i would have imagined, like yourself, that its not necessary to be switching around. Maybe its to cater for places that haven't upgraded that far yet?

Id say everyone noticed them much more after Fight club (thats when i started paying attenion to them anyway!)

brav

It was after fight club I knew the name of them, but I always saw them before but thought it was a bad quality reel

luckat

Interesting point! There was a Colombo episode where he solved the murder using those!