Film exposed at the beginning of the reel?

[Jessie]

Hi! I bought a Kodak cartridge and I was wondering...
When I put the cartridge in, since there's already a little lenght of film that is visible at the beginning of the reel and that therefore, that part of the film might be exposed... Should I shoot for a few seconds before actually filming what I have to film (to make sure it comes out the way I want it to)?
If so, how many seconds approximately?
Thank you!

[richard p. t.]

At 18 fps you would need to shoot for 0.16 seconds to get past the 3 frames that are already exposed. There are about five frames in total that are exposed, but the first lets say two frames are already past the center of the film window so no need to count them!
In short, no, you don't need to worry about that bit of film
Cheers
Richard