Cues

A scratch cue on a 35mm print.

A printed technicolor cue.

A square punched motor cue.

A tool for making scratch cues.

Incorrectly made grease cues (too large, marked on emulsion side.

Countdown

Countdown: SMPTE countdown is measured in seconds. Academy countdown is measured in feet. Both types should be 12 feet in length. 24 frames in a second

Making Cues

16 frames in a foot So 12 feet = 192 frames = 8 seconds

• First, determine if you need to make them. If there are already cues use a frame counter to see which ones are correct. Always start from the end of the reel and count backwards from last image. If it’s a fade out, be careful to check where the fadeout ends and the footer begins. Only make cues if you HAVE TO (i.e there aren’t any or the existing ones are really far off). Better the audience see a frame of black than marking up a print with more cues. Archival prints will almost always come with cues, but if you have to make cues on an archival print use grease pencil only. If it's your own personal print you may want to make scratched (or scribed) cues.

End of picture → count 18 frames → mark 4 frames of C/O → count 172 frames (or 10 feet + 12 frames) → mark 4 frames of M/C (this is SMPTE spec for cues). Total number of frames = 198

• WEAR GLOVES and ALWAYS MARK THE BASE SIDE. Mark your changeover and motor cues over 4 frames. Because you have the film running tails to heads on the rewind and you’ll be marking the base side you will have to flip the film over (just a loose twist) and mark the cues on the side opposite the soundtrack on the top of the frame. Just a short dash from the corner in towards the center a few centimeters will do. As small as you can while still being able to see it.
• There are 10 feet and 12 frames between your motor cue and your changeover cue (total is 172 frames or about 7 seconds). Countdown should be 12 feet (or 8 seconds) There is 8 (or 7 or 9) feet from the number you thread on (6 for SMPTE leader and 8 for Academy) to the first frame of picture. That extra footage is to account for the time it takes for the motor to ramp up. Some projector motors are slower in which case you might thread to a lower number to make up for that. If a film has been previously cued but say the changeover cue has been spliced off, you may want to count back less than 18 frames to avoid clipping anymore of the film than you have to. I would say 12 at the minimum to avoid having a pretty bad changeover.
• Making cues on a fade out: If there’s no splice to help you, look for when the audio ends and use your best judgement. There should be a lab splice or a splice from the negative that you can count back 172 frames from. If you’re comfortable you can do a changeover on a fadeout with just the motor cue, use your ears for the change over cue!