Around here it's "Thread" (Western Pennsylvania)

no its called coke. sprite or Dr. pepper

Im sorry i even use to live up north and still find it strange?

oh wait im sorry if you are up north that means most likely you drink pepsi instead.

wzup with dat yo?

Pepsi is communist. They make their cans red, white and blue to try to prove they're not!

What's really bad is when people call the brain the "governor" or "film governor"! Way too many syllables for this cat!

I had a customer tell me that the tracking was off once. Another misframe produced someone who said that the focus was off. Someone else once told me that 5 minutes of the film just melted!

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Scott A. Magie

scoooot@hotmail.com
"Anybody wanna peanut?"

***POST EDITED BY MODERATOR***

I "make up" film (I use a light foundation followed by a... no, I won't go there) and "take it down" when finished.

When I first learned, back when this was a changeover booth, the act of transfering the film from the shipping reels to the house reels was called "making up," at least by the guy who trained me and he'd been here 25 years.

Also I drink Pepsi. If their red, white and blue cans make them communist, then what do Coke's red cans make them....Native American??

It has also been interesting to me to see those same regional differences show up in other practices. As a lad discovering those strange dark rooms way up there behind the balcony, ususally populated by a semi-antisocial character working in a haze of grey smoke, change-overs were activated by a foot pedal for the douser. You stood beside your incoming machine to make your changeover. Most of the pedals were switches controlling "Zipper" dousers, but I have seen systems wherein the pedal was mechanically connected by bicycle chain to cast iron flags on the front wall. In other parts of the country everything is (was) wired to a central console between the machines where it was all done with pushbuttons. On arc lamps that did not have hand douser handles on both sides, you had to reach around the right machine to open them.

Speaking of differences, for those of us who have been in lots of single changeover houses, there are the fascinating little devices those projectionists used to concoct to make their lives easier. All the gadgets to hold the doors open (illegally) alone could make up a long thread here----perhaps another day.

Showing films using 1000-foot reels.
"Carbon Savers".
Silver "jaws".
Collecting copper drippings for Will Rogers.
Projectors with doors and film magazines.
Fire shutters.
Nitrate film. (Acetate film).
Cement splices.
Phototubes instead of solar cells or CCDs.
Vacuum tubes instead of solid state.
Motor-Generators, ballasts, and mercury vapor rectifiers.
Rigorous training and certification of projectionists to develop technical skills.
Projection as a skilled CAREER.
Two operators per screen for 70mm.
Five operators per screen for Cinerama.
Film exchanges run by each distributor that actually inspected prints for damage.
"Academy" format
Curtains (and not just one set).
Showmanship.
etc.

Lots has changed, much for the better, some for the worse. We can't go back, and wouldn't want to. But we can learn and apply those things that provided the professional presentation and "showmanship" that is so often missing today.

BTW, I'm really not THAT old, but I did use carbon savers, silver "jaws" and saved copper drippings for good ol' Will.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Eastman Kodak Company
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7419
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com

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*clears throat*

When a film arrives, we "make it up" (make-up) on to the platter.

We then proceed to "thread" it into the projector day in and day out. The first item we thread it through has two common names, depending on the age of the speaker. The young folks (snooty college types) call it the brain and the old geezers call it the "pay-out".

When were finished, we "break it down" (break-down) on to the reels.

BTW, Possum fat makes better popcorn than ANY other oil on the market! As an added bonus, the hide makes an excellent film cleaner media.

*Well, now that I've cleared that up...*

Russ

I do, however, load a camera with film.