emulsion, printer, and cut the film came from - they are written on the film can and act as a "fingerprint" for the roll; M# 2314 is the serial number of the magazine itself; and R# C54 indicates that this the 54th roll of the "C" Camera. Securing Magazines are designed to be light-tight in and of themselves. However, usually this is buffered by additional precautions made to maintain light-tightness, against both fault of equipment and humans. The latches used to open the magazine usually lock when closed and require non-casual fiddling to trip their locks. They are then furthermore protected by being taped up when loaded. Sometimes the entire edge of the magazine door is taped as an extra measure of light-tightness, although for newer properly maintained magazines this is not strictly necessary. Magazines must also be checked thoroughly before usage against the creation of scratches in the emulsion. This is usually done during camera checkout at a rental house with what is known as a scratch test, where junk film is run through the camera and then examined against light for scratching. On-set, cases with loaded magazines are often placed on standby near active cameras in order to facilitate fast magazine reloading with minimal lag time. Cases containing magazines often include an indicator of what is inside through the usage of colored stickers or magnets. The color indicates which type of film stock is inside. If the tape is normal and blank, it is a full magazine; if it is less than a full magazine, it will have the length loaded written on it. When a magazine ready to be unloaded is placed inside, the sticker from the new magazine freshly loaded is ripped and replaced as a sticker X to indicate that the magazine is "dead". If the magazine is pulled off with the intention of being put back on the camera without the take-up side first being unloaded, then the appropriate colored sticker will be placed on the case, and written with the amount of film left, followed by the word hot (to indicate that it is still in usage). References Picture of a portable changing-bag to load 35mm film cartridge magazines or to recover the film lead Cinematography Film and video technology Containers