It is traditional to discuss the length of theatrical
motion pictures in terms of "reels". The standard length of a
35 mm film reel is , which runs approximately 11 minutes for
sound film (24
frames per second) and about 15 minutes for
silent film at the more or less standard speed of 18 frames per second. Most films have
visible cues which mark the end of the reel. This allows
projectionists running reel-to-reel to change over to the next reel on the other
projector. A so-called "two-reeler" would have run about 15–24 minutes since the actual short film shipped to a movie theater for exhibition may have had slightly less (but rarely more) than on it. Most modern projectionists use the term "reel" when referring to a "two-reeler", as modern films are rarely shipped by single reels. A standard Hollywood movie averages about five 2,000-foot reels in length. The "reel" was established as a standard measurement because of considerations in printing motion picture film at a film laboratory, for shipping (especially the film case sizes) and for the size of the physical film magazine attached to the motion picture projector. If it had not been standardized (at of 35 mm film), there would have been many difficulties in the manufacture of the related equipment. A 16 mm "reel" is . It runs, at sound speed, approximately the same amount of time (11–12 minutes) as a 35 mm reel. A "split reel" is a motion picture film reel in two halves that, when assembled, hold a specific length of motion picture film that has been wound on a plastic core. Using a split reel allows film to be shipped or handled in a lighter and smaller form than film would on a "fixed" reel. In the
silent era, the term was used to describe a single reel that accommodated two or more individual titles. As
digital cinema catches on, the physical reel is being replaced by a virtual format called
Digital Cinema Package, which can be distributed using any storage medium (such as hard drives) or data transfer medium (such as the Internet) and projected using a
digital projector instead of a
conventional movie projector. A
newsreel is a short documentary film. A
showreel or demo reel is a short film showcasing a person's or organization's previous work. ==See also==