Cue mark

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A cue mark, also known as a cue dot, a changeover cue^[1] or simply a cue is a visual indicator used with motion picture film prints, usually placed on the right-hand upper corner of a frame of the film.^[2]

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).

Contents 1 Placement 1.1 Appearance 2 Use 3 Other 3.1 Cue marks in television 3.2 "Cigarette Burns" 4 Notes 5 See also

[edit] Placement

The exact placement of cues varies somewhat from lab to lab.

According to SMPTE-301^[2] (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^[3] (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 of 2005, domestic United States release prints printed by Deluxe Laboratories (about half of domestic first-run major releases) followed this standard.

[edit] Appearance

Most cue marks appear as either a black circle (if the physical hole is punched out on the negative 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 film). They will also appear as an oval if the print requires an anamorphic lens.

[edit] Use

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Most projection booths in movie theaters in the past (and in some older theaters and studio screening rooms today) were equipped with two projectors 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 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, in which all the reels of a movie are spliced together into one large contiguous wind of film filling the platter.

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.

[edit] Other

[edit] Cue marks 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 mark is the IBA 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 system used principally by the BBC (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.

More recently, the cue mark was used extensively on the UK's ITV and Channel 4 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 mark appears about 1 minute before the break and disappears 5 seconds before the break.

The BBC's main purpose of cue marks was to cue the following programme, either from a studio or from an outside broadcast.

Improvements in talkback and Presfax means that cue marks are rarely used now by the BBC. The prevalence of digital television and the accompanying delays means that the use of cue marks to communicate with outside broadcast units is obsolete.

Cue marks 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 marks 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.

[edit] "Cigarette Burns"

The 1999 film Fight Club drew attention to cue marks and referred to them as "cigarette burns". This term is not used in the industry, and is not a standard term. Nevertheless, because of Fight Club's usage, non-projectionists have begun to use the term, mistakenly thinking that it is canonical. In one instance, a filmmaker has used the moniker in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy: a 2005 episode of "Masters of Horror" by John Carpenter is titled "Cigarette Burns"; its plot revolves around film collection and distribution, with the lead character hallucinating cue marks.

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Coded Anti-Piracy