A film leader is a length of film attached to the head or tail of a film to assist in threading a projector or telecine. Leader attached to the beginning of a reel is sometimes known as a head leader, or simply head, and leader attached to the end of a reel known as a tail leader or foot leader, or simply tail or foot.
A universal film leader is a head leader designed for both television and theatrical motion picture exhibition applications. This not only includes the countdown, but technical information about the film, including, but not limited to title, studio, production number, aspect ratio, sound level and mix, reel number and color.
Head leaders are marked with visual and audio information that may be used to ensure that the correct amount of time is allowed for the machine to run up to speed and arrive at the beginning of the program or movie. They generally feature a countdown.
Two versions of head leader are well-known:
The video editing software Adobe Premiere (as well as later versions, including Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Premiere Elements) features a computer-generated version of the SMPTE leader, entitled the "Adobe Universal Leader." It can be customized with different colors, and can be set to beep either at the beginning of each number or just at the two.
The rock band Foreigner's album 4 uses a film leader on the cover, counting the number 4.
The French TV series X Factor also displays frequently a black picture with the text "SMPTE UNIVERSAL LEADER" and playing a beep sound. The whole process is repeated several times throughout each episode when initiating the recurring phase in which the contestants amuse and talk about themselves. Its purpose is to affect the watcher by rendering the contestants more sympathetic as this phase is entirely unrelated to the main activity of the show (performing songs) and creates a vibes of a fictional movie; hence the text.[3]