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» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Operations   » Film Handlers' Forum   » The first movie you ran on your own was...? (Page 6)

 
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Author Topic: The first movie you ran on your own was...?
Don Olson
Film Handler

Posts: 20
From: Seattle WA
Registered: Jul 99

- posted 01-24-2001 10:26 AM      Profile for Don Olson   Author's Homepage   Email Don Olson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Mine was the original Godfather. At the Seattle 7th Avenue theatre. 2 Curtains and 3 banks of lights on motorized variacs. A huge old theatre with possibly 3 levels. It's been a while so I am hazy on that. The union projectionist who was testing me for my card was the head of the training committee, Harvey Lorenz. Long passed away. There was a little trumpet thing in the black film right before the trademark. If I didn't hit it right, and start all the lights right, and the curtains right, NO CARD. Sweat poured down my neck into my shirt. Later Harvey said I was a natural. Something about the way I opened the hand dowser. Of course I was. My Dad was an operator for 50 years and my Mom was a box-office girl. They met in the lobby of a theatre in Wenatchee Washington. Opening night of a Douglas Fairbanks Sr. film "The Pirate". Mom was dressed up as a pirate.

Enough..........................

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Jerry Chase
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1068
From: Margate, FL, USA
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 01-24-2001 01:01 PM      Profile for Jerry Chase   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
First 8mm film projected alone - age 6.
Content - World Fair of 1939 home movie by parents
First 16mm film - probably 4th grade? Some forgettable school trash.
First Super 8 film 1972? An attempt to film the space station in 2001 in a theatre and push process the thing in a hand tank. (It worked - sorta)
First 35mm film - that's a toughie. Love Story? Cactus Flower?
First 70mm - Willow (thanks to an un-named union projectionist who let me lace up even though I was in management)
First 3-D film Stewardesses
First drive-in short "Knights Must Fall" with bugs bunny.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 01-24-2001 05:36 PM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The first film I ran in a theater was in a small town in Michigan. "The Secret Of Santa Vitoria" With Anthony Quinn. All I can remember is they hid the towns wine production from the Germans. On Simplex Standards with Simplex 1KW arc lamps. The booth was ancient. Can't even remember what type of sound heads were there but they were not Simplex! This was in 1970.
First 70mm....At home on my Vic 10's. It was a nice print of "Krakatoa East Of Java". Later on alot of 70mm at the Tivoli Theater as the Union guys could'nt deal with it too well. Imagine a one armed guy threading 70mm?? They tried it but to no avail.

First VistaVision on "Babies Day Out" and first film I projected on a VistaVision projector that I built was for Sir Richard Attenborough and crew while I was on "Miracle On 34th St."
Mark @ GTS


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Gracia L. Babbidge
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 709
From: Bowdoin, Maine
Registered: Aug 2000

- posted 01-25-2001 12:39 AM      Profile for Gracia L. Babbidge   Author's Homepage   Email Gracia L. Babbidge   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Hmmm... I've worked at three different theaters, and all three are 10-plexes. So do I remember which movie was the first one I ever started? Nope. Whatever it was, was playing in September of 1997 though.
I remember being left on my own very quickly though. I was trained by an assistant manager named Rob. He pointed me in the direction of a Christie AW3R, knowing I had seen others thread the platters a few times, and told me to just go ahead and thread the platters. So I did, and did it right. (Go me!)
Rob threaded the projector - a Christie P35GP, explaining (more or less) as he threaded, why he was doing what he was doing. I smiled & nodded, pretty much catching on to what he was saying.
Next... I was again told to thread the platters. Check - had that under control. Then I was told to thread the projector. Um, yeah, suuuuure... But, I took a deep breath, and threaded it. Rob checked it nodded, told me to go thread another.
He timed me.
When I had it threaded, his remark. "You're already threading faster than Craig. Cool."
(Craig is someone who had been working in the booth for about three months at that point, and was a little sluggish, but got all his shows started on time.)
Rob stayed in the booth until after I had punched the start button on the first one to start in that round of shows, then soon ran away to hide in the office, leaving me to my own devices...
That afternoon went smoothly, aside from some framing issues, since that had not been explained to me too clearly. I figured it out pretty quick though!

First print I ever built: "Six Days, Seven Nights"
All the reels were spliced in frame, in the right order, none on backwards, no scratches! (Go me! )
Heh, and I was (for the most part) self-taught on how to build prints.
...And they thought I had just been casually observing for those couple of minutes!

I am glad that I have learned more since then!

~GLB

------------------
In some cultures, what I do is considered normal.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

- posted 01-25-2001 01:10 AM      Profile for Brad Miller   Author's Homepage   Email Brad Miller       Edit/Delete Post 
Go Gracia! Gotta love those newbies who catch on to basic thread-ups within 5 minutes. Sounds like you're a natural.

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

- posted 01-25-2001 01:43 AM      Profile for Randy Stankey   Email Randy Stankey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Oh, Jeez! I never considered when the question was asked that non-35mm was considered.

In that case, it'd have to be about 5th grade! I used to run the 16mm proj. for my teachers. Then in High School I was on AV crew... the main benefit of which was that you got called out of your classes to go run movies for other teachers!

Right about that time my Dad was into making 8mm home movies. He would show me how to splice them up and make a "story". We did a cool movie of "Snoopy and the Red Baron". We sort of "animated" plastic models of planes, etc. When Snoopy got shot down and crashed, I was in charge of holding the cigarette under Snoopy's crashed "Sopwith Camel" while Dad filmed.

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Dick Vaughan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1032
From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK
Registered: Jul 2000

- posted 01-25-2001 02:16 AM      Profile for Dick Vaughan   Author's Homepage   Email Dick Vaughan   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My first film ,"To Fly " in IMAX with 35mm 6 track mag sound.

Imax Theatre ,
National Museum of Photography,Film & Television,Bradford ,England

Date 18 April 1983
Time 23.30
Audience 2 My then boss,Steve Pizzey, and the Imax installation supervisor Paul Byford.
Paul was one of the greatest guys in the business and has recently retired from Imax.

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Gordon Bachlund
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 696
From: Monrovia, CA, USA
Registered: Aug 1999

- posted 01-25-2001 08:39 AM      Profile for Gordon Bachlund   Author's Homepage   Email Gordon Bachlund   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
While this will certainly date me, the first feature film I ran on my very own was "Bomba the Jungle Boy" at a very third-run downtown LA house, the Cozy Theater, in 1953 in a very clean all Brenkert booth. Within a few months, I had risen to a slightly better grade of third run house and ran my very first Technicolor print, "Samson and Delilah" - the C. B. DeMille version - in a booth with Super Simplexes, Simplex sound and Peerless Magnarcs. Ah, memories!

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Matthew Bailey
Master Film Handler

Posts: 461
From: Port Arthur,TX
Registered: Sep 2000

- posted 01-25-2001 04:33 PM      Profile for Matthew Bailey   Email Matthew Bailey   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
My first movies? RUNAWAY BRAIN on my home
Simplex with 5 star. INVASION OF THE BODY
SNATCHERS on 16 mm. The stupid B&H
specialist mangled a wad of the film
while it was showing. Some kid's 8 mm
films that I pulled off the internal
platters inside some Fisher-Price toy
film cartriges that went with the matching
hand viewer. F-P also made the matching
projector/moviola style viewer.
I ran these films minus the carts they
were in on a separate 8 mm projector.
I also tried running 8 mm films on a 16mm
Excel-not Simplex mind you-projector
successfully without modification or
attention. The projector wes built to use
an ordinary household bulb for the light
source! A question in mind:I saw last night
a special on Discovery on the Challenger
shuttle. They did video to film transfers
of the explosion occuring. Besides the
slo-mo footage,did they have the mentioned footage
transferred to 35 or 16 mm film?

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Michael Labbe
Film Handler

Posts: 12
From: Biddeford, Maine USA
Registered: Sep 1999

- posted 01-25-2001 07:46 PM      Profile for Michael Labbe   Author's Homepage   Email Michael Labbe   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Ah...my first show, seems like a long time ago. Actually mid 80's. It was at a small eight screen theater in Maine. Ballantyne Pro-35's projectors and soundheads. Speco LP-270 platters,and CX-1600 lamphouses. Eprad Starlet center surround processor. Oh yea the movie was "The Bedroom Window" staring(if you can call it that) Steve Gutenberg. I believe Elizabeth Mcgovern(sp) was also in it. I was trained for about a month by the installer of the site, Scott Meader.

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Carl King
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 199
From: Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Registered: Mar 2000

- posted 01-25-2001 09:07 PM      Profile for Carl King   Email Carl King   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The first movie I ran alone was ACT OF THE HEART starring Donald Sutherland and Genevieve Bujold. This was in 1971 and I was 20 yrs old. Carbon arcs, 2000' reels and changeovers.


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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 01-25-2001 09:35 PM      Profile for Paul G. Thompson   Email Paul G. Thompson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Gordon, you look like a professional projectionist. Your face fits the mold! Contratulations of all your years of dedicated service. You are 14 years ahead of me in this industry.

Paul

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Frank Rapisardi
Film Handler

Posts: 96
From: Methuen, MA, USA
Registered: Apr 2000

- posted 01-26-2001 08:10 AM      Profile for Frank Rapisardi   Email Frank Rapisardi   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The first film I ran was Planet of the Apes with Chalton Heston.This was at the Wamesit Drive-In in Tewksbury Ma.(Now a HomeDepot)(Damn!)I loved that theater.Old carbon arch machines and all.Later it became a triple with xenon and platters.Sold for 13 million.(NO more Drive-in with an offer like that,who can blame the owners?)What a shame!The land values here in the Northeast is what killed off most Drive-Ins!

------------------

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Paul G. Thompson
The Weenie Man

Posts: 4718
From: Mount Vernon WA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 01-27-2001 04:36 PM      Profile for Paul G. Thompson   Email Paul G. Thompson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Frank - I had to run the whole ape series at a drive-in once. Dusk to dawn. Wen I left the booth after that run, I felt like an ape with my knuckles dragging on the ground! It was fun, though.

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William T. Parr
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 823
From: Cedar Park, TX
Registered: Nov 2000

- posted 01-28-2001 10:30 AM      Profile for William T. Parr   Email William T. Parr   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The first film I ever threaded by myself was Iron Eagle 2, and this was before I was even an employee at the theatre. My brother was the Technician for Cinemark in 1987-88 when the Sunrise 7 Dollar Cinema was built. During the run of Iron Eagle 2, the stage speaker developed a problem that was only apparent during the end credits song. My brother and the Projectionist went downstairs to listen to the end credits. After the first run through they did determine there was a problem, but could no isolate it. They came back upstairs and showed me how to thread the end credits so they could be run several times while they went behind the screen. After running them about 30 times, problem was Isolated and I was asked to thread the projector with the complete movie and start it. We stayed and watched the movie all the way through. That was the first I had threaded by myself, as nobody came back upstairs to check my threading.

The first Movie I ever built on my own was Naked Gun the first one. by the way Joe I know how you feel about UA I did 9 years with those Idiots. I started before Pete Warzel took over so I got in on the last of the TCI Cablevision Glory Years. Things started to go downhill after he took over. I wish TCI would have taken there bunch of asswipes with them i.e. Pete Warzel, Stuart Blair, and of course they could of taken Dennis Daniels while they were at it. By the way who where you yelling at in the picture of yours? Was this perhaps the viewpoint that Pete had of you telling him how messed up he was running UA?


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