 With stainless steel reels, the film is clipped to the center and then gently pinched while the reel is turned so that the film falls into the reel's grooves.With a plastic reel, the film is loaded from the outside and then wound onto the reel by rotating the reel with a back-and-forth motion.The user begins by opening the film canister (in the case of 35 mm film) or separating the film from a paper backing (in the case of medium format film, e.g.