What Does ‘1M1’ Mean?

Film canisters

Music cue references follow traditional ‘Hollywood’ cue numbering. Movie reels used to be held in cans of celluloid film, each can containing 20 minutes of footage. Thus a 1 hour & 40 minute feature would comprise 5 x cans. Music cues would be allocated to each film can worked from. Music cue ‘1M4’ means the 4th piece of music for the 1st can of film. M=music.

  • 1Mx are the music cues for the first 20 minutes of the film.
  • 2Mx are the music cues for the second 20 minutes of the film (20 minutes to 40 minutes)
  • 3Mx are the music cues for the third 20 minutes of the film (40 minutes to one hour) etc.

where x = the number of the piece of music in that can, in order.

If a music cue goes over a 20-minute mark, it’s put in the can for its start point.