First off...Gordon:

Your projectors are running!....

Sound up or down on the platter...

The purpose of running soundtrack down on the platter is to keep emulsion in wrap. The reason for this was to keep focus flutter and variation throughout the show to a minimum. The reasoning is that with emulsion-in wrap, the emulsion is kept under compression rather than being stretched. This way, when the film (and the emulsion in particular) hits the gate, it is pulled taught. Note, I only refer to the emulsion on this one, not the base.

I have tested this theory (and RP) and can only support it's findings for either acetate or polyester base since keeping the emulsion from tension is the purpose. So my recomendations are: I'm not finished yet!

In reel-to-reel operation, the hub diameters are from 4" (shippers) on out to about 8" for standard reels...and some venues work straight off of 2-3" cores. In these situations, emulsion-in is proper, there are no down sides and only benefits. I have done some rather extensive testing on running the film both ways over extended runs...after about a month of continous shows, you will start to see the benefits of emulsion in wrap. For those that are curious, the Uptown is running emulsion-in to this day.

Now to platter houses....

Here there are many other criteria to consider. First is the static situation. In a related topic listed above is curl. Sure focus is an issue too and then there is abrasion from loading/unloading, starting/stopping and general alignment.

Even platters with a small take-up ring are at 12 inches...factoring a house reel as only 15"...one can quickly see that the affects of emulsion-in wrap with respect to focus are minimal, best.

The benefits of emulsion-out wrap are a plenty..., the emulsion isn't presented to the platter deck, the above mentioned curl and its affects on paying out are minimzed...heck even labling the film is easier with emulsion out since most tails read correctly that way. All emulsion-in wrap has going for it is negligable focus improvemnt (to which I haven't see any). Therefore, I teach emulsion-out (aka soundtrack-UP) for platter houses.

Now back to Gordon....(and your projectors are still running )

The theatres you work for have their history back to a company called K-B Theatres (which is where I started). K-B was an early adopter of platters and was very much into consistancy. Every booth should function essentially the same as the others. In as much, a policy was issued that all theatres were to run soundtrack-down (mind you this was in the '70s). The reasons were muli-fold...for one, the supervisor of the time was an emulsion-in person, the potential for focus improvements were there, the automations of the time used inboard cues for feature and or credits (lights up)...as such they were clearly visable (they were the type of cues that had metallic tape wrapped around the edge of the film).

I can tell you, we NEVER had a problem with scratching or focus and generally we had the best shows in town...but this was another era where "projectionist" was indeed a job and every theatre had projectionists (they were actually hired by K-B not the individual theatres themselves, another reason for consistancy...an operator might have to pull a shift in another (not his/her regular) theatre.

Occassionally, humidity extremes would force a change in emulsion-in/out operation but that was an exception, not the rule. I distinctly remember running _Indiana and the Temple of Doom_ in 70mm on an AW-3 where the film would unthread itself from any of the three centerfeeds stictly due to the interaction of the curl of the film and how Christie tensions the cluster rollers (they are spring loaded at the bottom so they would pinch the film out). It must have been a humid summer!

Back to threading in general....a projectionist/operator, particularly nowadays...needs to access the situation presented to them. Even if tradition is to do something one way, if a better way is happened upon, be it by a change in the technology (polyester, for instance) or just a superior way one hadden't seen before, adopt it!

I've been showing movies now for quite some time (measured in multiple decades now) and you will see me thread very consistantly BUT some projectors I thread bottom to top, others top-down...it all depends on the machine I'm working with and which goes best.

Switching between something like soundtrack up or soundtrack down shouldn't really a big deal for a projectionist but for some reason, it can.

So there you have my rather lengthy response...

Reels: Emulsion-IN

Platters: Emulsion-OUT (track up)

Steve

PS: If I ever get a print that simply won't run track up, you can bet I'll switch track down for the duration of the problem.

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"Old projectionists never die, they just changeover!"

Thanks again everyone. But feel free to tell me more about your ideas.