A reel is an object around which lengths of another material (usually long and flexible) are wound for storage. Generally a reel has a cylindrical core and walls on the sides to retain the material wound around the core. In some cases the core is hollow, although other items may be mounted on it, and grips may exist for mechanically turning the reel.

The size of the core is dependent on several factors. A smaller core will obviously allow more material to be stored in a given space. However, there is a limit to how tightly the stored material can be wound without damaging it and this limits how small the core can be.

Other issues affecting the core size include:

With material such as photographic film that is flat and long but is relatively wide, the material generally is stored in successive single layers. In cases where the material is more uniform in cross-section (for example, a cable), the material may be safely wound around a reel that is wider than its width. In this case, several windings are needed to create a layer on the reel.

Aly Bain MBE (born 15 May 1946 in Lerwick, Shetland) is a Shetland fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. In 1967 he was a member of the Shetland-based band Gordon Hank and the Country Ramblers, with Gordon Smith, Ian Stewart and Jack Robertson. Bain is now considered one of the finest fiddlers in the Scottish tradition.

In the early days of his career he formed (briefly and unofficially) part of the band The Humblebums with two other ‘unknowns’ Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey. He became nationally prominent as a founding member of The Boys of the Lough, a Scots- Irish folk group, with whom he played for over 30 years. He received several honorary citizenships in the USA.

Simultaneously, Bain pursued a solo career in collaborative and television projects with Pelicula Films Director, Mike Alexander and Producer, Douglas Eadie, working on several international television series: 'The Down home Recordings', 'The Shetland Sessions', 'Aly Meets The Cajuns', and four series of the Transatlantic Sessions - in 2010 winning the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, "Good Tradition Award". Since the early eighties Bain has regularly collaborated and recorded with prominent musicians from across the globe, including: Jerry Douglas, Emmylou Harris, Mark O'Connor, Jay Ungar, Mary Black, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Dan Tyminski, Rosanne Cash, James Taylor, Eddi Reader, Paul Brady, Darrell Scott, Michael Doucet, Martha Wainwright, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, John Martyn, Danny Thompson, Iris DeMent, Karen Matheson, Donal Lunny, Joan Osborne, Allison Moorer, Bruce Molsky and Allan MacDonald, bringing traditional music to a constantly widening audience.

Jerry Douglas (born Gerald Calvin Douglas, May 28, 1956 in Warren, Ohio) is an American record producer and resonator guitar player. Called "Dobro's matchless contemporary master," by The New York Times, and lauded as "my favorite musician" by John Fogerty, Douglas is one of the world’s most renowned musicians.

In addition to his thirteen solo recordings, Douglas has played on more than 1600 albums. As a sideman, he has recorded with artists as diverse as Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Phish, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon, Mumford & Sons, Keb' Mo', Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, and Johnny Mathis, as well as performing on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. He has been part of such notable groups as The Whites, J. D. Crowe and the New South, The Country Gentlemen, Strength in Numbers, and Elvis Costello's "Sugar Canes".

As a producer, he has overseen albums by Alison Krauss, the Del McCoury Band, Maura O'Connell, Jesse Winchester and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Along with Aly Bain, he serves as Music Director of the popular BBC Television series, "Transatlantic Sessions".

Russ Barenberg (born October 8, 1950) is a Grammy-nominated American bluegrass musician.

Barenberg began playing guitar at age 13, taking lessons from Alan Miller, whose brother John Miller Barenberg he would later play with. His style was heavily influenced by the flatpicking technique of Clarence White. He attended Cornell University and met Pete Wernick there in 1968. Together they joined to form Country Cooking, who released two albums of bluegrass before breaking up in 1975.

In 1975 Barenberg briefly began playing electric guitar with a jazz rock group, Carried Away. Late in 1975 he quit playing music, but returned in 1977, moving to New York City to play in the group Heartlands. This group also played backup on Barenberg's debut solo effort, Cowboy Calypso, in 1980. He then moved to Boston, teaching at the Music Emporium in Cambridge. Here he played in the groups Fiddle Fever and Laughing Hands.

In 1986 Barenberg moved to Nashville, where he has played often with Jerry Douglas and Maura O'Connell, and done much work as a session musician with Béla Fleck, Hazel Dickens, Mel Tillis, and Randy Travis, among others. He has released several instructional videos.

Andrew Russell Garfield (born 20 August 1983) is an American-English actor. His early roles include the films Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and Boy A, which garnered him the 2007 BAFTA Television Award for "Best Actor". Garfield achieved wider recognition and critical acclaim for his role as Eduardo Saverin in the 2010 film The Social Network, a role which earned him Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Garfield is a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom. He will portray the title character in the 2012 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of the Spider-Man film series.

Garfield was born in Los Angeles, the son of a British mother from Essex and an American father from California. His family moved to England when he was three years old. Garfield is Jewish and was raised in a "middle class home". His parents ran a small interior design business; his father, Richard, later became head coach of the Guildford City Swimming Club, and his mother is a teaching assistant at a nursery school. He also has an older brother who is a doctor. Garfield was raised in Surrey, England and was a gymnast during his early years. He attended Priory Preparatory School in Banstead and later City of London Freemen's School in nearby Ashtead, before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, from which he graduated in 2004.