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Author
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Topic: Most Painful Mistake?
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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler
Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 11-27-2001 07:53 AM
My painful mistake when I was a projectionist several years ago, working at a 3-screen, reel to reel machines, 6,000 foot reels for the feature, 2,000 feet reels for the trailers, got involve watching a damn good movie, theaded a 6,000 foot reel on the machine, took up on a 2,000 foot reel, I had 6,000 feet of film on a 2,000 foot reel at the end of the show.....yep, it fall off the reel as I put it on the rewinder, must have made 100 splices and at that time only wet splices.....that took some time to repair...I bet the film company & the next theatre LOVED ME !!!
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Thomas Hauerslev
Master Film Handler
Posts: 451
From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 11-28-2001 05:44 AM
I think my worst mistake must have been when I added some nice continues and VERY obvious black scratches to ALL 9 reels of "The Last Emperor". I did not discover them until the next morning when our late queen mother (Ingrid) and her son-in-law (Henrik) saw the film at the morning performance at the classy Imperial Bio.I remember seeing the scratches during the main titles. I rushed the DP70 door up to find out where the hell they were coming from!!! Nothing! I concluded the scratches were done by myself during the previous performance the night before. And sure enough, when going through the complete film path, from the non-rewing and back again, I found a very large cotton-ball like piece of plastic-film-dust on the base of the machine. I had managed to show the whole film by bypassing the lower fire trap on the DP70. We took the film apart, had it cleaned, and the scrathes were gone. A learning experience for the whole crew and it never happened again. PS: I never got complaints from the Queen ------------------
Cheers, Thomas
..in70mm - The 70mm Newsletter
www.in70mm.com www.dp70.com www.70mm.dk www.hauerslev.com http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm
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John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 11-28-2001 12:23 PM
Thomas said: "We took the film apart, had it cleaned, and the scrathes were gone."You were lucky! Sounds like you may have superficially scratched the emulsion side, and the scratches fortunately did not penetrate into the imaging dye layers. If so, an aqueous "rewash" process can often heal these minor scratches:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/support/processing/operating7.shtml#rewashing Obviously, it's better not to scratch the print in the first place.  ------------------
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
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Thomas Hauerslev
Master Film Handler
Posts: 451
From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 11-29-2001 02:43 AM
Thanks for your comment John. The scratches were on the base side of the film.Our print had been taken apart and reassembled several times before the premiere (for screenings, TV etc), so in the end, the print actually looked much better/cleaner thanks to the "cleaning". What amazed me was the fact that the film could actually run on the mechanism. From that day on, I never failed to double-check the lover fire trap, from fear of repeating my "stunt". ------------------
Cheers, Thomas
..in70mm - The 70mm Newsletter
www.in70mm.com www.dp70.com www.70mm.dk www.hauerslev.com http://hjem.get2net.dk/in70mm
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Patrick J. McCart
Film Handler
Posts: 24
From: Blue Ridge, GA, USA
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 11-29-2001 04:34 PM
I don't work the projector at the Swan Drive-In, but I've seen some bad stuff (and experienced some!I've found some vile/weird things... - Condoms stretched across the men's room sink (Not used)
- Feces all over toilets
- Toilet paper stuffed down a restroom sink
- Underpants in the toilet
- Half a large pizza on the lot.
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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 11-30-2001 01:43 PM
Wow, I really feel badly for some of you guys. Luckily I have never been seriously injured. The only thing I can remember was not cutting the power when removing the filmtrap on a Simplex 1050. When I disconnected the aperture plate motor, zap! I was used to the Millenium where the connector is enclosed in that plastic structure. But from theat point on, I have made it a habbit to always cut all power when cleaning my projectors, even if I'm not removing anything.As far as mistakes....I can fill pages! When I was new to building, every week I did something like put a reel on backards, upside down, or out of order. I also put a reel on backwards with The Mummy Returns, but I caught it before it went onto the platter, so I took it off and fixed it. My current theatre has manual platters. I was used to the Strong AP. Took me a while to get used to switching the payout platter to payout. I had a few brainwraps at first. I have also dropped more than my fair share of prints. Two cases come to mind. One was Nutty Professor 2. I didn't use clamps, but I did use one of those cardboard donughts. Sorry. It dropped. Same thing with 13 Days. In both cases, the projectors were right next to each other! Talk about emarassing. It's not like I was moving the prints down the hall and around the corner. Oh well. Live and learn. I now always use clamps (at least 3 clamps), and if at all possible I try never to move prints by myself. As far as getting ties caught, never happened. That's because our manual says to remove a necktie or tuck it under your shirt. I opt for the former. A practice I highly recommend. (Besides, how in the world can anyone run a booth in a suit???) Our policy is also to NEVER do any kind of cleaning with the projector running, for reasons made obvious by some of mistakes mentioned in this thread. Here's a good one. I was cleaning and lubricating the pad roller assembly on the upper feed sprocket of a Millenium. I figured it would be easier if I removed it and took it to the workbench, right? Wrong! You know that little spring that keeps the pad roller closed? I spent nearly an hour trying to get it back on correctly! I shared my embarassing moment with my tech and we both laughed about.
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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler
Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 11-30-2001 03:57 PM
Ken, I can relate to that spring that keeps the pad roller close, for 20-years I could never get that spring back on quickly, I fought it for years, just as I had it in position with needlenose pliers, the assy would come off & I had to hunt for the parts (sometimes I couldn't find them)...I called Strong told them that they had to have a special tool to put these thing on to send me on....the Tech at Strong told me that it would cost $100.00 for the tool, I told himto send me 2 of them...he said " Ok send the check" here is the tool, take a small paper clip or wire compress the spring, insert the clip into the hole on the spring assy shaft & in 5-seconds you should have the assy back on, remove the clip.....I tried this & WALLA...it was done....( of course they did not charge me me for that)...but for that information I would have gladly paid the 100 bucks...I went to the Strong factory, talk with the tech about the spring assy a few years later....he said that there was a tech that wanted to pay 100 bucks for a paper clip...I said "HEY THAT WAS ME !!"...Strong still laughs at that one....I told Strong to put a paper clip in a small box, put a Strong logo on it & sell it....for 20 years it has taken me 10-mins to an hour to get that spring assy on....now it's ony 5-seconds.....Well I glad I can make someone laugh !!
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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler
Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 12-01-2001 03:30 PM
Ken, you said you removed the upper pad roll assy to clean & could not get the spring back on, took you an hour....well I did the same, had a hard time myself with that for years until I had enough, I called Strong & they told me the correct way to install it....on the shaft the spring is on, there is a upper spring retainer (looks like a washer was a slit in it) the spring, and a lower retainer....the spring assy fits into a pin on the pad roller arm & & the machine to operate the pad roller arm to keep open or closed....if you remove the pad roller assy, you have to remove the spring assy, to re-install, compress the spring & retainer with a pair of piers, on the spring assy shft there is a tiny pin hole, after compressing the spring the hole can be seen, put a small paper clip or a single piece of strand wire into that pin hole, the spring will now stay in place & compress, install it on the machine & pad roller, once in place, pulll out the paper clip or wire that is holding the spring in a compress state & in 5-seconds the spring assy is not in place with no more hassle !! very simple, but it has taken me 15-years fighting that spring, before I called Strong, now I laugh at it....I always saw that pin hole but never knew that was what it was for....I hope this helps....
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