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Topic: Century 3 blade shutter

Jeff Stricker
Master Film Handler

Posts: 481
From: Calumet, Mi USA
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-05-2002 01:51 PM

Josh, I see no reason why you couldn't make one. I think each blade segment should be of the same geometry as the existing blades, but on 120 degree axis instead of 180 degrees. I may tinker one together for my BX-40 this spring or summer.

BTW: How's the oil that Paul gave you woring out in your Brenkerts?

Jeff

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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler

Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 03-05-2002 03:42 PM

Mark, Yea that's the place...I saw Jack Nicolson & Shirley Mcclane there everyday for a week while I was there working, the 3-blade shutter you made for the two Century machines worked prefect & was balance !! That was the first time I ever saw anything like that, I thought you guys were the greatest !! I called you on a Tuesday, & you made & ship the blades overnight to me, I installed it on Wed. the film director was amaze by our fast work, speaking of you (MTS) & me....they even treated me to dinner...so the three blade shutter worked great in that small screening room....one funny story then I close....the booth as you know was small where the projectors sat...I was trying to install the blades before the dalies was to be shown, Shirley McClane was in the booth preventing me from working, time was getting close to run the dalies, I was just about to ask her to leave the booth so I can work, just as I approched her, Jack Nicolson came in & said to her they are ready to shoot some photos, she thanked me & the staff for showing her the booth, I finish the work, all was good...to answer your question if POV is still there....I went back there to service about three more times that same year, I got out of contracting & went to work for the company I am with now....that has been about 5-6 years ago...so I don't know if the place is still there....I do remember the trains, I was stop only a block away from POV for almost 30 mins once waiting for the damn train to move....have a goodin !! don

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-05-2002 07:38 PM

Ah Yes, The Trains! I wonder how many a dailies session has been delayed due to the trains??? I had forgotten about that....
Mark

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 03-05-2002 07:40 PM

Mark, I thought by the time we did those machines you'd switched from building them with multiple Kelmar arms and an adaptor bar to using a modified Slim Jim base. Aren't these the machines that went to P.O.V.?

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Josh Jones
Redhat

Posts: 1207
From: Plano, TX
Registered: Apr 2000

posted 03-05-2002 11:58 PM

Jeff;

I'm not sure, I havent run out of brenkert oil yet. I would guess the only way to tell would be to switch oil, put about 100 hours on the head, then check the rundown time. I am pretty confident about using the stuff, I just havent had a chance to yet.

Josh

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-06-2002 12:21 AM

Steve,
Thats the pair that went down there. I had forgotten that they were built on pair of Slim-Jim bases. In fact, thats the only pair that was built that way. It still used the Kelmar feed and take up assemblys though. Man, those systems have literally done hundreds of dailies gigs! We know know of three of them still in constant use!!

Randy, Josh, When I get back in SLC I'll make a drawing of the actual three bladed shutter I have and send it into Brad to post here. They are not hard to make.
Mark @ GTS

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Don Sneed
Master Film Handler

Posts: 451
From: Texas City, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 03-06-2002 05:21 AM

Hey STEVE....those are the ones !!! you guys did a wonderful job building those....I am glad I was on the service end to see these & worked on them....

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 03-06-2002 09:30 AM

Mark gets most of the credit. I think we simultaneously hit on the idea of putting the R8* under a projector with arrangements for by-pass operation. My idea was the adaptor bar and multiple arms but the Slim Jim is really a cleaner design. Mark also gets credit for turning R3's into R8's.* (Mark, do you recall how we were looking at mounting a JJ on one with 35mm mag and 70mm print going over the same lower projector sprocket!?)

*R8 was the Century soundhead reworked into a mag playback dummy for use with 3-D films and normally has a box containing a single sprocket atop it in place of a projector head. It's an excellent design with a full Davis Loop (mag head between two flywheels) and used in the way we did makes a much, much better interlock machine than the 5-Star-based unit that Strong sells.

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 03-06-2002 11:26 AM

Yea we were going to put a JJ head on there for "Far And Away" Dailies. I think you even went so far as to quote Ron Howard a price on actually doing this. I don't remember why they didn't, perhaps they didn't screen actual 70mm dailies on that show. It was alot of work to convert an R-3 into an R-8 but it definately payed off. I think the conversions were actually better than the original units were.

Steve also gets the credit for spurring me into building the VistaVision projector. A result of a great deal of "BackDraft" being shot in the VV format. The VV projector has seen extensive use on a number of films since it was completed. That was a year long project that involved having custom 32 tooth intermittent sprockets made. Photos on the picture page here on Film-Tech.
Mark @ GTS

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 03-06-2002 01:42 PM

Obviously in retrospect to run 70mm dailies a dubber is the way to go but the 35/70 interlock machine would have been pretty clever. Just a tiny pad roller or shoe reaching up into the middle of the sprocket to add security to the mag coming across and down (already under tension) while the 70mm picture goes more or less across.

Naturally, 70mm dailies are not normally done (the 65mm neg is printed down to Scope 35) and they weren't on that show either although they did print some footage and, at least while in Montana, travel to whatever the nearest city was with a 70mm theatre and view it there MOS.

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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 03-08-2002 04:32 PM

Josh,
Apropos your "light to burn" comment about wanting to try a three blade shutter on a Brenkert, I received this reply from a friend of Robert Sprague:
"Dear Mr Cohen-
I vaguely remember John Carroll once telling me that
he solved the problem of a too intense light source.
similar to the problem your friend is experiencing by
putting a frame filled with several layers of window
screening between the arc and the head, this created
enough defusion to do the job. Now I suppose he was
talking about that old metal window screening , not
the plastic kind they have now. I am in regular
correspondence with Bob Sprague. He was quite ill last
two weeks and I am sure would appreciate even a short
note from you. He can be reached by telephone every
two weeks or so when he pulls a shift managing a
local homeless shelter there I will get you the
number. --Paul Pottash"
Gerard

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