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Topic: How many projectionists does it take to screw in a lightbul..i mean to run a booth :)
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John Walsh
Film God
Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 08-02-2000 11:31 PM
JP wrote: "This is depressing."It sure is. One reason I seem to always be in the "negative" mode is that there's no real pride in this job anymore. In 1983, I helped design a booth, and worked there for the next ten years or so. (JJ's, CP200, custom subs, Rank automation, both a real traveler curtian and main with footlights.) A pretty nice place. A great guy named Bob Marr (he works for Sony now) ran us, and would actually listen, and pay for improvments if you could prove your theater wasn't meeting SMPTE standards. Ran a 70mm feature about twice a year from '83 to '87 or so. Never really lost that little "thrill" of seeing a packed house waiting for you. When a 70mm feature would open, I'd get there at 6:00am and clean the entire booth and wax the floor. The demag'ing ceremony would not be done until that gauss meter didn't move at all. I'd sit on the tech's shoulder and make sure the head alignment was right, the screen was 16+- 2. NOT 14.9 - NOT 18.1. That the image was 0.868" by 1.913" -no cropping. And check the B chain, anyway. Etc, etc, and no "it's good enough" bullshit. When the print came, I'd remove those 35/70mm intermittent sprockets from their little felt home I'd made, and slide them on their shafts like having sex. The same sprocket went on the same projector, always in the same direction. Open that first big aluminum 70mm shipping case. Breath in. "I love the smell of mag striping in the morning! Smells like.... showmanship!" To hell with the EPA. Even the labs know not to screw around with 70mm. They almost always come heads-up, on good quality aluminum reels, no lab splices, plenty of thread-up and run-out leader. It takes a short time to get used to threading 70mm- it's so wide. You can't tuck the loose end in the side of the reel flange like 35mm; it falls out, so it must be taped down. The image is so big, you could'nt possibly thread out of frame. Put your fingers right up next to where the pad rollers hold the film, before closing them slowly- never just snap them closed. After a while, (even with 35mm) you can tell which side is the base and which is emulsion just by feeling. It's all threaded and I start the projector. It's a little scary to see all that mass move at once. The projector doesn't even sound the same as when running 35mm... gonna have to get used to a whole new set of noises. But it's all worth it for a picture you think you could almost just walk into, and sound with those crispy highs... -----
Today, people do come to theaters to see a film, but the theaters are made to sell candy and soda. Management buys a platter from the lowest bidder; you are hoping it has a fast motor so you can finish breaking down and be out before 3:00 am so you can get a few hours sleep before making up a bunch of shows- speed it up and let it rock like an old washing machine. You'd like to watch the trailers all the way through to ensure the cue sets the formats correctly, but there are other shows starting at the same time, (usually at opposite ends of the building- do they do this on purpose!?) The ushers management hired to work in the booth made three out of frame splices way in, you have to change out several stupid ads for other stupid ads, the bulbs in a couple of slide projectors are dead (I don't remember getting any more money when I was made responsible for slide projectors and screen ads), I put the splicer on an electrical trough somewhere but can't find it now, I gotta train this new kid, hope that gate band doesn't break, cause we don't have anymore, when did that sprocket tooth get nicked- is it damaging film? I hear that "crunchy-film" sound at the tail leader- they must have left the end taped again, will they ever learn to put tools back when done? Etc, etc.
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Florian Pausch
Film Handler
Posts: 11
From: Wien, Austria
Registered: Dec 2000
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posted 08-03-2000 04:19 PM
From 1990 to 1998 I worked at the "Votiv-Kino", the leading arthouse cinema in Vienna / Austria. In that time we had 2 screens, 2 booths (at the opposite sides of the cinema),each equipped with 2 FP 20īs/1800 Meters changeover and Kinoton-Matrix automation.
To increase the quality of our shows, I "re-invented" the Intermission after the commercials/trailers, so the main film had (and has until today) to be started with the operator in the booth (celebrating curtain lights and gong). Usually, we had one projectionist for the evening and one for the schools at morning, at gala openings we were two people in the booth.
I agree to John Pytlaks reply - you have to be a skilled operator AND you have to love the job. Good projectionists have to have the sixth sense for their work. When Iīm training people, we do it usually in a little cinema with projectors from the 30īs, manual c/o and 2000 ft-reels, because only there they can learn the rhythm of the cinema (how long will it take to interrupt coffee and go back to the booth for the next c/o?)and the skill to change over in a manner that nobody will be reminded of that fool behind the wall. You canīt learn this knowledge in a 1800 meter or platter cinema or an x-plex - and that is why the level of showmanship is so low in our multiplexes here in Vienna. (Not to speak of missing curtains and blankings)
So long
Flo
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Never mind that a ORC 3k lamp for $850.00 (and its kinda of a high price id say)pays for iself with pennies. If a 3k lamp last say three months that $850/90 days = $9.4 a day for the cost of the lamp. Say five shows a day with 100 seats occupied per showing and it costs $.01880 per person to cover the cost of ONE lamp. 
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