Once
the
negative
has
been
spliced
and
assembled
into
A
&
B
rolls,
it
can
be
sent
to
the
lab
for
printing.
At
the
lab,
fresh
raw
stock
is
loaded
into
a
machine
called
a
printer.
At
the
beginning
of
the
raw
stock,
a
start
mark
is
made.
The
printer
is
loaded
with
your
A-roll
and
advanced
until
its
start
mark
and
the
start
mark
on
the
raw
stock
can
be
locked
together
(using
the
academy
leader
as
the
common
"start").
The
A
roll
is
exposed
emulsion
to
emulsion
with
the
raw
stock.
As
the
frames
of
the
A-roll
are
being
burned
in
frame
by
frame
onto
the
raw
stock,
the
sections
of
black
leader
block
the
white
light
from
the
printer
and
preserves
the
emulsion
on
the
raw
stock
(corresponding
to
the
next
shot
on
the
B
roll),
leaving
it
in
an
unexposed
condition
on
the
frames
exposed
to
the
black
leader.
After
all
the
shots
on
the
A-roll
have
been
printed,
the
raw
stock
in
the
printer
is
rewound
to
the
start
cue
at
the
beginning.
The
B-roll
is
then
loaded
into
the
printer
(just
like
the
A-roll)
and
cued
up
with
the
start
cue
on
the
raw
(partially
exposed)
stock.
As
the
B-roll
is
locked
to
the
raw
(partially
exposed)
stock
and
exposed,
the
black
leader
on
the
B-roll
protects
the
corresponding
frames
which
the
A-roll
exposed
previously.
As
the
shots
on
the
B-roll
match
up
to
the
unexposed
frames
of
the
raw
stock,
they
are
burnt
in
where
the
black
leader
on
the
A
roll
reserved
frames
for
the
frames
on
the
B
roll.
In
this
way,
a
properly
cut
A/B
roll
negative
can
be
printed,
entirely
covering
the
raw
stock
with
an
unbroken
sequence
of
images
from
beginning
to
end
with
clean
cuts
-
without
any
unwanted
black
frames
appearing.
Lastly,
the
optical
sound
track
is
cued
up
to
the
start
cue
and
the
exposed
footage
in
the
printer
burns
in
the
optical
track
along
the
unexposed
strip
of
raw
stock
(reserved
on
the
film
edge)
for
the
optical
sound
track
that
runs
the
entire
length
of
the
film.
During
this
process,
your
answer
print
(composite)
will
be
color-corrected
by
the
timer
guy
who
will
successfully
turn
your
A/B
roll
negatives
into
something
projectable
in
a
sound
projector
(i.e.,
this
composite
print
is
positive,
meaning
it's
projectable
and
watchable).
If
you
want
to
make
any
last
corrections
in
color
or
brightness,
this
is
the
last
time
to
go
back
and
have
the
color
timer
person
make
the
adjustments.
Once
you're
satisfied,
you
can
then
have
a
final
inter-positive
made
by
repeating
this
expensive
process
one
last
time
with
all
your
suble
color
tweaks.
The
inter-positive
is
really
negative
film
but
the
colors
are
not
inverted,
so
reds
look
red,
blues
look
blue,
and
greens
look
green,
except
it's
not
on
clear
film,
it's
on
amber
colored
negative
stock.
If
you
want
to
make
more
than
a
handful
of
expensive
composite
prints,
you
will
have
to
make
an
inter-negative
from
your
composited
inter-positive
for
running
off
many
prints
for
distribution.
Most
film
festival
submissions
are
simply
answer
prints
because
if
they
get
a
distributor,
the
distributor
usually
handles
making
distribution
prints
(they
do
so
many,
they
get
a
good
deal
from
the
lab
and
pass
their
mark-up
to
the
filmmaker's
alleged
share
of
the
usually
non-existent
profits).
