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Author Topic: The Logic of Threading a Projector Top to Bottom Josh Kirkhart Expert Film Handler Posts: 165 From: Austin/Houston, TX, USA Registered: Nov 2001 posted 08-22-2004 12:11 PM                     An easy solution to those who are not yet comfortable with Bottom to Top. Do the normal 3-point thread to and from the projector. Your platter and upper guide roller are now taken care of. Pull a small amount of slack and thread from your lower guide roller, up thru your failsafe and over your Lower constant speed sprocket(holdback sprocket)and close the pad roller. Now you can pull just enough excess film from the upper guide roller and thread from top to bottom. You will have a small amount of excess to let flow over your Holdback sprocket to get proper tension on the soundhead. Now just engage your take-up platter and you are ready to go. No film has touched the floor! All normal threading procedures apply: Setting your intermittent at the end of its cycle, proper loop size, proper sound head tension, etc. If this has been posted elsewhere, I didn't see it. This is not a better idea than bottom to top or even top to bottom in the case of Barrys method. Just one that allows film not to touch the floor at any step and those that have a hard time with bottom to top can use. out. As far as the topic goes I think it does trickle down from the days of reel to reel, but has a lot to do with lazyness and the 'just get on-screen' frame of mind. I can not tell you how many people I have seen just stand at the projector and pull down film from the platter thru the upper guide roller till they had enough to go back to the platter after threading the projector. Thirty feet of film onthe floor is horrible. Yet those that practice that way are the easiest to train into the three point threading because it saves time. It all comes down to someone that comes into a theatre threading wrong and informs everyone else(trained or not) that this is the way to do it, and the trickle begins.  |  IP: Logged Jon Miller Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 973 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-22-2004 01:25 PM                     Josh's method is more or less what I do when I'm running festivals at the Mann (formerly Madstone; before that, Mann) Hazard Center 7 theatres. After threading from the platter payout to the top guidance roller and back to the platter, I'll press the makeup button for the takeup deck so the speed control swing arm provides some back tension to keep the film off the floor, then thread the projector in the manner Josh describes. The procedure is very easy to pull off with the Christie AW3s the theatre uses; I don't know whether it could be done with other platter models.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-22-2004 04:17 PM                     Jon, that's the infamous "$300 switch" you are using every thread-up. You should reconsider that.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-22-2004 04:27 PM                        What Dan said. If you want a machine with "no finger room," try the Super (or Standard) Simplex. I just ran a pair of Supers for the first time in a theatre during a festival a couple of weeks ago. They produce quality results on screen, but they aren't my favorite machines to run. Give me Centurys (C, SA, or JJ) any day.  |  IP: Logged Jon Miller Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 973 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-22-2004 05:19 PM                     Brad...$300 for that makeup selector switch?!? Are they that rare and/or highly proprietary, or are they made with 100%-pure unobtanium? Thanks for the tip! I'll have to use a different approach for my next stint this October!  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-22-2004 07:39 PM                     It's easy Jon. Thread the film over the top roller on the projector, then back to the center ring. (Don't wrap the film around the projector and through the lower roller, unless you HAVE to because of a schmutz that installed it with conduit straight to the wall. Your leader will stay cleaner and last longer that way.) Then pull slack from the top down so you can put it in the lower roller, then clamp it to the holdback sprocket. (You should not pull tension from the takeup side, but you shouldn't allow slack here either.) Now thread the failsafe. Pulling slack from the takeup during the failsafe threading will automatically start your takeup platter. From that point you can finish threading up, or thread down if that works best for you. Regardless, your leader doesn't hit the floor and you aren't wearing out the $300 switch.  |  IP: Logged

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