Here's a good 'un, it is a decision I am often in a quandary over, to mount my films on a large spool, I always think to presentation,
so a film on a big spool does away with breaks, granted there are some nice boxes which in many cases have stayed my hand, but in the case of Derann stuff of late, their Hammers had only a label, so mounting on a couple of spools was not a problem, although to do this to the Marketing & other nice boxed films would be sacrilege, how many collectors share this?

I torment the arse off myself with this one Hugh!
This is a top topic to bring about to a collector such as myself might I add!

Here's where I have been and here's where I continue to over think the issue. Ha ha.

I like my films (where ever possible) to be mounted on one spool only, namely 2200ft ones.
Problem is, they ain't great as library boxes due to their size and logistics of where I store em.

I like, wherever possible, to have the film include trailers, a few cinema ads and then the actual feature.

Why?

Well it's to attempt to emulate the cinema experience as close as I can without leaving my armchair once the film is focussed and begins.

The Problems in doing so:

First off, as said, this provides no reasonable long term easy access storage solution for me in my small home.

Secondly: I cannot bring it upon myself to sabotage a perfect film!
By that, I mean, if a film comes into my hands in near perfect condition by having all leaders and tails in tact, I cannot possibly bring it upon myself to start cutting these perfect prints into my most desirable format to view them.

The compromise:

Though it isn't one really, the only way I have been able to deal this dilemma so far, is to not cut the film but just to join it together to include all leads and tails on such films but then of course, the screening of such loses its professionalism in many respects.

I suppose what I really need is two Stereo Beaulieu's with an auto changeover set up to ultimately make myself happy...but as Shrek once said.......
"Like that's Ever Gonna Happen" in his Scottish subliminal accent!😁😁😀

Would you believe Andrew, I bought films from a lad that worked in TV, he had his own private cinema, but bought TWO of every film,
I bought loads from him, many I still have, but he loved his films.

Wouldn't be Rob by any chance would it Hugh?

There are many others though that I've heard of in similar circumstances to be fair.

Hi Andrew, no, it was a chap by the name of James Booth, like the film actor, he had the job of putting together the ads in TV,
he was a really nice chap and a pleasure to deal with.

Can't say I know that name Hugh, but I've heard of and had so many films from people professionally associated in the industry it's unbelievable!

If only films could talk eh Hugh!!

I got a film once from a berieved family member of a WWII code breaker!
They also sold a little used Elmo GS Xenon of his.

Sometimes I imagine just how they must have felt in their own "wind down" relaxation time watching these films. So much history attached to our collections now. Especially as many of their original owners are deceased very sadly, and some truly great great people collected these films!

The history and their owners of these films, is all part of the fascination to me.
Can you imagine how proud Paul must feel here knowing he has one or even two of the actual projectors Derek used to use in his own home cinema!!

These things should be in a black country museum one day as far as I am concerned, so great is their historical value in the grand scheme of things.
Luckily, in Paul, we have someone who I am certain will see to it that these special pieces of historic value, will always fall into the correct hands thankfully.

I have no problems regarding this one. I simply "make-up" the film on to a large spool when required
for showing then "break it down" again when I have showed it. I then store it back on its original spools
and original box/packing.
In an ideal situation I would do change-overs but I don't have the space for such a set-up at the moment.

Now this is a subject i use to struggle with as to what to do, so this is what we do,
Basically, join the buggers up wherever possible. Shorts are kept as shorts on there own spools with a few exceptions, I Have two Disney 600ft spools made up of many Disney Trailers & extra long promo's, these include, Poccahontas promo, Lion King Promo and trailers, 101 dalmatians,(live action version), a great Virgin cinema opening, Dinosaur trailer and promo, Who Framed roger rabbit, An American tail, Fantasia 2000, Finding Nemo, Treasure planet and Jungle book 2, Hunchback of Notre dam, Lion King Special preview, Little Mermaid sing a long, Tarzan special preview, Toy story,
These trailers fit onto 2 600 foot spools and make great half hour entertainment in there own right. The reason why these are quite special is simply when my Children were growing up these were what i collected over there growing years, all films that they grew up with.
We also like to splice a trailer onto the start of our feature films and also make up a couple of short shows with,(for example), The making of the Godfather promo is joined with a 400ft cut down with a trailer at the start.
Most feature films are joined onto 800 or 1200 spools with the original boxes carefully stored in case we decide to sell any in the future.

Yes, that's pretty much the same as what I do, but what's your take on removing leaders and tails from features that come to you like original Tom?
No splices in other words.

This is what poses the biggest dilemma I have. I really struggle to cut up top prints to screen a feature on one or even two reels under these circumstances.

Well, unfortunately in my younger years this never really came into my head, i just cut and joined, fortunately what i did do was keep the leaders and tails on the empty spools in the boxes, this way i can at least splice the originals back on for selling.
Derann were the people who recorded the sounds correctly on their releases incorporating the extra bit on the tails to cater for films to be joined onto larger spools, hence when our terminator 2 feature,and other derann releases were joined up the sound runs smoothly.

you're right Tom, we didn't view the films as being quite so special back then because nobody thought of course, Derann were going to close!
Why would we? They were going from strength to strength in the early 90's!

It was only when the big 3 removed pre striped stock that it even, for the first time, crossed my mind that the future may not be quite so rosy after all.
But then of course, once again, good ole Derek found something of a solution! At least it assured us all some new releases would continue from Derann.

So anyway, in those halcyon days, I did the very same thing and didn't mind where I cut a film in order to spool it best for my preferences.
It's only in the last few years I have begun looking at the total preservation side of these things the scarcer they are now becoming.

I leave the 400ft cut downs on the original reel, but 200ft extracts I might make up a 600ft or 800ft reels of titles on the same theme. Look At Life, Pathe Pictorials, cartoon, trailers and adverts I make up on 800ft reels. My features were on 1200ft reels, but when I bought a Fumeo with 2400ft reels they were slowly put on these large reels.

I find it much better presentation wise like this. Before the 2400ft I even cut Goldfinger at a natural break in the film to fit nice on 2 x1200ft.

Because I don't think I will be selling any of my films, I don't mind what I do to make the show better.

On the 800ft I have quite a few of the 'cinebooks' where I have put the two serials I have one on each reel and can just show that has a nice 40 minute show.

I have made up 800ft reels before now full of Hanna Barbera stuff and similar for T&J's and the likes.
Like David, anything on 400ft or bigger, I leave in its original box until we get to features.

On trailers, I usually put them two to three to a spool, if they are horror, sci-fi or others, I try to keep a theme. The only film
I have with a trailer in situ, is the 3x400' "Clash of the Titans", trl of same. Why, I don't know, I have the same trailer in a series
of Harryhausen trl reels, but somehow I left this one in place, maybe a few sessions with Dr Frasier Crane will help.

I like to keep trailer reels "themed" wherever possible and if one is available, I also like to place it before the actual feature that's on the reel.

Ten minutes of day sets and trailers before the main feature, really do bring about a better experience of the whole occasion I feel.

Agree Andrew, I put a couple of ads plus trailers then a feature to the lads, well received, "its just like the pictures" was
the cry, but on the whole I try to keep them separate, needs must, just to keep features and trailers etc separate.

LA Films were great for their themed trailer reels. Oh come back the old collecting days I miss you.