Thursday, August 29, 2024

Wikipedia Error: Film Crew Clapper Loader Entry

Wikipedia does, as we all know, certainly to those of us who may know too much about some subjects, contain errors. This morning I stumbled upon the Wiki entry for "clapper loader".

The article is a good overview, but as I scrolled down the page a certain explanatory graphic got my attention.

Each 35mm camera roll is actually 1,000 feet in length, not 2,000 feet. (A typical film load allows for about 10 minutes of 'capture' time.) The author of that description was thinking of 'printing rolls'.

Movie theatres would receive a feature film in cases of 2,000 film reels. The film lab's interpositives (IPs), internegatives (INs), and projection prints are/were 2,000 rolls.

My many years of loading motion picture camera magazines has never left me... I can still smell that "raw stock".

3 comments:

Jon said...

You should fix that, it's kind of the whole point of Wiki.

Simon St. Laurent said...

My first draft had a "Postscript"....

"When I get a few moments I'll get a Wikipedia account and correct that error."

Simon St. Laurent said...

Yes! Exactly!

I intended to say that in a comment; there was a power failure in my neighbourhood, just came back on a few minutes ago.

Yeah, you recommended that a few years ago when I spoke of certain errors on Wiki.