Great color leader!

Please contact me at SaSnider@ngs.org. We are interested in using this clip as part of a TV show. Thanks.

Very Good little piece of footage. Fully deserves it's 40,080 downloads.

I was a projectionist in a drive in when I was a kid, and as an adult I owned 2 theaters. The countdown does bring back memories, but generally if seen, it was a mistake. It meant that the projectionist didn't run the film down enough. This was most evident before the large reels were used. The films came with 18 minutes of film on it, and usually 6 reels per film. Each and every reel came with the heads countdown as a guide and as a way to thread the machine. It also told you that the film was either upside down or backwards. Some mistakes like putting the sound track on the wrong side when you thread the film and if you didn't rewind the film before putting it back in the sleeves.
Later, when projectionists used the larger reels that held 3 reels per projector, you assembled the film by removing the header and leader. Then broke down the film for return by reattaching the leader strips. Once again, if you saw the countdown, the projectionist screwed up.

I have to fully agree with A huge collar, I find old film leaders (and tails on films as well) quite interesting. They were (and still are) also a delight for me to see during classroom films as well as an elementary student back in the 80s. The film leader is somewhat of a lost art nowadays, with everything being all video-based, not really having any countdowns/slates/china girls/etc (as Huge collar also noted).

My affinity for something as sundry as a film leader is possibly due to their somewhat technical nature (yes, I'm a full-blown media geek), as well as being somewhat abstract/psychedelic/pomo/whatnot in appearance with all the slates and "China Girls" flashing by. :)

This one, which is different from the usual "clock hand" style leader (officially known as Academy Leader), uses numbers and a "diamond" flashing momentarily (for one frame each, I assume?) on screen.

And I think the voice slate on this leader is saying "Sound reel for Chevy", since this leader is for the film American Maker (also on this site), which is yet another Jam Handy-produced film for Chevrolet...

It's... Beautiful.

(wipes tear from eye)

The old film leaders-trailers always facinated me, and I would look forward to all the weird stuff I would see flash by the screen whenever the teacher threaded up the projector. It was also fun seeing all the weird splotches and stuff that appeared on the screen *during* the film. Once, way back when I was little, I was part of my library's reading club, and every friday night they would show movies on a 16mm projector. During one of the films, a very weird black bar with holes in it flashed on the screen. It took
a minute to figure out, but what happened was the film was damaged at that point, and when it was respliced, a section of film with the sprocket holes was stuck on top of a couple frames!



Nowadays, kids are stuck with boring DVDs and video tapes made with video cameras that have none of that stuff. Kids are lucky if they see interference lines and the little black bar you see when the vertical hold is off. :>

Liked this one for some odd reason, had the usual countdown. As far as I remember, I used to watch films in class and be totally mesmerized by the countdown leaders, at what they would contain.. this one has one big beep and some talking behind it.. I have no idea of what it is... can someone enlighten me?

This is not the same quality as the STMPE or Academy leaders. Many of the elements are misframed.

There is too much accumulated fuzz before the main elements

"Protection Leader" is cut on the top and right sides.

the "H" , "E" , and "D" are well framed.
the "A" is badly misframed, you can't see the lower slopes of the A!

The test chart is a little transparent.

The HEAD letters and test chart go by too fast, but I think the concept was that HEAD would read like this on exmaniation

H
E
A
D

"Sound on reel went chubby." makes little sense

To top it off, the Countdown numbers are upside-down.

It takes me way back to when I was a kid in grade school and we were shown 16mm films on clattery crappy projectors. Frequently the leader was more interesting than the film itself. With this download, I can briefly relive my glory years, the time before puberty and leather and compulsive, repeated spankings behind the gymnasium.

As a projectionist at both indoor movies and drive-ins(30 plus years ago) ....if you saw the count down...I screwed up.

Great memories though...

OK, it seems a bit strange to write a review for a film leader but this is a pretty good one. I'm not sure if it would be legal to do so, but I would love to splice this at the start of all the home DVDs I make for old times sake.

Oddly, I would like to see more of these. Can you say geek?

Excellent footage to study/experiment with old film effects and frame-by-frame animation.

Comes complete with its cute, distorted 1khz calibration tone.

A great leader, as leaders go. It's leadership is unquestionable. And isn't it all about leadership? Who can lead us? This leader is up to the task.
I will freely admit watching this on a loop and staring until my eyes watered. And no, I'm not smoking anything.