All About SPLICERS

[noahstout]

Hi guys, I'm continuing my search for great super 8 splices (invisible/don't get caught in projector). I bought a cement splicer, hearing those are better than tape, and it sucked. It spliced in the middle of the frame and was too obvious. Are there better ones out there (ones that go between frames)? What about the Bolex one? I also heard that there is a kind of splicer that rubs off a whole frame and places that frame over the other, and its invisible. Has anyone heard of that.

noah
By the way, my cement is old and kinda yellow- i'm wondering if thats regular or if its because its old?
While I'm at it, has anyone heard of the Dupage 16mm film splicer? It looks amazing. How does it work?

[BolexPlusx]

Something I want to try for the first time this year is getting silent footage striped and then recording sound tracks using a sound projector. I'm going to start with just music at first, and then get more elaborate later. (Narration, wild sync, and maybe even lip-sync....)

One of the things this means is the film has to be perfectly flat over the splices, or there will be a dropout in the sound track. It's also a problem that the step in a lap splice can cause the stripe to be weak and maybe peel later on.

As a result, I recently bought a Bolex splicer. It bevels the ends of a film at an angle and joins the two ends without an overlap. This gives a perfectly flat splice.

As a process, doing the splice this way is much more complicated, to the extent that on my current (silent) projects I'm still chickening out and using my old overlap cement splicer. The time is coming soon when I'll have all the footage in place for my sound projects and I'll have to take the plunge.

A friend of mine who uses the Bolex splicer all the time tells me that once you get used to it, you never want to use anything else, even if there isn't going to be a stripe on the film.

Kind of like driving a car with a clutch. It's a nightmare at first, but after a while you don't even think about it......

PS: Splicing cement has an amazing capacity to work even after it looks old and cruddy. However, I made it a point a couple of years ago to get some new stuff, even if all it bought me was a little confidence. The thought of screening one of my films in front of an audience and busting a splice halfway through doesn't bring much joy to my heart!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 22, 2004 02:24 PM: Message edited by: BolexPlusx ]</font>

[noahstout]

Can you explain further how the Bolex splices without any overlap? It IS a cement splicer, right? I don't see how you can do that without any overlap. So the film is basicaly joined like this // (pretending this line of text were film)? And is this how it works for all Bolex splicers- like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=15253
Because it looks like it cuts straight, but I've heard about Bolex's bevelled cuts.
Are the splices basically invisible?
Thanks for the help,
ns

[BolexPlusx]

You have it exactly right. The Bolex splice would look something like " // " and it is a cement splice.

It's something like this: The reason that most cement splicers overlap half a frame is to provide enough surface area for a strong cement bond, and apparently a butt splice between straight ends would be too weak because the film's width is too little to provide enough surface. However, by grinding the film at an angle more than enough surface is exposed to do the job.

From what I've heard, a well done splice using the Bolex bevel splicer is basically invisible.

The one you show on auction looks like a nice example as well. (It's kind of disturbing that the seller is including PressTapes, they shouldn't be required for this splicer.

As a sign of how good these are, any time they are on E-bay there is always a battle. I paid about $50 for mine on E-bay(would have gotten it for $16, but somebody tried to snipe me!)

[bigmasi]

I just want to say something related...

Don't forget the art of cutting! The best way to make invisible cuts is in the mind of the editor.