In past years, the problem of labeling materials properly for the laboratory was greatly complicated by the fact that every lab had its own leadering specifications and many of them seemed, at times, to take a certain pride in their own distinctive leadering differences. Although there are some areas in which labs differ on leader specifications, in recent years, the ACL - Association of Cinema Laboratories - has published "The ACL Standard Preperation of 16mm Printing Leaders." Most ACL member labs have tried, insofar as possible, to conform to these standards. It is the ACL Standard, combined with certain SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) Standards, that we will follow here.
Any filmmaker who has ever lost one scene of work print in his own cutting room or spent hours looking for a missing piece of original for his A&B roll conforming, must realize that a laboratory, bombarded with hundreds of rolls of film every day, must, in order to survive the avalanche, have the complete cooperation of its customers in regard to proper identification of all materials sent to the lab. The motion picture business is a creative business but the leadering and labeling of materials for the laboratory is no place for creativity.

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The creative portion of your film should have already been completed when it's time to prepare your work print and originals for the laboratory. Now is the time to conform - to the standards that are set up to insure proper handling of your original.
At first glance, some of the leadering standards may seem unnecessary or, as some people like to say, "just another way for the laboratory to increase its billing footage." Actually, the leader is present to assure the proper identification, synchronization, and protection of your original. For example, the diagram in Figure #1 calls for 6 feet of leader between the head puch and the first picture or Society (SMPTE) or numbered leader. This extra footage is there to protect your original during loading on to the cleaning machines and printers.
The printer operator loads the film with the punch mark in the aperature (see arrow on Fig #2) as his starting point. The leader between punch and the first picture is then used to complete the loading of the machine. This extra leader also gives the printer time to get up speed before the first picture reaches the aperature and minimizes the chance of fogging in post-printing handling of the film stock.