I was a green kid all full of curiosity and inquisitiveness and it just so happened that while threading a print that had a white leader, I discovered quite accidentally, that if the other projector was in operation with a picture was being projected on the screen, you could see that image perfectly focused in the aperture of the other projector. This discovery blew my mind (a popular expression at the time) and I was really excited to repeat the test to see for sure what was happening.

I put a piece of paper in the gate and tried to get a good look at it by moving my head close to the front of the machine, looking into the mechanism. Well, as bad luck would have it, I was playing around with this optical revelation while the motor of this machine was still running. As I leaned in closer to get a better look at the miniature moving image in the aperture, the spinning shutter shaft which jutted out in front of the lens grabbed a hold of my golden locks and within a split second, grabbed enough hair to cleanly ripped out all the hair on the right side of my head.

Dispite the port glass and the movie soundtrack playing, a blood-curdling scream could be heard in the theatre and all the way out to the ticket booth.

Luckily only the hair and roots were pulled out, the scalp was not damaged. The owner/manager remarked that in his entire career he had never seen anything even remotely like it. Quite amazing that a Yankee-boy had to come to the wild west to get scalped.

Once I assured myself that my scalp wasn't damaged and the owner gave me a stiff drink of Johnny Walker Red, I made the next change-over without skipping a beat.

Now I only wish I had some hair to catch on a projector shaft.

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William, welcome! Yeah, those supports on the Strong platters can be a real pain, sometimes literally!

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This one time, at Projection Camp, I stuck a xenon bulb....

Another time.. I was moving Gladiator by myself(dumb thing to do) from booth to booth and I almost dropped the print. But I hurt my back instead.

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I felt so stupid~!, I litterally got a head-ache and a stomach-ache that day worrying about it and being so embarassed. My manager didn't say anything to me but I know he was mad. For about 3 days everytime I thought about it I punched one of the walls in fustration. I mean you would think that the on/off switch would have been the freaking first thing to check wouldn't you??

Now try beating that "Painful Mistake"!

"...He (my manager) called the head-projectionist in and he arrived and took a look. Together we discovered that the Exhaust Fan for the lamp house wasn't working and that was causing the problem....and he (the "expensive" electrican) was also puzzled for about 20 mins as to why the Fan was not working."

Well, not only you, but your manager, head-projectionist, and electrician forgot to check the fan power first. So don't feel bad, you had good company! But why not work with your head-projectionist to develop an operations manual for your theatre, or at least a "checklist":
http://www.kodak.com/country/US/en/motion/newsletters/reel/spring98/projection.shtml
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/reel/december98/projection.shtml

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: 716-477-5325 Cell: 716-781-4036 Fax: 716-722-7243
E-Mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

quote:

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Well, not only you, but your manager, head-projectionist, and electrician forgot to check the fan power first. So don't feel bad, you had good company! But why not work with your head-projectionist to develop an operations manual for your theatre, or at least a "checklist":

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Well, Its just that we never used the on/off switch, ever! In fact I was told never to touch it. So I guess it was just something that didn't come to mind right away. I guess the electrician assumed that we at least tried to turn the darn thing on first.
But anyway it was an awful experience for me.

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I was adding another Screen to the Drive-in and Advertised it as opening on saturday Due to the Fact that I was to be in Arizona for the Real job until friday afternoon.

I ran the Theatre fri night and started wiring the booth at 2Am When I heard a big BANG from the Cap that exploded I discovered I had the DC cable backwards. Which Explained why those used bulbs did not lite. Now the auto ignition wont work. Now the sun is coming up and the bulb is lit............. bad diode massive flicker but was enough so that i Could run the RP-40 and figure out which lens and cut a scope apature.

At 7am I decieded it was time to get a few hours sleep. When I woke up at ten It was time to put up a screen (the screen is on the back side of another screen) So I started hoofing the sheets of plywood up my 40 foot ladder to install. Finished that and painted a buddy replaced the diode from a extra rectifier. Where were putting the platter together found two of the four motor were not operational when we installed the second deck(Igot only two It was free) the deck got jammed and we could not get it all the way on or off. At that point I had to get the drive-in open for sat night so I cancelled that screen for the night and the people whe came were sent to another screen at no charge.

Sunday After putsing with the platter for most of the day I got it operational. I decieded to move the double feature over Instead of pulling off 3 or 4 reels so that the clamps would fit without gaps I just clamped it up When I was putting it up on the new booth A whole pile of film from that Gap dropped no show sunday normally I go home sundays at about 7pm as the manager runs the place for me But I was there till midnight fixing the problem. More free movies for people Except for the lady who drove 40 miles one way for the second night in a row She got a season pass for her family.

Monday night We now have it open.

1st reel: one perforation at head and another one at foot.
2nd reel: two perforations at head ant another two at foot.
Nth reel: N perf. at head and another N perf. at foot.

It has been 810 days since the last post.

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