Has anyone ever tried cooling the beam by running it through a square jar filled with water? Now I'm beginning to wonder if the idea could work (destroying the film in the process of passing through the gate because of the immediate fading the dyes, but making it through the projector without melting).

I envision a combination of dichroic reflector, a couple of 45 degree dichroic mirrors, passing through a condenser lens filled with cold water, through a water-jacketed light pipe, and finally making its way to the tiny gate.

I'm thinking this would be a do-able project for the son of a theatre person that would blow away any other science fair project. That impossible dream may not be all that far off. Barry's home movies might just make the big time.

Once this is accomplished, I seem to remember that someone developed a 4mm movie system...

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OK, I'm braced. Who is going to be the first to start a Super-8 drive-in?

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Or, Jerry, who will take the ultimate dreaded step of projecting video onto a drive-in screen? In Huntsville, sometimes they have free movies at Big Spring Park downtown. One time, I was with a friend walking through the park and they were projecting a very large 4:3 image onto the side of a building (not even on a screen) for the movie, probably from a VHS machine. Both my friend and I were extremely saddened from seeing this.

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I could start my own thread.. "The Dark Side of Christmas Past"

Evans, if I remember correctly, the now defunct Sumner County Drive-In at one time had a "special" pay-per-view thing at the drive-in. I think it was a boxing match, projected from the rear of a truck. There was a radio station involved for the promotion I think.

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Been there, done that! Some very early carbon arc lamphouses (Lumiere Brothers?) used a beaker of water as both a condenser lens and heat filter! Although pure water does absorb some infrared, adding a few percent copper sulfate makes it a very EFFICIENT infrared absorber. A "liquid filter" could be used as a heat filter for projection, perhaps recirculating the copper-sulfate doped water through a heat exchanger to keep the water cool.

Why would you want to show 16mm or Super 8mm at a Drive-In. Is this a one time shot for a particular film? Is this to be a permanent installation?

I know that from 1966 to 1970 when we ran with the Norelco FP-16's
the largest Xenon Lamp we could use was a 500Watt.We had a throw
distance of 62 feet. The largest picture was 32 feet wide.This was eventually moved back to 28 feet as the picture at 32'wide showed too much grain.

Today's lenses are vastly improved from the one's we used back in the 20th Century. I will continue to monitor this thread to see what is developing. Where is the first 16mm scheduled to open.

Oh! and by the way if you open a 16mm theatre does that mean your largest popcorn is a 35mm small size?

Bob, I guess we're being as serious as is possible for us Film-Techers!

I wouldn't want to run 16mm at a drive-in on a regular basis but I can imagine its infrequent use for certain specialty presentations on a smaller drive-in screen. However, I'd be surprised if the "5" Drive-In gets to use it very much. Most patrons are still going to be drawn in by current 35mm product and not something that's likely already on video. I can imagine 16mm presentations of older genre product during antique car club events, film festivals, etc.

By the way, I'm still working on the Super 8mm drive-in concept that Jerry suggested. I'm working on a design for a Super 8mm platter system. Anybody know where I can get teeny tiny rollers and LOTS of Super 8 leader? Oops...I think I've finally gone over the edge!

I didn't see it and I believe it was a silent film with spliced in dialogue slates, but I do remember my friend saying he was able to fill between 1/4 of the screen's size, even though the image was dark. But has it been done? Technically, yes it has. If anyone wants to do that sort of thing nowadays, I've got the old Beaulieu 708EL and 2K Christie lamphouse setup with a mini "reel to reel" type of platter that could probably pull it off and look decent. The humorous thing about it is that the platter is a requirement for even a one minute film and not just an option for longer films, as the film must exit out the front of the projector and to the side because the lamphouse is in the way of the normal takeup arm.

The Super 8mm guys meet here: http://8mmforum.film-tech.com

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