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Author Topic: List some dumb things you have seen projectionists do Eric Robinson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 538 From: Santa Rosa, CA Registered: Jan 2005 posted 04-13-2006 12:13 AM                     I used to have a projectionist who would strike up the bulb and stick his cigarette into the aperture to light it up (when he forgot his lighter.) Lukily he was family with the owner, so he was untouchable.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 04-13-2006 03:34 AM                     I have to laugh on this one - for I used to light up customer's smokes with the negative rod from the lamphouse at my drive-in. Customer would walk by the booth door while they head to the snakbar and ask if I had a match, and obviously I didn't. But, I would strike up the lamphouse, let it run a few seconds, opened up the door, pull the negative out with the pliers and ... "here ya go!" That customer would rear back since he's never seen such a thing, but though that was pretty cool at the meantime.. One of my many fun experiences being a drive-in projectionist. -Monte  |  IP: Logged George Roher Master Film Handler Posts: 266 From: Washington DC Registered: Jul 99 posted 04-13-2006 01:48 PM                     quote: Monte L Fullmer ....and some theatres wind soundtrack down on the platters as a standard procedure.. When I worked for General Cinema, the policy was soundtrack down. One projectionist got written up for threading soundtrack up. I prefer soundtrack up.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 04-13-2006 02:17 PM                     If the platter & mut are properly adjusted and in good working order, it should not matter which way the soundtrack is placed. If the content area of the film is rubbing against something it shouldn't, whether it be picture or sound, there is a problem that needs to be corrected.  |  IP: Logged Jason Winn Expert Film Handler Posts: 131 From: Mesquite, TX, USA Registered: Jan 2006 posted 04-13-2006 02:26 PM                     quote: Chad M Calpito the movie wound up with the soundtracks upside down on the take up platter. At least it was like that only on the platter. One time, I saw a guy thread the film through the projector with the soundtrack facing in the wrong direction. He started the movie, and the image was backwards and the soundtrack showed up on screen. He started freaking out when he saw that. He didn't know what to do.  |  IP: Logged Chad M Calpito Master Film Handler Posts: 435 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Apr 2006 posted 04-14-2006 01:33 AM                        Wow, that is weird the way the projectionist threaded the projector. I once caught a projectionist recently that he was about to thread the projector the same way you described to me. Luckily, he saw the error and proceeded to thread the projector properly. Of course, he thanked me for seeing that. Anyway, back on track, I prefer to have the Soundtrack on top. Of course, that's just my preferance and the way other projectionists do it too where I work at.  |  IP: Logged Ron Curran Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 504 From: Springwood NSW Australia Registered: Feb 2006 posted 04-14-2006 04:07 AM                        I seem to remember somewhere in Kodak film notes that occasionally running the opposite way (soundtrack up/down) to your normal routine was good for the print. We do this and I agree with previous posters that, as long as nothing that matters touches the plate, it is ok either way.  |  IP: Logged Robert Burtcher Expert Film Handler Posts: 194 From: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Registered: Jun 2005 posted 04-15-2006 04:06 AM                     I'm building onto 6k reels. I pre-cut the leader of the last reel to go onto the 6k and splice it back on with an easy to peel, single-sided splice. The other projectionist helping me build up loads it onto the platter, and decides it's far too difficult to peel the splice. So what does he do? He lops off an additional frame.  |  IP: Logged Eric Robinson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 538 From: Santa Rosa, CA Registered: Jan 2005 posted 04-17-2006 03:33 PM                     While I was servicing a projector, the projectionist/manager came up and started a movie and promptly walked away. I took a look at the image and noted that the film was scope and the lens was flat. Well you know how this distorts the picture. I walked all the way down to the managers office and informed him that the wrong lens was being used. We both went back up to the booth noting the odd stretched looking actors on the screen. The manager casually pulled the lens out (single lens projector) while the projector was running, inserted the scope lens and proceeded to rotate the scope lens until the picture was straight, all the while providing quite a spectacular display for the patrons.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 04-18-2006 02:58 AM                     ..we could almost divert this thead to the "You Suck Film Handler's" page the way it's looking towards film presentation procedures..by the booth clowns, usherBees, and just plain idiots. Not shuttind the dowser when changing lenses..'bout as bad when they question the lens format that you tell them cuz they don't know the difference in the image on the screen - let along slicing the wrong format trailers on the front of the feature.. Now, you wonder why DigCinema is getting a lot of buzz... ..us old guys are gradually dying off, or fading away from popularity in this day and age...since we were the teachers at one time... -Monte  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 04-18-2006 05:49 AM                     I visited a cinema in Leningrad, as it was at the time. Managed to get a visit to the projection room. One projector wasn't working, but the projectionist had a way around that problem. About a minute before the end of the reel pull the remaining film off the spool and onto the floor, having previously cut off all leaders from the film. Put next reel on the machine, quickly splice the film together, break the splice after it ran through the machine, take the full spool off the machine, letting the start of the new reel run onto the floor, put empty spool on machine, take up start of new reel on this spool (with no leader remember), spin take-up spool like mad by hand to take up the film from the floor ... and there you are, until the end of the next reel. Projectors had some strange light source, very blue, and took several minutes to run up, some sort of mercury I presume.  |  IP: Logged Eric Robinson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 538 From: Santa Rosa, CA Registered: Jan 2005 posted 04-18-2006 10:45 PM                     I'm surprised this hasn't caught on in the states where the low budget companies could save some money. I know my company would have jumped at the opportunity.  |  IP: Logged Thomas Haskell Film Handler Posts: 1 From: Bloomingdale, IL Registered: Apr 2006 posted 04-20-2006 11:58 PM                        I caught an assistant manager once cutting whole portions of the credits out of some prints. He claimed that doing so would A) give the ushers more time to clean between shows, and B) cause the movie to end earlier (so he could go home sooner). When I brought this to the attention of the general and district managers, he changed his story saying that the credits in those prints were heavily damaged and needed to be cut. Two weeks later, I'm emptying our large booth trash can to discover the cut credits at the bottom! And, from what I could tell, that film still could have run in a projector despite sitting at the bottom of the garbage heap for weeks on end. This same guy also "didn't believe in suction cups." We had our print of 'Shrek' fly right off an uneven Potts platter during its second weekend and then forced the projection assistant to clean it up.  |  IP: Logged Brian Michael Weidemann Expert cat molester Posts: 944 From: Costa Mesa, CA United States Registered: Feb 2004 posted 04-21-2006 05:06 AM                        If you believe in suction cups, close your eyes tight and clap your hands ... come on, everybody! If you don't, those damned fairies will be the only things magically holding the prints in place ... and we know they're all in cahoots with the evil booth monkeys secretly employed in insufficiently staffed booths around the globe! Once, however, I was astonished to find a projector jam and film break caused by a poorly stuck suction cup. It was found, as I recall, wedging the film in the bottom roller of a Christie platter tree mast. It slid off its feeding platter and fell JUST right, that it jammed the film enough to pull itself out of the projector. Nobody could even attempt to recreate the incident, but it clearly happened. No brain-wrap, very little damage; just pull, snap, fail-safe, projector stop, baffled projectionist.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 04-21-2006 09:56 AM                        A customer lemon-pledged an entire 8-plex of Potts platters. Film would not stay put. The temporary fix was 5 "spokes" of double thickness duct tape. Louis  |  IP: Logged

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