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Author Topic: Century (Westrex) MeltDown -- Help! Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 07-15-2003 05:52 PM                        quote: I'll have my hands full stopping and threading after each reel while the audience throws all that concessions stuff at the scaffolding booth. AND what's worse, I can't mount the thing on 6000ft reels, which would be a major help in case I do loose that machine. ... NO SPLICING. So, if this head craps out during the show, it will be one major mess. If worse comes to worse, you could always splice the reels together without removing the head and tail leaders. Then just shut off the sound and close the douser for ~30 seconds at each reel change. At most you'd have to cut a total of three perfs off of one of the leaders on each reel to keep it in frame. Or, you could just reframe it at each reel change if need be.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-16-2003 01:34 AM                        Nicely put Brad. John, yes, it is balanced and timed -- this is the first Century I've worked on in 30 years so I am not intimately knowledgeable, but a service tech made a visit and spent a few hours double checking everything, showed me how much play there should be, and after all the prodding and poking, he couldn't find anything wrong. So, maybe it was something simple -- maybe a piece of gack that had somehow work its way in when they moved the heads up to the scaffold booth, rather than any screws or nuts coming loose; I am assuming the tech guy would have seen that. And Daryl, as they say here in Brooklyn...."Not for nuthin" but that is actually a great idea (I do that all the time at the film festivals when I am working with "this is the only print" prints). I may go that route, if only I can convince them to send that live orchestra home! Thanks to all -- will report back after the show. Frank  |  IP: Logged Bruce McGee Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1776 From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular. Registered: Aug 1999 posted 07-16-2003 08:21 AM                     If you let the machine just sit there and run for a couple of hours with the lamp turned off, wouldn't that help to see if the machine can be trusted? OR? does the tension of the film being pulled through the trap cause the intermittent to heat-up? My Holmes machines (not in the same league, I know!) get warm after running for an hour or more, but dont get hot. My $.02 worth.  |  IP: Logged Ken McFall Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 615 From: Haringey, London. Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-16-2003 08:26 AM                     Frank you could well be screwed either way... If you run it for a few hours and its ok it could breakdown when running... so if you hadn't run it it might have got thru the show. But if you don't run it and it breaks down... why didn't you run it! Bet you're getting paranoid by now.... Make sure you've got a pair of clean pants with you on the night  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-16-2003 03:14 PM                     I'd turn that puppy on and let her run for a few days. When you are around, run an acetate loop through it with a weighted roller on the bottom.  |  IP: Logged Rick Long Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 759 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Nov 1999 posted 07-17-2003 02:28 AM                     Frank, for what the hell it's worth, we're all sitting there with you on the scaffold that night. PLEASE let us know how it worked out.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-17-2003 06:09 AM                        Ran it all day yesterday, starting, stopping, splicy acetate film, loops....couldn't make it even hiccup. I think it will be OK. BTW, I used Greg Mueller's Align-O-Tron, and I am getting much better light out of both old ORC lamphouses and with none of the freakin hotspots that I had been plagued with in the past. Really quite amazing. When you have the right tools.....! I appreciate the goodwill, guys. They predict a nice breezy night tonight. Will let you know how it goes. Frank  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 07-17-2003 11:54 PM                        I was at Frank's show tonight and it went off without a hitch. SIX THOUSAND PEOPLE (!) showed up in Brooklyn's Prospect Park to watch Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3D with a live jazz score and overdubbed dialogue. I couldn't tell whether the overdubbed dialogue was live or prerecorded, but the sound quality on both the dialogue and the orchestra was phenomenal. The score was ingenious and the subtle dialogue changes and line readings were completely hilarious. And what made it so effective was the great sound - tremendous balance and presence to the dialogue and music - sounded better than the best six track 70mm mag mix. The print was pristine except for one scratch at a changeover, but Frank's changeovers were perfect. Considering this was a temporary setup and the projectors were mounted on scaffolds, this was extraordinary. I expected to be bored and instead walked away having the best night of filmed entertainment in a very long time. Kudos to all involved in this venture.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-18-2003 02:58 AM                        Thanks Martin....my only regret tonight was not being able to come down to say hello (they chain us up there), and you can't even shout back and forth because the booth is just a torrent of turbine and fan noise, even with the projectors off. Nonetheless, it was teriffic seeing a friendly face in that huge audience. I must admit, when you've got 6000 people in the audience and a whole orchestra waiting to start playing, I felt an abundance of butterflies in the stomach until we got rolling. I looked out over the crowd way back to the lawn people up way back to the fence (could these people actually perceive 3D that far back?), and I realized that the only projectionist in the country who could present a film to that large an audience would be the guy who works (worked, I should say) at Radio City Music Hall -- no more motion pictures at the Great Lady. But then the RCMH projectionist didn;t get the incredible rush hearing the audience ohh and ahh at all the 3D effects and laugh at the clever overdubbed dialogue, some of which had me laughing out loud. A very unique experience indeed. Yes, I was in seventh heaven at the end of the night. I guess for all the worring about Projector #1, it ran sweet as a baby. Perhaps it was all the tech support and good wishes from you guys. Thanks again. And to answer Martin's question, yes, they were actually lip-syncing the dialogue; pretty amazing, huh?. They were so close sometimes you actually thought it was the film track, but we only sent the film sound to the effects man's headset. He heard film soundtrack in one ear and his CD in the other. All the soundeffects were wild and played on a speed controlled CD which he kept in sync manually by listening to it in his other ear. The only time we ran filmsound was for the attractions (wasn't that Ed Sullivan trailer for GUYS AND DOLLS a hoot? ...and RED as beet!) That's it for me.....Good night all. Frank  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 07-18-2003 03:01 AM                     Incredible! Wish I could've been there to see it. Don't suppose anyone took pictures?  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-19-2003 10:15 PM                        Yup, we did. Here's the one that is so reminiscent of those early pics of the 3D movie audiences. This also will give you some idea of what 6000 people all watching a movie together look like: These also: And: Finally: All photos by Robert Smith We want to say in the press release that 6000 people is the largest gathering of people to watch a movie EVER in New York City, but Radio City has just over 6000 seats, so maybe there they might beat us, but we definately are safe if we state "in the New York City Outer Boroughs." There never was any theatre in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, or the Bronx that came even close to that number. Not that it makes any difference....it certainly was a big enough crowd for me and (as we used to say in the 70s) a TOTAL rush! Frank  |  IP: Logged Andrew Duggan Expert Film Handler Posts: 127 From: Albany, NY, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 07-20-2003 12:03 AM                        Wow, those pictures are wild & that whole thing sounds really awesome. Way to pull out of a spectacular nose dive! I was just trying to explain to my friend tonight, that jumpy, excited and nervous feeling you get when you run a REALLY important show to a full house, even moreso with a print or piece of equipment that's a little "iffy". A park full of 6000 people, an orchestra and a university all screaming for your blood when a projector eats ....man....that sounds like a scenario out of a nightmare! Releived to hear how well that went for you!  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-20-2003 08:38 PM                        Final PS to this thing -- the print WAS mint. Not a splice in it, not even on the head of R1 where even 2000ft change-over houses usually splice in their Feature Attraction snipe. The only splices I made was to add a two foot section of frame line leader to each reel at the front end before the lab gack so that I could thread up without having to deal with pulling the 25ft of lab frame line-less footage that was on the head of each reel. Lots of gack film before the body of the print is great for protection (Brad, don't you recommend 50ft?), but it's not so good for keeping dirt off the film while the projectionist is forced to pull it all off the supply reel to get to threadable frame lines. Adding that short bit of frame line film to the front end (synced of course so it's in frame with the body of the print) is really helpful in keeping the film from touching anything other than the mechanism. Frank  |  IP: Logged John Hawkinson Film God Posts: 2273 From: Cambridge, MA, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-20-2003 10:26 PM                     Personally, I just go with a piece of tape and a sharpie line a few feet in from the head... --jhawk  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 07-21-2003 01:30 AM                        As long as you're winding the film directly onto the takeup reel and not the floor, the film shouldn't get dirty, aside from finger prints where you thread up.  |  IP: Logged

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